Thank you for coming to our Urban Tree Festival 2025 event, The Zephaniah Forest Tree Walk! Hosted by Charley as her final event with us at Birmingham TreePeople for the Urban Tree Festival 2025, we celebrated urban trees by walking through the legacy, magic, and species of the forest dedicated to Benjamin Zephaniah in Burbury […]
Tag: benjamin zephaniah
The Final Zephaniah Forest Planting
The Zephaniah Forest has been completed in a final planting session. In Burbury Park, Newtown, there are now 65 new trees signifying each year of a life well-lived and respected, dedicated to Benjamin Zephaniah. In a final celebratory planting session, the legacy forest dedicated to Benjamin was completed by returning community members and volunteers from […]
Refugee & Migrant Centre Zephaniah Tree Planting
We were joined by friends from the Refugee and Migrant Centre, on 6th February 2025, to help plant nine more trees in The Zephaniah Forest. Together we spent the morning digging holes and carefully unwrapping the trees, ready for their new home in Burbury Park. Millicent Springer, sister of Benjamin and member of the Benjamin […]
Zephaniah Forest Tree Planting
We’ve been planting in The Zephaniah Forest with Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group and the community again! On 23rd January we planted more trees with Millicent, Benjamin’s sister, as well as returning volunteer Ebony, and several other amazing local people in Burbury Park for The Zephaniah Forest! Millicent bought a marker to write her family’s […]
Family Legacy Tree Planting
The time finally came for David Springer to plant a tree in memory of his brother, Benjamin Zephaniah, with his family from the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group. David originally contacted us from the Family Legacy Group wanting to plant a tree in memory of Benjamin. We decided it wasn’t enough, and thus The Zephaniah […]
Enchanted Orchard Tree Planting
Celebrating Benjamin Zephaniah and his love of fruit trees! 19th December we planted The Zephaniah Forest’s Orchard in Burbury Park. The Zephaniah Forest saw a momentous planting day take place on 19th December, where we teamed up with not only the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group, but also Burbury Park Community Forum, Birmingham Empowerment Forum, […]
BCU Volunteer Network Tree Planting
On 3rd December, Birmingham City University’s (BCU) Volunteer Network students joined us to celebrate one of their Honorary Doctorates, Benjamin Zephaniah, by planting several of The Zephaniah Forest’s trees with us in Burbury Park. Benjamin Zephaniah was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from BCU, so it was wonderful to plant trees with the student volunteer network. […]
17th Tree Planting
CANCELLED – Apologies for the late notice, we’ve just learned we’ve had to cancel the Tuesday 17th tree planting day tomorrow in Burbury Park at 10:30, as we have lost our logistical support. We hope you understand and we deeply apologise for this inconvenience. We hope to see you on the 19th (Orchard) 13:30 and […]
Ebony Hikers Tree Planting
On the weekend that Tree Week began, we started planting The Zephaniah Forest in Burbury Park, with Qian Zephaniah planting the first tree for her husband, and Ebony Hikers joined us on the second day to celebrate the life and legacy of this iconic Brummie. Despite Storm Burt being forewarned, he once again didn’t stop […]
The Zephaniah Forest’s First Tree for Tree Week
THE ZEPHANIAH FOREST Qian Zephaniah, her close friends and family planted the first tree (Milky Way tree from China), and subsequent four trees, in The Zephaniah Forest – the 65 strong legacy mini-forest being planted in Burbury Park, in memory of her husband Benjamin Zephaniah, this winter. Today marks the first day of National Tree […]
Trees for Tree Week!
Our trees for National Tree Week and beyond arrived at the Bromford depot on Tuesday 12th November, where our keen BTP team was bright and early to receive the trees! Plenty of hard work done to unload and organise over 130 semi-mature trees. Through our various city-wide projects, we will be planting all over Birmingham: […]
Burbury Park Poetree Walk
An afternoon in Burbury Park! The poetree walk and workshop on 9th November was a lovely couple of hours, filled with creativity and history. Julianne Statham’s fantastic tree walk, coupled with the myths and legends and tie these trees to present-day beliefs, and being in a space where Benjamin Zephaniah grew up was truly inspiring. […]
Writing Workshop
Poets Bradley Taylor (who has been working closely with us promoting the poetry competition) and Zakariye (our external judge representing the poetry community) ran a joint Zephaniah Forest Writing Workshop, on 30th October, at Cherry Reds’ in Birmingham City Centre. It was a truly wonderful session, with one attendee coming from Manchester, as well as […]
Big Green Sunday!
We had a great time at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC)’s Big Green Sunday at the Big Green Weekender! Catching up with Retrofit Balsall Heath, Fruit & Nut Village, Better Streets for Birmingham, City of Nature at Birmingham City Council, Marineau Gardens, Moseley Hive, and many more wonderful community groups. We were of course spreading the […]
Urban Sermon: A Tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah
This wonderful secular urban sermon, once given by Benjamin Zephaniah, was revived in the most spectacular way in his memory. On Monday 7th October, a heart-warmingly large crowd gathered in memory of Benjamin, with The Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group, held inside Birmingham Cathedral of St. Philip in the heart of the city centre, hosted […]