The Words of Life

Fenton A. Bennett, popularly known as Blabba, is a Jamaican poet who writes and performs as Lifetry. In his own words, it is where life meets poetry — “in the harsh, tough places,” where it grows a voice and speaks.

Off stage he is warm and easygoing, the kind of person who is easy to talk to. On stage, and when something matters, he is outspoken: he says what he thinks and he means it. He spends much of his time with young people, and they hear the same honesty from him that his readers do.

His poems keep returning to the same questions: what it means to be Black and proud, who writes the history taught in Jamaica’s classrooms, whether independence and democracy keep their promises, and where God fits in all of it. He writes about love too, without the sugar.

He performs the work live, and much of it is on video. To bring Lifetry into a room, a hall or a classroom, book a reading.