Childhood was “a mixture of light and darkness” for Reuben Braithwaite, the spoken word artist ‘Abstract Benna’. A 90s kid raised in Brixton to the age of 10, Eminem and JayZ’s were the voices echoing around the brickwork of a home far beyond his house’s four walls; the estate was his community, a place to experience life’s full spectrum. Looking back on childhood, Benna recalls a daze of warm moments, “a giant summer holiday” of playing outside with his friends and community barbeques made him, as only a young boy, feel “so much love”. However, drugs and crime were a cold reality “mixed in with the love and community” of Brixton’s spilt personality; in the innocence of youth, though, Benna was able to coast through an early childhood, “unaware of how dark the darkness was”.
Rap was a huge part of Reuben’s life as a kid – not just a fondness, but an aspiration; the hope of a bright future. Rapping in bedrooms with his older brothers and kids from the estate, his rhymes were set apart by the stories they told. Film and television had always attracted Benna, whose creative expression gravitated towards storytelling from a young age, with pictures like The Matrix and Menace II Society particularly impacting him. “Adding rhythm and rhyme to stories” was the natural manifestation of music and film’s influence on Benna’s life.
Performance was natural to him, though his first experience of it was completely unplanned. Around the age of 8, he was at his uncle’s restaurant and saw a flyer advertising P. Diddy’s tribute to the late Biggie Smalls, a song he knew and loved. With his back to the room and his thoughts on the music, Benna started rapping. As he finished the song and tuned back into the moment, he noticed an eerie silence around the restaurant. Turning timidly to his accidental audience, Benna was met with an unexpected applause; despite the rush of people’s appreciation, a tarnish of awkwardness still lingers with this memory.
His first planned performance was equally memorable. At a similar age to rapping in his uncle’s restaurant, Benna and a group of friends performed a song for their school assembly; this was a big moment, the first time Reuben would showcase a rap that he had written. Things did not go to plan. Dreams of a Hollywood moment were dashed by technical difficulties and an unforgiving audience of young kids, whose boos gave Benna a difficult start to life on stage… he learned the tough lessons of performance early.
School was not a negative experience for Benna, though – far from it; his years at school developed the skills that he masters today. English lessons stood out to him as opportunities to “break words down”, using description and analysis to more deeply comprehend his means of expression. These lessons made clear that Benna’s talent lay in words.
“I remember every week there was a ‘spelling bee’. On Mondays towards the end of the day we would do the spellings and then get our results on the Friday. I used to always get 100%... to the point where other students were starting to give me that look, like “Oh, not him again!”.
“I feel like young boys tend to want to break stuff apart – like, my nephews love to break apart their toy cars… and I was kind of the same, but instead, I was able to break apart words. It gave me a hands-on outlet.”
As a teenager, the darkness of a criminal lifestyle became more visible and closer to home; Benna watched a lot of people he knew make bad decisions. Storytelling through rap became his escape route. With the mind of a storyteller, Reuben’s actions were governed by the knowledge that, like his stories, our lives have a beginning, a middle and an end – and for his ending to be a happy one, he’d have to take care of his beginning.
Benna left school at 16. In love with film and scriptwriting, he went to college, studying media, sociology and business, with hopes to pursue his talent for storytelling. His time at college was not without its setbacks. The spontaneous project to start a clothing brand with some mates never took off; in fact, it served as a distraction from studying, which saw his grades fall below what he needed for the university course he’d aimed at.
Benna’s story, however, is one of success. After a period of working as a runner for various TV companies, he decided to quit the cliquey and unglamorous environment that he found on television sets; throughout this time of frustration, he had been writing.
Transitioning away from script writing, Benna found his niche in spoken word. Ever since, his artistry has gained traction. He has collaborated with both local and national organisations, from The National Lottery and the BBC to various London borough councils, with a mission.
“I want my work to cover three things: what it feels like to be a man, to be black and/or associate with black culture, and to come from the street and be elevating mentally.”
“If I had a career’s worth of content now, in a box, and I gave that box to someone and they opened it, I’d want them to find a part of themselves in the box and feel they’re able to get some clarity in their journey or just recognise themselves and laugh. Laugh with me.”
With the success of his artistry, ‘Abstract Benna’ started looking to invest in young people, aiming to provide inspiration and guidance for those from a background like his. As a youngster, he really valued conversations with people who made the effort to share some wisdom and targeted encouragement; so, with the aim of doing this for the emerging generation of young people, he had the idea to run creative workshops.
This is where Social Ark was able to step in and help. A few years ago, Benna met Sarah Castro, the Social Ark Chair, at an event where he was performing. Sarah loved his performance and put him in touch with Lisa, who got him involved with our entrepreneurship program.
“Benna came to us at a time when he wanted to pull together all the brilliant work he’d done so far and package his offer into workshops for schools and other youth organisations. It wasn’t a difficult job for Social Ark, as Benna had a fantastic track record, so structuring that wasn’t hard at all!” – Lisa Stepanovic
Abstract Benna’s ‘Creative Masterclasses’ run as one-off, two-hour sessions. Relevant, important debate and conversation are encouraged to serve as the inspiration for poems and raps; the session culminates with participants performing what they’ve written. He also runs a series of ‘Ideas Journeys’, which run through 6 weekly sessions designed to dig deeper into relational, practical help for youngsters and conclude with a celebrational performance event.
“Going into schools and running these workshops for young people is to give them a sense of self-worth through the stories that I help them to tell about themselves.”
“Through young people talking to me and people like me, they can realise that, even though I’m older than them, they’re from where I’m from, so we have the same story – with differences and nuances obviously – but with the same foundation to the story. And I’m there talking to them because I was able to lean on my skills and my talents, so by talking to them about this stuff, I hope to encourage them to do the same”. - Benna
Since Benna got involved, it’s been our pleasure to empower his mission, making it accessible and translating it from something held within him, to something outworked in London. He says that lockdown has been a time where he’s been able to “get interested in other art forms and delve into different places of inspiration”, so we can’t wait to see what his future holds.
“Every time we meet up it’s definitely a family feel. We might go for dinner and just catch up; it doesn’t always have to surround business, it gets personal… you feel like you can open up and just talk about your life, as well as business. There’s a strong helping hand available through Social Ark”. - Benna
