About us Our people Patrons Our patrons support INQUEST by sharing our commitment to empowering bereaved people, challenging racism and discrimination and fighting for transformative systemic change. Sanah Ahsan Sanah Ahsan is an award-winning poet, writer, liberation psychologist and educator. Sanah works in the cracks, revering our messy emotional landscapes, and the wild edges of falling apart. Their psychological practice is rooted in liberation and community psychology, drawing on embodiment, therapeutics and poetics as life-affirming practices, to support racialised and marginalised people. Sanah's work centres compassion and embracing each other's madness; they have written for The Guardian and presented a Channel 4 documentary on the over-medicalisation of people’s distress. Sanah is the lead liberation psychologist at several community and justice-led organisations, such as Art Against Knives and Beyond Equality. Sanah is working on a non-fiction book about the politics of distress, and society’s relationship with unruly emotions. Sanah’s debut poetry collection ‘I cannot be good until You say it’ is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in March 2024. Linton Kwesi Johnson Linton Kwesi Johnson is an acclaimed reggae poet, activist and recording artist of Jamaican heritage. During his adolescence in South London, he became increasingly conscious of police brutality against Black people. Whilst at school, he joined the Black Panther movement which motivated him to speak out about the racial injustice he witnessed. After graduating he began experimenting with spoken word and reggae, which led to him being widely considered as the first ‘dub poet’. He has since performed all over the world. His work confronts topics including the deaths of young Black men in police custody, police and government corruption, and deportation. His seminal debut album, ‘Dread, Beat an’ Blood’, recorded in Patois, derived from his poetry anthology of the same name. He has also worked in journalism, having reported for Channel 4 and serving as the arts editor for the influential Brixton-based Race Today magazine. In 2002 Linton Kwesi Johnson became only the second living poet and the first Black poet to have his work published in Penguin's Modern Classics series, under the title ‘Mi Revalueshanary Fren’. He has been awarded a Musgrave medal by the Institute of Jamaica for eminence in the field of poetry and won the PEN Pinter Prize in 2020. In memoriam:Benjamin Zephaniah Picture credit: David Morris Benjamin Zephaniah was an award-winning poet, novelist, musician and actor who also presented documentaries and penned radio and stage plays. In 2008, he was included in Britain’s top 50 post-war writers by The Times. His work explored themes of race, politics and culture and as well as his Jamaican heritage and personal experience of imprisonment and racism. A poet-in-residence at the Chambers of Michael Mansfield KC, which involved following the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and the Ricky Reel case, he was inspired to write ‘Too Black, Too Strong’, a poetry book which addresses the struggles of Black Britain and the legal system. Benjamin stood in solidarity with bereaved families and was a longtime friend, supporter and patron of INQUEST. When his cousin died in police custody, alongside his family he established the Friends of Mikey Powell Campaign for Justice and commented on the sad irony of how he had gone from supporting to being supported by INQUEST. His loss is deeply felt by INQUEST and bereaved families. In 2024, Benjamin's siblings founded the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group to ensure his legacy is celebrated.