GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Sona Jobarteh, Kings Place London
Sona Jobarteh demonstrates why she's one of the most exciting kora players around
Kora queen: Sona Jobarteh
[Schorle/Creative Commons]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
BEAUTIFULLY poised, strikingly good-looking and quietly charismatic, Sona Jobarteh is guaranteed to hold the attention of any audience with her superbly dextrous kora playing.
Born and raised in London but from a Gambian clan on her father’s side that has boasted a number of kora virtuosos, she’s the first woman ever to make a living out of playing the instrument. For seven centuries, it has been a male-only preserve within West African griot families such as her own.
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