MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Keffiyeh Jazzfolk
WILL STONE relishes the subtle demonstations of political awareness that accompany two standout performers at Brighton’s Mutations festival
Arooj Afta
[Shreya Dev Dube] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Arooj Aftab + Alabaster DePlume
Chalk, Brighton
“I WAS gonna fight fascism, I was gonna … I was just a bit tired,” sings spoken word poet, activist and saxophonist Alabaster DePlume during his performance as part of Brighton’s Mutations festival. “I was gonna fight fascism … but honestly I just had so much on.”
The hard-hitting tune calling out political apathy in the face of a rising far-right finishes with the cautionary line: “I was gonna fight fascism … but it was too late.”
DePlume, wrapped in a keffiyeh, is not lacking pro-Palestinian sentiment either, reworking his lyrics to People: What’s the Difference? to sing: “People from the river to the sea” amid screeching blows on his sax.
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