Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Poetic polemics address ourselves and others
SIMON DUFF relishes the cross contamination of Damien Hirst’s greatest hits by street artists from France and the US
In view of the grooming gangs inquiry, SIMON PARSONS feels the relevance of this powerful examination of trauma suffered at Medomsley Youth Detention Centre
JOHN GREEN doubts the motivations of a US war photographer who never questions why, or for whom, she is producing images of imperialist conflict
MARIA DUARTE reviews Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Hedda, The Mastermind, and Regretting You
TONY CONWAY welcomes a thrilling and concise history of Hope not Hate, that is also a manual full of tactical advice
PAUL DONOVAN welcomes an inspiring account of living with deafness that has important lessons for the treatment of deaf people in today’s UK
IRISH poet WB Yeats once observed that “out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.”
It’s an unnecessary distinction that feeds into lazy ideas about public versus private, propaganda versus art. On the other hand, it is sometimes hard to find ways of writing that simultaneously address “others” and “ourselves.”
There are brilliant new examples of how to do it, one of them being Martin Thom’s Fair (Infernal Methods, £5), a satirical attack on the DSEI arms fair held in London every year. Its specific target is the selling of weapons to the Saudi government for use in Yemen. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the book is going to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
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JAN WOOLF relishes a book of poetry that deploys the energy of political struggle, rooted in post-war working class history and culture