To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE

If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL

CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear

GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy

BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul

STEVEN ANDREW is fascinated by an account of the many baseless folk tales that evolved to explain the existence of pre-historic stone circles

GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis

DAVID HARVIE recommends a selection of Harry Cleaver’s writing that documents working-class activism and offers a method, and a way of understanding and investigating the world

ANDY HEDGECOCK, FIONA O’CONNOR and MARIA DUARTE review The Last Viking, Blue Heron, 500 Miles, How To Live On Earth, and Supergirl

MARIA DUARTE goes down a bilingual rabbit hole with an impressive Jodie Foster

CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Palestinian multi-instrumentalist DIRAR KALASH

by Roy McFarlane

DAVID YEARSLEY is fascinated by the account of four composers who transformed their experiences of the second world war and the Holocaust into deeply moving works of art

From post-human revolution in Puerto Rico to trans poetics and queer mythmaking, these three books that imagine new ways of being together

GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem

PETER MASON thrills to the sound of south London-born Yussef Dayes, and the galaxy of musicians drawn into his orbit

Re-releases from Iain Matthews, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and The Charlie Daniels Band

DAVID MCKINSTRY tells the story of George Bernard Shaw, the self-educated man who transformed political theatre, and admired Stalin

GREGORY SALTER draws attention to the fact that the kind of state support that David Hockney received is simply not on offer today

JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems

The bard joins the Carnival Against Fascism, which summer fun sends him down Memory Lane

by Rachel Davies

MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, Familiar Touch, Nino, and Toy Story 5

FIONA O’CONNOR is bowled over by a stunning Welsh language drama

HENRY BELL follows the lineage of revolutions, from the English to the Chinese, and asks where revolutionary politics exists today

MARJ MAYO sees the contemporary relevance of this account of the consequences of a society’s accommodation with evil

ALEX HALL welcomes an analysis of how modern capitalism is deeply intertwined with emotions, and their manipulation

MARTIN GRAHAM welcomes a statistical analysis of how much tax the super-rich pay, and foresees that the demand will flush out their agents

MATTHEW HAWKINS explores the initiatives proposed by HEALING ARTS SCOTLAND

RICHARD WORTH relishes the fleeting moment and sense of flow of the late, great saxophonist

by Natalia Gameson

DENNIS BROE notes the thin, unfunny and apolitical quality of the gruel dished up by the US networks and studios for mass consumption

BARBARA BOSWELL remembers South African poet, storyteller, publisher, editor and activist Diana Ferrus (1953-2026)

HELEN VASSALLO recommends a gripping Argentinian crime story about gender violence and the weaponisation of religion

GEORGE FOGARTY is unsettled by a brilliant concert that stands on the shoulders of immigrant Jamaican heritage without reaching out a hand to the Jamaican people

New releases from Steve Swallow, Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts, and Ady Johnson

When the ravages of Alzheimer’s leave an elderly woman marooned in painful memories of October 1950, her grandchild comes up with a creative strategy.

New releases from Simone White, Brass Funkeys, and Souad Massi 

Is this the way to rehearse industrial relations? SCOTT ALSWORTH immerses himself in a roleplay game that is being offered as an education tool to unions

In this comparison of Britain pre- and post Thatcher, WILL POMORE applauds the analysis, but distrusts the solutions offered

SUE TURNER is compelled by a history that shows how far a country can turn in on itself to collude with abuses of power

RON JACOBS is persuaded by the parallel drawn between Charles Manson and Donald Trump

ANDREW MURRAY welcomes a fascinating account of the struggle in Puerto Rico for democracy and independence

MARIA DUARTE, SCOTT ALSWORTH, ANDY HEDGECOCK and ANGUS REID review The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway, Time and Water, and Strictly Ballroom

MARIA DUARTE defends a solid, late-career Spielberg conspiracy flick that calls for empathy in a hostile world

Chris Searle speaks to former bandmate CHRIS BISCOE about the committed socialist jazzman, Mike Westbrook

STEVE JOHNSON recommends a beautiful album of songs that celebrate summer, from May Day onwards

by Monica Manolachi

New releases from Joe Wilkes, Honey and the Bear, and Hannah James and Toby Kuhn

While people keep pigeons around the world today, new evidence suggests this tradition is millennia old, says WILL SMITH

Reviews of T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, Tamikrest, and Dub Colossus  

BOB NEWLAND recommends a radio play about the covert action against the apartheid regime

Given the power of the live experience, MIK SABIERS recommends Jon Spencer’s new album

BOB NEWLAND appreciates an important contribution to the debate about how slavery helped to build the wealth of Western companies and states

WILL PODMORE admires an account of the liberation of Berlin that overthrows the conventional US army-inspired account

MARJORIE MAYO recommends a highly useful guide to the benefits and hazards of different approaches to immigration

PAUL DONOVAN recommends a thorough explanation of why Starmer’s Labour travels light on policy, and bending to knee to neoliberalism

KENNY MONROSE recommends a new exhibition that highlights the significance of Black British music

CAYENNA PONCHIONE-BAILEY celebrates a new recording of all the surviving works of a great female composer and equal of Mozart

This right-wing conspiracy theory is used to justify the coercive measures against gender, race and labour rights that best serve capitalism, attests GAVIN O’TOOLE

The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer

MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja

ANGUS REID is bowled over by an exuberant film about the making of Keith Jarrett’s legendary concert

CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician

by John Chinaka Onyech

TONY BURKE speaks to Malian singer, songwriter and guitarist FATOUMATA DIAWARA

SUSAN DARLINGTON is fascinated by an exhibition that explores a colonial display to reveal the overlooked histories of migration and protest that continue to shape Bradford today

FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within

KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters

Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst

SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change

New releases from World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, Bjorn Meyer, and Luca Longobardi