Reviews of Habibi Funk 031, Kayatibu, and The Good Ones
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Real winners from a trio of politicised poets
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
NOW that the exciting race for this year’s poetry awards has begun with the shock news that the winner of the TS Eliot Prize teaches at Oxford, here are three strong new collections from Culture Matters that are not in danger of winning any prizes.
In his latest book From Aberfan t Grenfell (£9) Merthyr poet Mike Jenkins writes about poverty, unemployment and homelessness, combining bleak comedy, righteous indignation and painful wisdom in poems like Merthyr is Vietnam, Got a Season and Carn catch-a Criminals:
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ANDY CROFT rallies poets to the impossible task of speaking truth to a tin-eared politician
ALAN MORRISON hears the tradition of English Modernism in an unusually accomplished debut volume of poetry
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