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
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In poetry, what matters is where you stand and who the audience are
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
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
RECENTLY I’ve taught a couple of classes on the history of spoken word. More particularly, I was brought in to discuss the ranting poetry of the '80s as part of a course.
Spoken word is in a healthy place and it’s starting to look back to where it came from. That’s certainly a good thing. What many find shocking is that there was spoken word before hip hop.
And this is more to do with the windowpane history of YouTube — we simply weren’t there on the interwebs because there wasn’t an interweb when the New Cross fire, the Special Patrol Group and the miners' strike were issues we were addressing and fighting, among many others. I’ve been making much of this available at standupandspit.wordpress.com. Some of it is even in colour.
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