DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
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'Language belongs to us, in all its complexity and richness, in all its rolling, roiling musicality'
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
HOORAY! At long last, “Brits have rekindled their love of verse.” According to the Guardian, sales of poetry books are booming and poetry is now “the coolest thing.”
Awesome. Even more exciting is the news that “young rebel poets” from the “underground” poetry scene like Rupi Kaur, Melissa Lee-Houghton and Luke Wright have ended “centuries of white-male dominated verse” by “breaking the mould of traditional, more elitist verse.”
The last time a “poetry revival” was announced in the Guardian in March this year, the excitement was all about Kate Tempest. This time it is Instagram poetry. How quickly our amnesiac culture discards its gods.
Of course, this is just a corporate press-release dressed up to look like arts journalism for the broadsheets. Melissa Lee-Houghton is a beneficiary of the Poetry Society’s New Gen promotion and was short-listed for last year’s Costa Prize, Luke Wright is published by Penguin and Rupi Kaur by Simon and Schuster. Not very underground.
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STEPHEN ARNELL looks back to when protesters took to the streets in London demand to Irish liberty, fair pay and free speech — and wonders what’s changed in 138 years
