The Changing Face of Poetry
Mukahang Limbu is explaining to me why he writes poetry. “It can make you feel like you’re being heard. Coming from a marginalised background, and not having much representation in the literary canon, that can make you feel invisible. But being able to write yourself into that canon is reall
Manchester, the Met, and #MeToo
Just as #MeToo was gaining mainstream attention in late 2017, a petition was launched to remove one of Balthus’ most iconic portraits. The painting, Thérèse Dreaming (1938), depicts a young girl sitting with her underwear and groin area deliberately exposed. Her white underwear contrasts with th
China’s Third Way
Shenzhen, the fourth largest city on the Chinese mainland, and one of the largest cities in the world, is contemporary China at its most bizarre and contradictory. Straddling the border with Hong Kong, and part of the broader geographic and economic region known as the Pearl River Delta, Shenzhen is
Funding Under Fire
Walking out of Oxford train station, the first building you see is a sleek three-storey structure, its polished modernity incongruous with its modest surroundings. The Saïd Business School, built in 2001, oversees teaching for Oxford University students in business, management, and finance. Only th
Placebo
A book belonging to Alexander Smoakes was open on the table, and he was staring at a word he didn’t know. Smoakes became angry, the seeping kind. He did not feel himself getting angry, but became it, because this was the kind of seeping anger you cannot notice in yourself at all. It bit at [&h
Long Distance Call
Long-distance call The light is long and low and static in the Irish sky, forming Atlantic currents of memory that catch the cross-country coach, that send it swimming in the self-bound surf. Your call breaks the electric silence of childhood, of waiting, of adolescence like a premature tidal jump,
Weekly Roundup: Voting Apps, Katie Hill and California Fires
Tactical voting apps cause concern on both sides of the political divide As the country gears up for a December general election, voters on both sides of the Brexit divide have been turning to tactical voting to find away through the deadlock on EU membership. Perceived by some as a ‘second refere
The Politics of Urban Music
Taken from Teardrops: [Darcus Howe]: We have complained to the police about police and nothing’s been done, we have complained to judges about judges and nothing’s been done. Now it is time to do something ourselves. [Chorus] In love and war All is fair where I’m from The weak won&
Good Fortune
Good fortune, that he was passing. Warm, clear joy In pale gold Like a splash of sunlight On a tiled floor. Ask for exactness. Ask for words by art to enact, thus: His warm palm laid Between my shoulder-blades.∎ Words by Hannah Patrick.