politics – and so she thinks

Curtis Sittenfeld – Rodham

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 08:59:22 +0000

‘Awfully opinionated for a girl’ is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that’s the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader— and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm ‘No’.

The rest, as they say, isn’t history. How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton?

Rodham is Curtis Sittenfeld’s sixth novel, echoing her 2008 novel American Wife in which she imagined the life of a first lady like Laura Bush. Full of lively conversation, deep politics, and a lot of sex, it’s a pacy novel that follows the life of a firey woman who could hold her own against anyone in political office.

Sittenfield is clearly a Clinton fan, and whilst you don’t have to be to read the novel, it certainly helps if you have some interest in their life. It begins with the famous speech at her 1969 Wellesley graduation ceremony where Hillary told off the conservative senator who spoke before her, which sets the tone for the energy of the main protagonist. Women in the pubic eye are often held to ludicrously high standards, and the author challenges this at the same time as creating warmth and empathy to a woman who is not at all cold and calculating.

Even though she doesn’t stay with him, and leaves at the first sign of infidelity, Hillary does truly love Bill – and it wasn’t just sexual. ‘I knew plenty of smart people, but I’d never before encountered a person whose intelligence sharpened mine the way his did,’ she says. There’s a certain thrill that comes with seeing her in emotional and domestic settings, so far removed from the reputation that has been built up over the last few years. But she’s also a political powerhouse, and Sittenfeld draws the conclusion that without Hillary Bill’s political career would never have happened.

Most women in the public eye are full of contradictions. Is there any value in imagining an alternate life for them and seeing where those layers take us? Maybe not, but Sittenfield is a good writer and tells a story with emotion and empathy.

How different the world could have been.

People Power: Fighting for Peace

admin — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 14:41:53 +0000

It’s very easy to feel despondent about politics, both domestic and international. Whether you’re pro or anti Trump, believe Brexit is the end of Britain or the beginning, or nuclear war is a real threat or a load of hot air (no pun intended), it’s clear that there’s some divisive decisions being made by those at the top. What can we, the poor plebs at the bottom, do about it?

Make a noise, that’s what. The newest exhibition at London’s Imperial War Museum – People Power: Fighting for Peace – explores just how citizens have been doing that over the last century. From pacifists refusing conscription in World War I, to the protests against military intervention in Iraq, individuals have always come together to collectively make their voices heard.

Postcards, letters and images sensitively portray the personal aspect of global issues, and reflections on the dilemmas individuals face when choosing their side are a reminder of how morally complex so many of these issues are. Describing himself as a ‘practical pacifist’ author A.A.Milne wrote in a letter displayed here that to fight would seem to support war, and to not would feel like allowing concentration camps and Nazism.

For a long time protest was the only way that women in particular could try to have their voices heard. Those marching earlier this year follow a long line, from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom to the women of Greenham Common in 1981. The famous Greenham Common protests are represented by carefully hand crafted banners, and the creativity and role of art in anti-war protests runs throughout the corridors and displays that step through the decades.

Early sketches of the anti nuclear war symbol, now synonymous with peace movements, are a reminder of how these things start out. Grassroots to global. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), launched in 1958, asked artist Gerald Holtom to design an image to be brandished on banners and placards at the march outside nuclear weapons research facility in Aldermaston, Berkshire. The now ubiquitous symbol was partly derived from the letters N and D in the semaphore alphabet, representing nuclear disarmament.

The brutality represented in Paul Nash’s depictions of the trenches is one that disappeared with the advent of the Cold War and technological advances, making warfare seem all the more remote. Blood splats on David Gentleman’s posters for the Stop the War Coalition may be intended to be explicit, but feel less emotive today when war is something fewer of us have direct contact with.

Peter Kennard and Cat Phillip’s iconic 2007 photomontage Photo Op which depicts Tony Blair taking a selfie against the backdrop of a devastating explosion, feels as much a slur in this context on society as it does on Blair. It’s all too easy to click a petition or share a link, without really making an effort. It’s easily understood. Despite all of these years of protest, the many banners waving, every individual who has been scorned as a coward, every person who has stood up and shouted, we’re still at war. Ernest Rodker, a young activist who marched at Aldermaston and later in February 2003 as one of the 2 million strong crowds against the war in Iraq, echoes that sense of disillusionment in an interview for the show. ‘Many people thought ‘What’s the point?’ The biggest march that had ever been and no impact, just ignored by Blair.’

But that’s no reason to stop trying. These people didn’t. If there’s one message to take away, it’s that we can’t give up. Use your voice, your legs, your hands and your heart. Make a noise and cause a scene – they can’t ignore us forever.

Running at Imperial War Museum London until 28th August 2017.

Where Are We Now? in music & words

admin — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 16:38:43 +0000

Where Are We Now? That’s a bloody good question. The UK is politically, socially and economically at a crossroads, and the route to take not clear. No one has the answers, but some of the best musicians and poets have some thoughts. Amongst them are 2016 Ted Hughes Award shortlistees & poets Hollie McNish & Salena Godden, hip hop collective Stanley Odd, rapper Chester P, and poets Michael Pedersen, Kevin Williamson, Martha Sprackland & Will Burns

Created and curated by the countercultural Scottish Neu! Reekie! and Caught By The River, a collective celebrating the non digital in life, this event promises to be provactive, passionate and powerful.

Taking place on Wednesday 26th April at Caught by the River’s spiritual clubhouse, The Social, 5 Little Portland Street, London W1. Doors open at 7pm; tickets are £8 in advance and can be bought here.

her – Half Moon Theatre

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 14:13:14 +0000

Life as a fifteen year old girl can be hard. But living in London it can be difficult to remember just how hard. In conflict zones across the world just the basic struggle to survive is a daily reality. In her, a live graphic novel, combining stage action, film and animation through clever technology, writer and Brolly Productions and Half Moon Theatre explore the theme of displacement, identity and community, all at a rather timely moment in our history.

The story of a London teenager who finds that suddenly and inexplicably she has become an alien in her own country. Shala Nyx plays five versions of the same girl, after finding out that her world has changed, and she has no house, no home, and what feels like no hope. To start with she’s a familiar teenager on her mobile phone, worried about boys and shoes and arguing with her mum. But then things change, and we move to the stages of discovering that your world is falling down, needing to flee, travelling and being ‘processed’ – quite literally as a number.

As her image and accent shifts from Londoner to Arabic to Scottish, it’s startling how differently the situation portrayed appears. What seems unthinkable becomes a potential reality; what seems incomprehensible becomes identifiable. Terraced houses and bombed shelters all mingle, and the audience does feel a sense of collective identity, even from the safety of this beautiful venue. Although shooting and shadows replace loud music and youthful vigour for all, it may well be hardest for females. We see the girl forces and degraded in order to access basic needs, and ‘be less than I am.’ Independence and identity are irrelevant, and shame and judgement pervade.

Director Dominic Hingorani and designer and illustrator Rachana Jadhav have used the resources well, and Nyx risen to the challenge. Doors open and close and the screen action reaches into the live. In one poignant moment the familiar streets become coated in blood, and when in a café and call centre, being lured to finding a sense of belonging once again freedom fighting group the scene is surrounded by sinister tentacles. When so much has happened, for soldiers and refugees, the need to survive outweighs ideals, and some ‘turn on my truth.’

Half Moon is local venue that supports and provides for young people in the community, and the performance of her an important one to show. Engaging the audience and showing a hint of the struggle that some go through, whilst also capturing their attention and provoking debate is hugely important – for all generations. After every show there’s a question and answer session with the cast and team, as well as a day of workshops planned. Whilst I’m not sure that I could say I enjoyed her, I did absolutely love it. Creative activism certainly has a role to play in influencing the future, and her is a wonderful step towards that change.

[vimeo 169065570 w=640 h=360]

VANT – Do You Know Me

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 14:02:55 +0000

Like the true punk greats, trio VANT are socially and politically aware, and have something to say. Powerful and aggressive, as well it might be for a songwriter who finds Trump ‘terrifying’ and Brexit depressing. Speaking to the Boar at the back end of last year, singer and songwriter Mattie Vant expressed his wish that ‘the more powerful our voice becomes; we can hopefully change things outside of music.’

And what a powerful voice it is. Do You Know Me?, their newest video shared in order to celebrate the release of debut album DUMB BLOOD on February 17th, is electric and confrontational, direct in approach but shrewd and perceptive in content. It’s not easy to assault the senses at the same time as engaging the mind, but VANT manage it well, perhaps due to their unswerving vision for explosive and potent sounds that capture the primitive nature of humanity whilst addressing the modern issues facing it. Do You Know Me? also happens to be catchy as fuck. Intoxicatingly good fun and with something to say – it’s what music needs in 2017.

Simon Smith – Experiment & Liberate: Politics in Poetry

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2015 19:59:00 +0000

Political poetry sounds like a heavy topic for a Saturday afternoon with Save As Writers. I don’t have a particular viewpoint to share, I’m not interested in writing polemics, and nothing *bad* has happened to me personally make me angry enough to write political poetry.
But Simon Smith, poet, author and lecturer, and our tutor for ninety minutes on the topic of ‘Experiment & Liberate – Politics & Poetry’ believes that all poetry is political. It’s a form that is so often marginalised and ignored that to choose to communicate using poetry is a political act in itself. A way of giving a voice to those who would not otherwise have one, it can subtley critique power structures and established ways of thinking. The murder of Mayakovsky in Russia, the lawsuit against Stephen Collis by energy company Kinder Morgan and the recent arrest of a former Miss Turkey all indicate what most writers know – words are powerful, and the poem is a particularly resonant form as the spaces and things we leave out can be just as potent as what we leave in.
During the workshop we explored the Greek poet Sappho, a female voice using the feminine lyric to critique masculine war poetry; Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy, a political statement about the 1819 Peterlee massacre in ballad form and Bernadette’s Mayer’s brilliant The Helens of Troy project where poems are made from cut up interviews with women named Helen from the US city of Troy, and created our own political poetry using word association and newspaper cuttings.
Perspectives shifted as to what could be considered political. Anything against the norm, breaking convention, has a slight air of conflict. Choosing to contribute towards a discourse is an act of defiance. Even the post personal and domestic of incidents occur in a social and political backdrop and within the context of certain rules and expectations. As Sonia Sanchez said ‘All poets, all writers are political. They either maintain the status quo, or they say, ’Something’s wrong, let’s change it for the better.’ And so, our sunny Saturday turned into a slightly subversive one – and was all the more enjoyable for it.
Save As Writers is a lively writing group based in Canterbury. They run regular workshopping events, poetry evenings, and book launches. They meet once a month to critique members’ work and hold monthly literary evenings, which also feature an open mic.

Greenwich Book Festival: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class by Selina Todd

admin — Tue, 26 May 2015 20:35:00 +0000

Selina Todd has issue with the idea of referring to the working class as the ‘forgotten’ or ‘marginalised.’ They, like her when she was growing up and starting her role as a historian, are just living their lives. It’s these lives that she explores in The Rise and Fall of the Working Class. At Greenwich Book Festival the historian, author and Oxford don speaks with the same urgency and humanity with which she writes, weaving together personal and everyday experiences with political views. She does not see the two as distinct, with her own left wing politics being a result of her own experiences and belief that everybody can and should have access to an awesome life.
Todd’s interest in the history of the ordinary started with seeking out the stories of her own family, the seed planted by a school project to ‘interview the oldest person you know.’ It’s an inspiration, with access to archives and libraries facilitating the opportunity for a democratic kind of history in which we can all participate.
In the hour we cover both World Wars, The Great Depression, Bevan and Thatcher, but we also cover the football pools and domestic service – both the big stuff and the little stuff mingle to make The People. rather than reporting, the book and the talk is about exploration and challenging assumptions. Todd questions the idea that lack of social mobility is a sign of lack of aspiration, and the skewed practice of over work in today’s culture. She is not at all convinced by the blaming of trade unions for the changing composition of class structure, and doesn’t believe that there was ever really a ‘golden age’ of the working class.
The working class are not people to whom things are done to by the elite or the 1%. They are – we are – people living our lives. And it’s in these lives that things are happening. The election result was not pleasing to those subscribed to socialism like Todd, but that does not mean there is no hope, and she encourages us to look to movements and organisations for development where it is not happening in government, and be agents of change: ‘They know that we are powerful as a collective.’

LIFT – where the city meets the stage

admin — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:04:00 +0000

One city, 30 productions, 13 countries, 15 venues, 30 days, and a million emotions, passions, voices and subjects, LIFT festival is back in London for its 20th anniversary. Combining poetry, performances, acting, immersion and experiences that cover the sometimes surprising, shocking, variegated and vast nature of this amazing world in which we live, the festival continues to push the boundaries of theatre. Using theatre as a way to explore the world, the London International Festival of Theatre integrates art forms to create powerful performance that speaks to and of the world.

As director Michael Ball says ‘LIFT 2014 comes at a time when the world is experiencing seismic change – in our climate, in governments and, perhaps most significantly, in ways in which we can communicate with each other. We have looked at what makes up this astonishingly vibrant and tolerant city and made it a stage on which artists with radical imaginations will conjure visions of other lands, enthralling us with stories born in the worlds from which they come.’
Some of these artists work in circumstances that can be difficult or even dangerous, and LIFT gives voice to their revealing work, connecting us all with the big issues of our times. Invigorating, evocative, and wholly original, the programme is one that will you have you thinking and talking – which is what good theatre should always do. It also utilizes multiple venues, including The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, Peckham Liberal Club, and WIlton’s Music Hall, introducing people and places.

Highlights include After A War, where 23 international artists and companies from the UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America, reflect on the impact and legacy of WWI, this first truly global event and on contemporary issues of war and peace. There also explorations of the beautiful game in this World Cup year, in Michael Essien, I want to play as you…which looks at football as a way out of poverty, and Turfed which uses the philosophy of football to explore the global issue of youth homelessness. Change For A Tenner is a series of gatherings about change, both big and small, is an inspiring collection looking at everything from the value of art to the impact of the baby boomers, and our capacity to make a difference.
It’s certainly entertainment to make you think, but not in a proselytising fashion. This is provocative art that entertains as it educates and forces us to ponder the world around us and our place in it.
Running throughout June, get your tickets here.

No Future: has pop lost its radical edge?

admin — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 14:20:59 +0000

Pop and politics – are the two inextricable or has music lost its political power and radical layer?
One of the great debates from previous Battle of Ideas event, two days of high-level, thought-provoking, public debate organised by the Institute of Ideas at the Barbican.

Sonia Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny – by Rani Singh

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:42:00 +0000

Sonia Gandhi’s life story is the stuff of novels. Growing up in an Italian working class village, she met her Rajiv Gandhiwhilst learning English at college in Cambridge, and after a long distance relationship, married into the Gandhi family and its political life.
After her mother-in-law Indira’s assassination in 1984 and her husband’s death in 1991, when he was killed by a female suicide bomber in an attack that left only his shoes remaining, Sonia Gandhi has steadfastly and stoically taken the responsibility of India’s political progression as her own. As leader of the Congress Party, she rules over a billion people, ‘holding sway over one sixth of humanity.’
The plot is captivating, but the style of writing at times lets it down. Liberally scattered quotes from acquaintances, family, allies and enemies are taken from secondary sources, and as such is sometimes lacking in vivacity.
What Singh does very well is collate, weaving the comments and opinions together, merging the political and personal, and layering up interviews and testimonies, with the intention of portraying Sonia Gandhi as a real woman with fancies and flaws as well as the leader of the world’s largest democracy.
There are tender moments, especially in the earlier pages when we read about the young woman’s first steps into love and politics, as well as straightforward historical recording, textbook-style.
Singh clearly admires Sonia Gandhi as a powerful woman, but the politically correct and venerating tone is at times cloying. Singh describes the writing of this book as ‘the toughest challenge of my career.’
She has clearly approached the research process with vigour, but apparently without being selective about the information and evidence included. Overall the feeling is one of reading through a log of evidence, all biased towards one outcome.
By the end of the book I want to read more – but mainly because I feel that Sonia Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny doesn’t answer all my questions. And perhaps no book will until Sonia Gandhi chooses to speak for herself.
Francesca Baker
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