The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song
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‘I am part of the black community, so I am the black community speaking’
Christine Lindey pays tribute to the great Afro-American artist JACOB LAWRENCE who throughout his painting promoted the interests of his class and race
(L to R) Ironers; Wounded Man
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit
MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy
PETER MASON is disappointed that the eponymous Count fails to put in an appearance
JACOB LAWRENCE (1917- 2000) was precocious and prolific and his early critical success continued throughout his long life.
Yet, compared with his white US peers such as Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning, who has heard of him?
He was seven years old when his mother became a single parent and, after a few years in a foster home, he moved to Harlem with his mother and siblings where she earned her living as domestic help. The sights, sounds, dramas, joys and hardships of Harlem life would become the main subject of his paintings.
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