The bard rests on his laurels, and swipes left and right
An outstanding anthology of female poets
PATRICK JONES recommends a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal fuse into witness-bearing and manifesto-making
UNSEEN AND UNTIL NOW UNHEARD: Women in burqa in Herat, Afghanistan
[Arnesen/CC] 
MARIA DUARTE cherishes the flashes of absurd humour and theme of community healing in a documentary set in a Soviet-era Black Sea sanatorium
ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review The Courageous, The Cut, Christy, and On Swift Horses
TOM STONE sings the praises of one of the oldest open-air festivals in Britain
Chris Searle speaks to accordionist KAREN STREET
MAYER WAKEFIELD speaks to Urielle Klein-Mekongo about activism, musical inspiration and the black British experience
Songs of Freedom: An Anthology by Iranian and Afghan Women Poets
Edited by Shirin Razavian and Rouhi Shafii
Afsana Press, £12.99
I HAD to stop and put this book down after every few poems due to the intensity of expression and the feelings that these brave poets elicited in me, something I have never experienced before.
This is a vital anthology from Afghan and Iranian poets where the political and personal overlap and fuse into a witness-bearing and manifesto-making anthology that everyone should read.
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RUTH AYLETT recommends a remarkable collection that is collective in its grief and serious in its demand for solidarity