SIMON PARSONS applauds the psychological study of prisoners dealing with a frighteningly oppressive world endured by far too many
We are in the heights now
by Hiba Abu Nada
RON JACOBS appreciates the suspenseful style of a biography of the path to Lula’s first presidency, and the lessons it contains for working class self-organisation
CHRIS SEARLE translates the fusion of four jazz maestros into a mental image of Hackney Carnival
A bucket-list of visuals, the unsung heroine of IVF, queer love in the City of London, and half a musical: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Blink, Joy, Layla and Wicked
by Martin Goldie
We are in the Heights now
teachers, free of their crowded classrooms,
their voices no longer shouting to be heard,
new families without pain or sadness,
journalists taking pictures of heaven
writing about the eternal love.
All, all of them are from Gaza.
There is a new Gaza in heaven
without siege
taking shape now.
Good night, Gaza
Gaza night is dark apart from the glow of rockets,
Quiet apart from the sound of the bombs,
Terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer,
Black apart from the light of the martyrs.
Good night, Gaza.
Hiba Abu Nada (1991-2023), a poet and novelist, came from a family displaced to Saudi Arabia by the first Nakba. She worked in Gaza at the Rusal Centre for Creativity and was killed in her home by an Israeli air strike on October 20 2023. From Out of Gaza, New Palestinian Poetry (Smokestack Books, 2024).
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