The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
The Poet Laureate of Gaza
A remarkable posthumous collection of poetry and other writings is a tragic document of genocide, and a beacon of hope for a Palestinian future, says HENRY BELL
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
If I must Die
Refaat Alareer, OR books, £19.99
WHEN Refaat Alareer was murdered by an Israeli air strike on the December 6 2023, aged 44, thousands of people across Palestine and the world mourned the loss of a great writer, educator and liberated mind.
In the days that followed, millions more became aware of his work, as a poem of his began to spread. His words: “If I must die,/ you must live/ to tell my story” became an icon of Palestinian resistance and the global ceasefire movement. They travelled not just on screens and at demonstrations, but scrawled on walls around the world, pasted up in windows of homes and cafes, appearing on billboards, translated into scores of languages.
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Cursed reincarnation, Zombies yet again, Israeli war crimes, Transformer origins and Spanish animation; MARIA DUARTE reviews Timestalker, Investigating War Crimes in Gaza, Salem’s Lot, Transformers One and Buffalo Kids
RUTH AYLETT recommends a remarkable collection that is collective in its grief and serious in its demand for solidarity
While people across the world have been taking bold action in support of Palestine, the global North ruling class has used all tools at its disposal to support Israel’s genocide and criminalise solidarity writes VIJAY PRASHAD