GORDON PARSONS is bowled over by a skilfully stripped down and powerfully relevant production of Hamlet
The poet as lived experience expert
JOHN KENDALL HAWKINS applauds a new volume by black US poet Frederick Joseph, that is precisely cadenced and breathing with lyricism
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
SUE TURNER is inspired by the example of a librarian’s struggle to confront the book-banning movement
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Am Martin Parr, September Says, The Monkey, and The Gorge
RITA DI SANTO applauds a touching and witty opener that touches a hot topic in Germany: the future of the immigrant population
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
We Alive, Beloved: Poems
Frederick Joseph, Row House, £13.06
IT’S a tough nut to crack: ever-escalating violence: war; assassination attempts; BLM protests met with batons and the same old racism; annihilations, terrorism; the US with more guns than people.
When leadership and the vigour of new ideas are needed folks are treated with the same tired bromides that didn’t work to begin with.
The UN, which was meant to be a beacon away from the darkness of interstate conflict and a reminder to co-operate in improving the commonweal of humankind, is a dud outfit.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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New releases reviewed by MARIA DUARTE: Catholic sins, body horror, end-of-life mismanagement and sexual awakening: reviews of Sugarcane, The Substance, His Three Daughters and Girls Will Be Girls
RUTH AYLETT recommends a remarkable collection that is collective in its grief and serious in its demand for solidarity
John Kendall Hawkins speaks to black US poet FREDERICK JOSEPH, author of We Alive, Beloved
ALISTAIR FINDLAY recommends a collection of interviews with 15 award-winning poets discussing how their initial drafts became the finished poem