DAVID YEARSLEY is fascinated by the account of four composers who transformed their experiences of the second world war and the Holocaust into deeply moving works of art
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DAVID NICHOLSON draws attention to an album of music and poetry that channels a first-hand experience of Gaza
REMEMBER THIS: Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip, who was killed on January 29 2024 by Israeli forces during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, which also killed six of her family members and two paramedics coming to her rescue.
[Maktoob Media/CC]
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JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems
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JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems
A Constellation of Sorrows
Patrick Jones
(Repeat Records)
PATRICK JONES is a Welsh poet and playwright who is a key figure in the Welsh labour movement tackling social issues in Wales and wider afield. Jones went to Palestine in June 2023 and the experience and anger of that visit fuelled his criticism of Israel’s actions especially since October 8, 2023, waging war on the civilians of Gaza.
His latest album of poems and music, a Constellation of Sorrows, starts with a visceral work called After Niemoller, taking the 1946 poem by Martin Niemoller as a starting point. It contains audio samples of US President Joe Biden and the heartbreaking last phone call of six-year-old Hind Rajab asking for help before being executed by the Israel Defence Force.
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