On my radar: Jasleen Kaur’s cultural highlights

5 days ago

The Turner prize-winner on the art of the Gaza Biennale, the joys of a queer community choir, and a poet who speaks to today’s injusticesThe artist Jasleen Kaur was born in Glasgow in 1986.She studied at Glasgow School of Art and later at the Royal College, and had her first solo show, Be Like Teflon, in London in 2021.She works mainly with installations, using everyday objects to explore identity, cultural memory and political belonging.Earlier this month, Kaur won the Turner prize for her 2023 exhibition Alter Altar at the Tramway in Glasgow, which memorably featured a replica of her dad’s red Ford Escort covered in an outsized doily.A group show of this year’s shortlisted artists’ work is at Tate Britain until 16 February.

Kaur lives and works in London.Gaza BiennaleI heard about this on the evening of the Turner prize ceremony: some of the folk protesting outside the Tate [calling for institutional divestment from ties to Israel and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza] have also been organising with the artists in Gaza who are putting on their own biennale.I don’t know what to say about the fact that, amid total destruction, artists in Gaza are putting on a biennale.I could say that it shows something about the power of art.But it also feels like a call to the global art community to listen.

It’s a point of connection, it’s an attempt at connection or conversation,KneecapI find that the energy of [the Northern Irish hip-hop trio] Kneecap feels really vital – they are totally honest in speaking truth to power,The film is the heavily fictionalised origin story of the band, who rap in the Irish language,A couple of things stood out to me,One was about a relationship to music that is anti-imperial, something I’m thinking about in my own life and practice.

The film also tells how each of us has a political voice and the need to exercise it.These working-class rappers have a place to push things forward.Island of Us: Conversations About Justice With Children by Jack YoungThis is a resource born out of a beautiful exhibition by Rory Pilgrim at Chisenhale gallery earlier this year featuring work by people who are incarcerated.This book, developed from workshops with local primary school-age children, contains conversations around justice and freedom.It reminded me of conversations I have with my own kids.

There are questions like: “If somebody who’s really poor steals an apple, what should happen?” The answers are really thoughtful.I just think young people are incredible.I learned a lot from it.F*ChoirWhere to begin with the force that is F*Choir? They are a queer-led choir based in London.I saw them perform with my kids at the Walthamstow Trades Hall two years ago.

I’ve also marched with them during Palestine protests and been to open singing sessions with them,I’m just so in awe at the way that they practise singing in community with such dedication,They’ve got this session called Singing to Stay Alive,You can book to sing with them, and you really feel that singing collectively is part of living,It’s a life force.

We Are Made of Diamond Stuff by Isabel WaidnerAs someone who is heavily dyslexic, I find reading really hard.Recently a friend said: “Put down your theory books and pick up some fiction.” So I went to a bookshop and deliberately chose books that were thin, with a font that I could cope with.I wanted to check out Isabel Waidner, who writes really thin fiction, and they’ve got me hooked.This novel takes place on the Isle of Wight.

There are protests and climate migrants and right-wing LGBTQ+ factions.Their writing is so visual, it’s like a film, and each sentence is like something I’ve never read before.June JordanThe distilled language of poets such as June Jordan is bringing so much solace at a time when language is kind of failing.I’ve decided that Jordan is one of my ancestors.Her poetry and her political life were not separate and she had the ability to get to the heart of things with so few words.

Her [1982] poem Apologies to All the People in Lebanon is heartbreaking.You read it and think, it must have been written now, surely.Caoimhín Ó RaghallaighWe were filming up in Glasgow for the Turner prize and one of the crew who were driving us around had an album by Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh playing, and his music has been carrying me through the past months.The fiddle really gets to my heart.I feel like it’s part of my ancestry, it moves me in the way that an Indian stringed instrument might.

This album [Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Thomas Bartlett] is really comforting but it’s also a lament, and there are times when the fiddle is barely even playing, it’s just a scratch of a string.

politicsSee all

Here’s how we could reform the Lords for the 21st century | Letters

I’m sure that your editorial (25 December) is right that one of the reasons reforming the House of Lords is taking so long under this government is that there is no clear path ahead, after abolition of the hereditary peers. A fundamental principle is to retain the revising role of the upper chamber. To that end, it needs great expertise. It should, of course, be largely elected, but that would not necessarily ensure that expertise. It should also not be too large and should have continuity

2 days ago

‘You’ve got nothing to lose’: Labour’s ‘bonus MPs’ aim to make their mark after surprise wins

Neil Duncan-Jordan’s new parliamentary office is at the top of a steep staircase in a maze of corridors just behind the speaker’s house, with a sweeping view of the Thames. The space is decorated with mod posters and jazz vinyls; he has Miles Davis playing on the record player.“I want it to be me,” he said, gesturing around the room. “Because this place isn’t me, is it? Working-class people didn’t come here very often in the past. Now there’s many more of us and we bring our traditions

2 days ago

Keir Starmer joins family on first overseas holiday since becoming PM

Keir Starmer has finally been able to take an overseas holiday and is understood to be in Madeira with his family over the new year.While he has the use of Chequers, his official country retreat, the prime minister was unable to go on a planned summer break in August after rioting broke out in a series of towns and cities.His wife and children left the UK last week for a post-Christmas break but Starmer initially did not join them, after the death of his younger brother, Nick, on Boxing Day.Starmer is understood to have left the UK on Saturday to join his family and will be away for a few days. He has no public events scheduled until next week

3 days ago

Badenoch allies dismiss ‘nonsense’ claims she asked GB News to cut Farage’s airtime

Allies of Kemi Badenoch have dismissed as “nonsense” claims that she asked GB News to cut airtime for Nigel Farage.It follows a row in which the Tory leader accused Reform of faking its membership numbers. Farage said Reform surpassed the Tories in membership on Boxing Day and has called on Badenoch to apologise for her accusations that the figures are manipulated.In a fresh twist, Badenoch was reported by the Mail on Sunday to have raised Farage’s prominence on GB News, where he is a presenter, in a meeting with the channel’s chief executive. She is reported to have warned against the broadcaster becoming a haven for her critics

4 days ago

Reform woos voters before potential byelection test in Labour stronghold

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is planning to use a potential byelection to test its strength in Labour strongholds as it seeks to deploy its growing membership in local elections.The party has been attempting to keep up its momentum after securing five MPs and more than 4m votes at the general election. Farage provoked a row with the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch last week by claiming Reform now has more members than the Conservatives. He has also been trying to persuade Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, to make a massive donation to his party.However, insiders are now examining the political opportunity that could arise in the Cheshire seat of Runcorn and Helsby, where MP Mike Amesbury was charged with assault last month after an incident following a night out

4 days ago

Blair proposed SDLP Irish nationalists support England at World Cup, papers show

The 2002 World Cup had been a gruelling rollercoaster for the Republic of Ireland. Nine days before the team’s first match in the tournament, hosted by Japan and South Korea, its captain and talisman Roy Keane was on his way home before a ball had been kicked, after publicly berating his manager, Mick McCarthy.Two draws and a victory against Saudi Arabia had taken Ireland through the group stages, but after a dramatic penalty shootout against Spain, they were knocked out of the competition.And the day after the exit, according to newly unsealed documents, the then UK prime minister, Tony Blair, suggested in a meeting that nationalists in Northern Ireland could now support England. It did not go down well

5 days ago

cultureSee all

;