artswith Music Shows against austerity THEATRE
Musicians from all over the UK are coming together to organise close to 200 live music events in the name of anti-austerity. “We Shall Overcome” is a series of
community events led by musicians and music promoters who want to do something practical to help people being hit hard by homelessness and poverty. It is the brainchild of Joe Solo,
washing machine engineer from Scarborough by day, singer- songwriter by night, who had the idea after feeling despondent following last year’s general election.
In 2015, WSO gigs in 123 towns
and cities raised an estimated £125,000 worth of food, cash, clothing and bedding for those at the sharp end of austerity cuts. Joe said: “A group of musicians
decided to put together a coordinated series of events in defiance of the Tory victory and, more specifically, the ever- deepening cuts to come. We considered – and still do – austerity to be an ideological attack on our communities and we oppose it outright “We decided to use our events not
just to protest against austerity with words but also, through our actions, to help those suffering most under it.
20 | theJournalist “We are NOT a charity and we are
NOT apolitical. We are, however, non-party political, anti-austerity and pro-community. We exist to bring people together, not to tear them apart. We are a broad alliance of like-minded people looking to help, protest, unite our communities and entertain.” Starting in the first weekend of
October and running until the end of the month, more than 175 gigs will take place across the UK under one banner. Several thousand musicians will perform nationally and audiences are encouraged to bring food for food banks or make donations to homelessness and other projects. One of the bands playing (in
London on 7 October) is Dream Nails, who formed at the first WSO gig last year. Singer Jane Stephenson told Arts with Attitude: “It’s women who are all too often hit hardest by cuts to essential services. Women’s refuges are now having to turn away two out of every three women for lack of space, and we know these women end up returning to violent perpetrators.”
A full list of events can be found at https://weshall
overcomeweekend.com
A Man of Good Hope 6 October-12 November, Young Vic, London Critically acclaimed South African company Isango Ensemble return to London for the UK premiere of a gripping tale of survival, based on the book by Johnny Steinberg. Asad is a young Somalian refugee in Ethiopia with a painful past, miraculously good luck and a brilliant head for business. As a budding entrepreneur, he is in search of new opportunities abroad. So he embarks on an epic journey to South Africa, hoping to find a promised land. But, as he arrives, horrific xenophobic violence ruptures society, sending the country – and Asad’s plans – into chaos.
www.youngvic.org
BOOKS The Wires, 2012 by Jude Cowan Montague Wisdom’s Bottoms Press, £10 NUJ member Jude Cowan Montague has written a collection of poems based on stories from Reuters during 2012 and she’s encouraging others, especially those working on traumatic stories, to do the same. She said: “Using poetry as an alternative medium to express yourself has so many advantages because it gives us a chance for a more personal reflection that doesn’t compete with the demands/restrictions/ethics of a day job.” If you’d like to take her up on her offer and have your work appear in a forthcoming news poetry anthology, contact her via her website
www.judecowan.net.
www.wisdomsbottom.com
0
attitude
by Tim Lezard
Trashing the Train Set by Chris Moore Unicorn Press, £8.99 Greg Dyke, My Part In His Downfall – an unexpected best-seller on Amazon – gave readers an unforgettable worm’s-eye perspective on world events as seen from within the seething can of multi-platform content labelled BBC News. The sequel, this second lifting of the lid reveals what happened when Dyke’s successor as director-general, Mark Thompson, arrived clutching an agenda for radical change that rapidly turned into a recipe for disaster. He dished out change but radio was not a priority and nor was the BBC World Service – bad news for its tens of millions of listeners and very bad news for the journalists in its newsroom. For them, it was the beginning of the end.
www.unicornpress.org
EXHIBITIONS
Ballads of Battle – Joseph Lee, poet a
and artist U
Jo in
When the First World War was declared,
Until 26 November W
Joseph Lee was working in Dundee as a
newspaper editor, writer and illustrator. He was 38 and, although he had bronchial asthma, he joined his younger colleagues in the 4th Black Watch in a group that became known as the “fighter writers”, sending back articles from Ypres, Loos and the Somme. Captured in 1917, he sketched his fellow prisoners and their captors. This exhibition display artworks, publications and documents held in the museum’s archives.
www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/
University of Dundee U
Some of the best things to
see and do with a bit of political bite
For listings email:
arts@NUJ.org.uk
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