Migrants and Citizens
The Last Tribe (dir. Simon Glass, 2011, 70 mins). Premiered in the Leeds International Film Festival, screened at the Hyde Park Picture House, 17th November 2011. People often assume that I am Jewish because – as one of my secular Jewish friends once put it – I have a big nose, wear glasses and wave [...]
Keep Music Live
Toumani Diabate playing the kora is thrilling enough – with a bass, guitar and drums as well it’s just extraordinary. He played at the Leeds West Indian Centre twenty years ago and I got a free LP to play on my jazz show on the Chapeltown pirate (sorry ‘community’) radio. But I’d never seen him [...]
Talking
Saturday 15th October 2011: I will be interviewing Colin Grant, author of the wonderful The Natural Mystics – Marley, Tosh and Wailer at the Ilkley Literature Festival. So many great things about this book: it’s a cultural history of Jamaica, as well as an account of the Wailers’ long and troubled ascent to greatness (and Tosh and [...]
Light Night in Leeds
Wandering through the city of Leeds bumping into art and culture, or going to the things you’ve heard about via Facebook or the brochure, reminds you of what a city could be like, if only . . . My night went like this: Half an hour with my friends who are organising the Leeds Summat on [...]
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