Arts

Braintax: a panoramic, hip-hop view of a turbulent world

18 November 2006
It’s not every day that you come across a hip-hop album that deals explicitly with the thoughts going through the mind of a suicide bomber, or talks frankly about how scaremongering over refugees fuels the growth of the Nazi British National Party.

The Seduction of Almighty God: a wonderful example of ‘theatre of catastrophe’

18 November 2006
The Great English playwright Howard Barker has been marginalised by the London theatre establishment - none of his dramas have been staged by the National Theatre in London.

In The Face of History | Firsts 2006 | We Shall Overcome | Innocent Voices

18 November 2006
In The Face of HistoryBarbican, central Londonuntil 28 January Emmy Andrisse’s Girls Hanging Onto Shop Railings taken just after the liberation of Amsterdam from the Nazis in 1945 is part of the In The Face of History exhibition at the Barbican in central London. The exhibition charts the history of European photography from 1900.

When Orson Welles and Macbeth went to Harlem

11 November 2006
For several weeks in 1936, people walking around the Harlem area of New York would have come across the word Macbeth cryptically daubed in glowing paints on every street corner.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist | Failed States

11 November 2006
Accidental Death of an AnarchistWritten by Dario FoHackney Empire, LondonUntil 9 December <a href="http://www.anarchistplay.com" target = "_blank">www.anarchistplay.com</a> Dario Fo’s most famous play has become a classic. It combines wit and slapstick comedy with a devastating and chilling critique of the abuse of institutional power.

Anti-war artwork by Kagan Guner

04 November 2006
The anti-war movement is the inspiration for these artworks by Kagan Guner. "When two million people marched against the war in February 2003, I felt we were one. Nobody was a foreigner in that rally," he told Socialist Worker. His work is part of the exhibition Belonging: Voices of London’s Refugees which brings together the experiences and contributions of refugees in the capital.

The State Within: a nightmare for neocons

04 November 2006
The State Within begins at breakneck pace. It cuts between rapid close ups of shrink wrap, wire and explosives leaving the dizzy impression that we’re in for another imitation of the hit US series 24.

Reel News | Discovering Leicester’s Radical Past | The Wind That Shakes The Barley

04 November 2006
Reel NewsDVD out now £6 Powerplay Production has launched a monthly DVD chronicling radical movements.

As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela - Mark Thomas | Caroline or Change

28 October 2006
As Used on the Famous Nelson MandelaMark ThomasOn tour until 14 Dec Taking its title from his latest book, Mark Thomas’s stand-up show exposes the arms industry from the inside.

Director Serge Le Péron on 'I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed'

28 October 2006
The socialist Mehdi Ben Barka was a leading figure in the national liberation movement which won Morocco independence from France in 1956. While in exile in the 1960s he continued to play a role in the anti-colonial movement internationally.

Food and Liquor - Lupe Fiasco | A Life in the Day of B19 - Soweto Kinch | Mujeres - Estrella Morente

28 October 2006
There are two things you need to know about Lupe Fiasco and his new album Food and Liquor.

London Film Festival

21 October 2006
The London Film Festival is a great opportunity to see some exciting films from around the world. Most of these will not get a general release in Britain.

Gillo Pontecorvo, 1919-2006: A director committed to change

21 October 2006
Gillo Pontecorvo, the Italian director of The Battle of Algiers, died last week. Despite the fact his last film came out 27 years ago, the tributes paid have been enormous.

Velazquez: painting the life of the Spanish empire

21 October 2006
Diego Velazquez is considered Spain’s greatest painter, "the painters’ painter" as Edouard Manet described him, and his influence on subsequent artists is beyond doubt. Painters as different as Francisco Goya, Salvador Dali, Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso have paid homage to him and painted their own versions of his masterpieces.

The Amazing Mrs Pritchard - politics as fairytale

14 October 2006
At the last general election the writer Sally Wainwright, frustrated that all of the political parties were as bad as each other, decided that she would stand for parliament.

René Burri Retrospective | Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk | Metamorphosis

14 October 2006
René Burri Retrospective 1950-2000 Manchester Art Gallery until 12 NovemberAdmission free From the Suez crisis and the Korean War, to Vietnam and Tiananmen Square, René Burri was seemingly on location for almost every major political, cultural and historical event in the second half of the 20th century. Much of his work captures the responses of ordinary people, soldiers, refugees and young people to their surroundings. His scenes of street life in Brazil are rich, expressive and naturally shot. Burri was clearly interested in the possibility of change and looked to the diversity of peoples from across the world to find its spirit. Ove

How Many Miles To Basra?

14 October 2006
How Many Miles To Basra? focuses on a unit of four British soldiers in occupied Iraq during the immediate aftermath of the war. This play portrays the moral dilemma facing British soldiers sent to fight in Iraq - how to reconcile doing "your job" with doing "the right thing" when the two are irreconcilable.