Verse

Dee Dickens: Medusa

Dee Dickens (she/they) lives on a mountain in Wales with her husband and their two shedding familiars. They are a PhD student and a neurodivergent bringer of chaos. Her writing deals with what others leave unsaid in the hope that it gives someone, anyone, a voice. The Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon. - Jane Ellen Harrison I watched the moon that night as a single stone hewn from the rubble my temple, my eaving, once was, dug into the small of my back. As my hair weaved itself to nest on my face, to protect you from my eyes. As my blood hissed on tarmac. As...

Poetry: Nadia Drews

Describing herself as having been "brought up by women with house bricks in their handbags", London-based poet Nadia Drews says that she "has always known femininity with a hard edge when unclasped". Her poems, she says, are like the girls she grew up with, bleeding but bolshy. Nadia's poems have been published in various fanzines. She is a regular performer on picket lines and at fundraising gigs organised by Poetry on the Picket Line. Cassie Clusky ’s come for tea It’s okay ‘cos she’s asked her mum Her mum says ‘get home ‘fore it’s dark’ That’s when the bad lads with slavering dogs come They...

Poetry vs. Oppression: Laura Taylor

Women ’s Fightback will be featuring women poets in every issue. Our first poet in this new feature is Laura Taylor. Laura ’s poems, including the poem featured here, are sharp commentary on the struggles of working-class, especially working-class women’s, lives. ‘Life Hacks’ lampoons the advice being given to us on how to survive the current cost-of-living crisis. Laura says, “I was born into a working-class family in the North of England in 1968. I have challenged arbitrary forms of authority all my life. Obsessed with words and language since my early childhood, I believe in the power of...

Imperfect victim

She doesn’t cringe and cower, she’s not a fragile flower She picked on him and tricked him She’s not a perfect victim She tells of his coercion, he tells a different version How dare she contradict him? She’s not a perfect victim She unstable, she’s a venter, she’s known to lose her temper She pushed him and she kicked him She’s not a perfect victim You never can believe her, a drama queen, a diva, recanted when they nicked him She’s not a perfect victim Our well-established dictum is stranger than most fiction Our heroes may be lawless but victims must be flawless. • Inspired by the Amber...

Bring Your Own

Bring your own booze Bring your own excitement Bring your own rules Bring your own entitlement Bring your own germs Bring your own immunity Bring your own free pass to party with impunity Bring your own scorn Bring your own spin Bring your own speed Bring your own sloe gin Bring your own tipple that your servant bought Bring your own bottle and don’t lose it if we’re caught Bring your own self-regard Bring your own confidence Bring your own superiority Bring your own arrogance Bring your own toasts Bring your own boasts of how hard you are working at impressing your host Bring your own high...

Black culture and resistance: the Harlem Renaissance

One hundred years ago, an arts movement was forming in a mainly-black district of New York City. Later known as the Harlem Renaissance, it was primarily cultural but also inescapably political. Literature, poetry, jazz, theatre, sculpture and more articulated the lives and demands of African-Americans no longer willing to be grateful that they were no longer enslaved. O black and unknown bards of long ago. How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel’s lyre? Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes? Who...

Eireaennach

A place I lost I scarcely knew, The childhood land I never outgrew, My father’s life, my mother’s tales Of hungers, wars, workhouses, jails, The memories not quite my own To which my memories are sewn: Inextricably in Erin’s net, I am what I refuse to forget.

"Active class struggle is central to anti-racist struggle"

The Repeat Beat Poet is a hip hop and spoken word artist, broadcaster and activist. He talked with Janine Booth from Solidarity ; the whole conversation is online here . On recent events in the USA: There are shamefully still regularly extrajudicial killings of Black people in the US and across the world, but because of lockdown, the killing [of George Floyd] is a moment of vindication for a lot of activists. The protests are vital in achieving concessions from the oppressive system we’re living in, and show mobilised oppressed peoples how they can bring themselves together and collectivise...

Review: First aid for the spirit

CoronaVerses: poems from the pandemic (see here ) is a rapidly pulled together collection in a rapidly changing world. Collected over the course of a week after Janine Booth set up a CoronaVerses Facebook group, it was collated and released in just over a fortnight. In a socially-distanced world this act of creating space for the looser, deeper observation poetry and other creative arts can make to our understanding of our present situation is important. If, like me, your eyes have been glued to the news, this book is a good opportunity to step back and think in a different way. The collection...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.