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Category Archives: Culture
The Mathematics of Survival
Poetry gives our language the wings to fly and in difficult times we need strong wings. Starting with just the alphabet, the poetic form allows our ideas to soar. Just like those in our previous anthologies, the student poems in … Continue reading
Posted in NewVIc, Poetry
Tagged English PEN, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, Poetry, student voice, The Mathematics of Survival
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More fictional dystopias
Reading Dystopias offered an introduction to the genre of dystopian fiction through 4 classic dystopian novels. Here are four more which are also well worth reading. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953) [211 pages] Fahrenheit 451: The temperature at which … Continue reading
Abdellatif Laâbi: attesting against barbarism.
The brilliant Moroccan poet, novelist and playwright Abdellatif Laâbi is the epitome of the engaged writer. Born in Fez in 1942, he studied at the University of Rabat and was one of the founders of the literary magazine Souffles in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, Poetry
Tagged Abdellatif Laâbi, citizenship education, English PEN, France, hope, I attest, Morocco, Poetry, Solidarity, terrorism
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Theodore Zeldin on ‘what is worth knowing?’
What is worth knowing? It’s a good question, given how much there is to know and the impossibility of knowing more than a tiny fraction of the total. Theodore Zeldin’s latest collection of essays, ‘The hidden pleasures of life’ (Quercus, 2015) … Continue reading
Instinct, heart and reason – Daniel Pennac on the refugee crisis.
The popular French writer and teacher Daniel Pennac, author of Chagrin d’école (translated as School Blues) and Les droits du lecteur (The Rights of the Reader) amongst others, has written a powerful essay on the refugee crisis for a book … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Politics, Reviews
Tagged asylum seeker, Daniel Pennac, France, Instinct Heart and Reason, La Cimade, migration, refugee, xenophobia
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From ‘Recovery’ by Rabindranath Tagore
from Recovery – poem no.10 from arogya by Rabindranath Tagore (1941) Lazily afloat on time’s stream, My mind turns to the sky. As I cross its empty expanses Shadowy pictures form in my eyes Of the many ages of the long past … Continue reading
