Culture
Art of yesterday’s newspapers
Artist Jane Couroussopoulos finds a novel use for the pile of old Guardians she keeps in her studio, turning them into works of art. Jackie Kemp visits the artist at work in newly reawakening Leith.
Summer of love revisited under Brexit cloud
So much for nostalgia. To a soundtrack of the Beatles, a newsfeed of race riots across the US, death dropped daily on Vietnam. Israel’s Six Day War with Syria, annexing The West Bank, Gaza Strip…
Different pasts, shared future
‘Every minute of every day, twenty four people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution, terror. It’s at times like these that poets speak to us and ask us to reflect.’ Gordon Munro chooses poetry…
Scotland’s lost architectural futures
Owen Hopkins’s book Lost Futures surveys the rise, fall and rise again of the reputation of British post-war architectural modernism, including iconic Scottish projects such as Glasgow’s Red Roads Flat and Hutchenstown C, the Cockenzie…
We sing a single song: For Manchester
Two years ago the poet Tony Walsh wrote and performed We Are Manchester for the twentieth anniversary of the Manchester Arena. Poetry commissioned for a different occasion now takes on searing new significance.
Seeding success: a new Paisley pattern
“In 21st century Scotland, resources of renewal are found elsewhere. Today we’re here to learn how communities are transforming town centres – with the right amount of support from public bodies and private enterprise.” Paisley…
Broadcasting on every platform – Mind the Gap!
“But positive ratings alone will not be enough to defend intelligent audiences from the suppliers of fake news, peddlers of propaganda and from chauvinist, tabloid shlock. Democracy needs the BBC to live up to that…
Widening national horizons with poetry
Maybe poetry can help us clarify our thinking about some of the important issues facing Scotland, indeed the world, today? With the help of poet Christine De Luca, Sceptical Scot sets out to explore wider…
Pinewood to Pentland
“So the Scottish studio announcement is perfectly timed to take advantage of the shift in the UK’s cultural economy away from London. It is a statement about Scotland’s own increasingly cultural confidence, independence or no.’
People made Glasgow for better and worse
The poet describes herself as ‘a resident native who senses Glasgow’s contradictions’. Kate Tough both startles and stirs, and shines a new light with a contrarian view of the famously friendly city.
Being German in Brexit Britain
“A few months ago I walked down the street talking to my mother on the phone. I spoke German. I was told to ‘f- off back to your country’ by a bystander. Never before 2016,…
Making another world possible: a tribute to Word Power Books
A book lover pays tribute to Word Power Books, the Edinburgh independent bookseller whose closure was announced this week.