Category: Culture

What a difference from Uganda in climate! Fort Portal is over 5000 feet above sea level, Kampala is over 4000 feet but Dar es Salaam is at sea level. The university is on a hill outside the city but, although we got a bit of a sea breeze, the humidity was very uncomfortable. Largely owing to the influence of the President, Julius Nyerere, political development in Tanzania was more advanced than it had been in Uganda but one British custom remained unchanged: the working day.

It’s been a tough few months, but I feel a bit more like myself, and although the country is opening up again the only place I want to go is to the coast.

The measures in the report do not involve wholesale change or a rewriting of the deal – and, crucially, do not cross any of the government’s Brexit red lines, with some of the proposals even echoing pledges made during the referendum and election.

Jessie described her manifesto as a “manifesto of hope”. Her message is to those who are left-behind, who feel neglected and who need something better.

A sequel of sorts, So Cold Love continues the climactic story that previous track Blew Up a Kiss started, a progression the band were keen to explore and delve into as they grow and mature past their previous experiences.

We live in a society in which all opinions are treated as being equally valid, in which ignorance of a subject is thought to be no bar to having an opinion on it, in which facts are what someone chooses to believe rather than something that has objective reality, in which everyone knows everything about everything and believes that everyone else knows nothing about anything.

Distractionnewsdistraction
socialmediadistractionmoney
distractionfooddistraction
whatifsdistractionfearsdis
tractionnewsocialmoney
distractionwhatifearsdis
iontractdistionraction
DIS …TRAC…TION

As I mentioned in the first part of Teaching in Uganda, the teachers’ wives did not work. At that time none of the couples had children living with them, they had a “houseboy” to do all the work around the house and a “shamba boy” to look after their garden. But my wife Anne could not stand the idea of such idleness. She was a nurse by profession but the school had no post for such a person.

A salute to you sir,
from one human to another.

The school had no mains water or sewage and no grid electricity. Water came up to the school by means of a ram pump placed in a nearby volcanic lake; electricity was provided in the morning and evening by a diesel-engine generator. My fridge was powered by paraffin.

It didn’t begin with uniform wearers,
armband bearers; that’s just where it ended,
with proud keyholders
to blandly wicked gas chambers.

“And I will ensure that the arts, culture and tourism are right at the heart of our revival. We have incredible talent here and we must harness that.

Arts Council England has announced 2,272 grants totalling £261,582,823 to arts organisations to help them recover from the ravages of the pandemic. Distribution across England w

The Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance (BIFF) has received a grant of £40,900 from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen.

The award from the Culture Recovery Fund will make up a shortfall in income streams derived from Live Theatre’s social enterprises, forced to close as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The starting point for this is the need to deal with rising inequality in the region, capitalizing on the region’s industrial strengths and applying them to the industries of the future, hence the focus on the climate economy and the digital and tech sector. Her aim is to train up to 10,000 people in climate industry skills, either through apprenticeships or through loans and grants to support other workers, developing a training hub for climate jobs, and providing business investment and the creation of a green industrial park.

I spoke Russian and could get by in French and German; but I had never driven anything larger than my father’s Daimler (in which I had failed my first driving test). Nevertheless, I applied and was accepted. The main driver was a mechanic who had driven heavy lorries across Australia between Sydney and Perth.

Jim Beirne, MBE marks a 21 year career milestone as he steps down as Chief Executive of Live Theatre. The composer and musician, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters from Northumbria University in 2011 and an MBE in 2012.

Hoist the flag over the food banks,
tell the world just who we are,
paint the breakfast clubbing hungry kids
red, white and blue;
then snap them all in two
to check they’re British through and through.

Longer days. Dormant
hope bubbles in heart’s well-spring.
Fountains crystal light.

“This project will help to stimulate people’s minds at a time when the pandemic has greatly affected their wellbeing and mental health, and will be a welcome main course to appease their cultural appetite.”

Or I’m sitting and suddenly realise that for the last five, ten, fifteen or even more minutes, I haven’t been there. My lungs had continued to inflate and deflate, my heart to beat, my blood to circulate, my stomach acids to carry out their natural alchemy, but I hadn’t been there. No mental activity of any kind. A body functioning but a mind stilled.

Julie Elliott, MP for Sunderland Central The Northern Culture All Party Parliamentary Group will launch its first Inquiry into what Northern Culture needs to rebuild, rebalance and recover. The Inquiry will shine a light on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Northern Culture and call for evidence from key voices and stakeholders across the […]

MWFC partnership Middlesbrough Women Football Club has teamed up with Teesside University to help support players from grassroots towards future footballing careers. The University currently runs a Football Association Girl’s Regional Talent Club (RTC), which helps to identify talented young players, while the University’s women’s football team currently competes in the second tier of the British […]

She came in peace to reclaim the night,
with her sisters, a candle and a thimble of hope,
which wept itself out under flashing blue lights.

Escaping the final harvest,
haunting a lichen-limbed nest,
the ghost apple hangs transparent
where once branches bent
laden with wanton fruit,
swollen to a pregnant glut.

Jim Walker in Red Square 1957 My brother John was at Trinity College, Cambridge so it was assumed that, after my national service, I would follow him there or go to Oxford. My mother, who was the parent who decided such matters, of course thought that she knew about Cambridge but wanted to find out […]

Striplight eyed, Eve tumbles out
to mourning’s waking arms,
home to bed’s hollow belly,
the longnight’s deadweight
gushing from her soul
into the pillow’s soft shoulder.

Crucially we came up with the concept of ‘sheep made out of sheep’. I’d been going to craft shows for years and always picked up a random needle-felting kit but I’d never come across a kit that made a virtue out of the type of sheep being crafted from its very own wool. I knew very little about sheep despite my grandma having a farm full of them! The pandemic struck and I set to work researching sheep breeds, the qualities of their wool, and which would work together well in a collection.

Two hundred years ago
this February in Rome
Keats died.
Aged 25.