K Biswas

The much-missed Jeremy Hardy died seven years ago. In addition to his Radio 4 work, he had a column for @redpeppermag.bsky.social - here are some highlights:

Will this book make you less racist? | The Observer As Trump wages war on DEI, the psychologist Evelyn Carter says we must reject the ‘false comfort’ of colourblindness

I’m in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today on corporate America & diversity’s limitations in the face of a nativist wave.

observer.co.uk/culture/book...

Who should pay the debts of slavery? | The Observer The Tory historian Nigel Biggar mounts a contradictory defence of empire, while in The Big Payback Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder make the case for reparat...

Superb review of Lenny Henry & Marcus Ryder's reasoned explanation of reparations & Nigel Biggar's malevolent rebuttal. @bizk.bsky.social far quicker than my plodding pace but writing something along similar lines that delves more into the histories of slavery now. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

The great Alexander Cockburn, former @thenation.com columnist, died 13 years ago today. Here is a wonderful story from his father Claud Cockburn about lovelorn British diplomat Basil Murray & an ape in Republican Spain, republished in Alex’s diaries ‘A Colossal Wreck’ (@versobooks.bsky.social)

For those interested in a more in-depth dissection of Jamie Oliver & New Labour, here’s @jonathandnunn.bsky.social and I on the fabulous @cursedobjectsuk.bsky.social with @danhancox.bsky.social & @kasiatee.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/0WuB...

Jamie’s ‘Fish Stew’ song must be heard by all!

Thank you, that’s very kind - hope you’re enjoying the rest of the magazine

Congratulations John, Adrienne, and the rest of this gang - cannot wait to see what you have in store.

See my original introduction from last year reproduced below. 2024 marks a year thinking deeply about the legacy of Stuart Hall, beginning with a Red Pepper special published a decade after his death. Thanks to people like Mike, Nick Beech, Catherine & the Foundation, we all get to see these gems.

Lovely surprise to be mentioned in this @nybooks piece over the weekend reproducing a sweeping conversation between the most lucid black intellectuals to grace Britain - CLR James & Stuart Hall

www.nybooks.com/online/2024/...

Thanks to legendary BBC producer Mike Dibb for getting the ball rolling

This graphic primarily features text. The first text reads, “New Article • Current Issue,” and then it shares the title of the article: “Introduction – the Unfinished Stuart Hall.” The bottom of the graphic then specifies the author and issue information: “Kuntal Biswas • Volume 38, Issue 6 (2024)”

The second image is titled “A Look Inside,” and it features the first paragraph of the article: “In July 2000, Stuart Hall delivered a keynote lecture entitled ‘Diasporas, or the logics of cultural translation’ (or ‘Diásporas, ou a lógica da tradução cultural’) at a comparative literature conference in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia (Hall 2016). Beginning his lecture with an apology for ‘speaking in a foreign language’ and pledging to talk slowly ‘on pain of death by my translators’, Hall embarks upon a journey around the ‘Black Atlantic’s southern meridian’, interweaving the histories and fates of the Caribbean and Brazilian people – ‘translated societies’ whose experiences resonate with one another from colonisation to globalization (2016).” There is a separate segment at the bottom that says “Continue Reading at the Link in Our Description.”

Introducing this special issue on the theme of "Stuart Hall in Translation," Kuntal Biswas wrote "Introduction – the Unfinished Stuart Hall." The introduction to Volume 38, Issue 6 can be found here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I was talking to wonderful @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social
today about the existence of a glorious late-90s rendition of Bernard Cribbins’ ‘Right, Said Fred’, performed by… Maya Angelou & Jessica Mitford…!

open.spotify.com/track/3SL3Dh...

Bumped into the great John Rogers today, who signed a second-hand copy of This Other London I’m currently reading. Enjoyed a good gossip + love learning about the radical recent past of Leyton / Leytonstone (‘London’s Left Bank’)

Resonance FM won Network of the Year third year running !!

You alright, Clive…?

I wanted to draw attention to two excellent & very recent books with dedications to my friend and yours, the late great Dawn Foster (1986-2021):
- Peak Injustice by Danny Dorling
- From The Ashes by Sarah Jaffe

The New Face of British Conservatism is Black—and Female The London-born daughter of Nigerian parents presides over the ruins of 14 years of Tory rule. Can her brand of nativism-lite bring the party out of the wilderness?

I’ve just written about Kemi Badenoch’s victory for @thenation.com - what it may mean for the Conservative Party and the future direction of Britain:

www.thenation.com/article/worl...

I’m the guest editor of the current issue of @culturalstudies.bsky.social looking at the worldwide legacy of the great Stuart Hall.

You can read the entire series & my introduction here for free: www.stuarthallfoundation.org/resource/int...