Genocide Song - Elik Harpaz & Ayelet Ben Ishay - Disillusioned Podcast Music Session
22/08/2025
21/08/2025
Marie-Laure de Decker
Beautiful exhibition, fascinating photographs by a very empathetic photographer: Marie-Laure de Decker - @ Maison Européenne de la Photographie / MEP
Marie-Laure de Decker — L’image comme engagement
The Marie-Laure de Decker exhibition, on show at the MEP from 4 June to 28 September 2025, is the first major retrospective devoted to this major figure in photojournalism. By rehabilitating her work, the MEP is paying tribute to her by highlighting her vision and approach, which are capable of bringing together history and intimacy, and which have a particular resonance today.
She went from Paris to Vietnam, South Africa, Chad, Yemen and Jordan...
Snapshots:
Marie-Laure de Decker (1947 – 2023) was a French photographer and photojournalist whose career spanned more than forty years. She documented numerous armed conflicts as well as the major social and political upheavals of the twentieth century.
Born in colonised Algeria, she also grew up in Côte d'Ivoire and was sent to study art in France by her parents, where she started modelling and met artists, authors and photographers, including Roland Topor, who she lived with for a while.
She became renowned for her emblematic portraits of figures from the world of culture – such as Marcel Duchamp, Federico Fellini, Françoise Sagan and Catherine Deneuve – as well as political figures such as Presidents François Mitterrand, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Nelson Mandela.
From the 1970s, she started working abroad notably for the Gamma agency.
Her most memorable reports include the Vietnam War, the anti-colonial struggle in Chad, apartheid in South Africa and the resistance to dictatorship in Chile.
From the 1980s onwards, she broadened her creative field to include fashion and film photography.
From the 1980s onwards, she broadened her creative field to include fashion and film photography.
Global Sumud Flotilla
Activists from 44 Countries Plan Largest-Ever Gaza Aid Flotilla in September
A coalition of direct action groups has announced the largest attempt yet by civilians to break the siege on Gaza.
The Global Sumud Flotilla aims to launch dozens of boats carrying humanitarian aid from Spain, Tunisia and elsewhere in early September, with delegates from at least 44 countries on board.
Coordinators, organisers, and participants from the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Global Movement to Gaza, and the Sumud Nusantara have united under a common goal: to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.
On August 31st, the group are launching the "biggest attempt ever to break the illegal Israeli siege over Gaza", with dozens of boats sailing from Spain. They will meet dozens more ships on September 4th sailing from Tunisia and other ports.
They are mobilising more than 44 countries on simultaneous demonstrations and actions to break complicity in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela is among the activists from these 44 countries preparing for the “largest civilian maritime mission to Gaza” to break the siege on Gaza.
They are still looking for qualified captains and crew.
You can still APPLY NOW from here: https://registration.gmtgaza.org/apply-crewcap/
link: https://globalsumudflotilla.org/
20/08/2025
A short review of my book
On Bluesky:
from
Dave C
Retired and reading quite a lot in a quiet corner of Australia.
-
Thanks Dave in Australia!
-
Massive Attack, Out of the Comfort Zone
The Story of A Sound, A City and A Group of Revolutionary Artists
by Melissa Chemam
This book is dedicated to the history of the band Massive Attack and to their relationship with their home town of Bristol, a city built on the wealth generated by the slave trade. As a port Bristol was also an arrival point for immigrants to the UK, most notably the Windrush generation from the Caribbean in the 1950s.
Author Melissa Chemam's in-depth study of the influences that led to the formation of the Wild Bunch and then Massive Attack looks into Bristol's past to explore how the city helped shape one of the most successful and innovative musical movements of the last 30 years.
Based on interviews with Robert (3D) del Naja and others, the book examines the inner tensions between the founding members of Massive Attack - 3D, Daddy G and Mushroom - their influences, collaborations and politics and the way in which they opened the door for other Bristol musicians and artists including Banksy.
19/08/2025
Algeria's hazelnut pride
My new piece for The New Arab:
El Mordjene: The banned Algerian hazelnut spread sparking a cultural craze in Paris
El Mordjene, the Algerian hazelnut spread, sparked a Paris craze despite an EU ban, with diaspora communities & social media driving demand
(...)
Read on from this link here: https://www.newarab.com/features/el-mordjene-hunt-paris-chases-banned-hazelnut-spread
-
18/08/2025
Gaza: There is a "genocide taking place," musician Damon Albarn wanted to say
Songwriter Damon Albarn said "we cannot deny the Palestinians their existence" and told Krishnan Guru Murthy on Channel 4 that he "stands with Palestinians" as there is a "genocide taking place."
‘Together for Palestine’
‘Together for Palestine’ in London on 17 Sept.
OVO Arena, Wembley, London
6:30pm
Brian Eno and Khaled Ziada are overseeing the organisation of Together for Palestine, to brings together British and Palestinian artists at Wembley stadium in London, the iconic 12,500-capacity venue, to raise funds for Choose Love, a British charity working with 23 partner organisations in Gaza to deliver food, medical supplies and other support.
The music line-up so far includes UK artists such as Bastille, Brian Eno, Portishead (pre-recorded concert), Cat Burns, Damon Albarn, Greentea Peng, Hot Chip, James Blake, Jamie xx, King Krule, Mabel, Obongjayar, Paloma Faith, Rachel Chinouriri and Sampha, alongside Palestinian artists such as Adnan Joubran, Faraj Suleiman and Nai Barghouti.
Concert organisers include Khaled Ziada, founder and director of the London Palestine Film Festival; British actor and activist Khalid Abdalla of Kite Runner fame; and Victoria & Abdul producer Tracey Seaward.
Khaled Ziada, founder and director of the London Palestine film festival, is producing the event alongside Eno and Tracey Seaward, the film producer who also produced the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony. Ziada said: “In a world where governments and mainstream media have fallen silent in the face of genocide, this gathering becomes a chorus of resistance – where artists and communities come together to grieve, to rage and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people.”
One of the show’s executive producers is the British composer and producer Brian Eno, who said it would be a “night of music, reflection and hope” that will raise funds for families in the enclave. "What we are witnessing in Gaza isn’t a mystery, and neither is it a blur of competing narratives making it hard to understand," Eno said in a press statement.
"When dozens of non-partisan organisations like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders describe it as genocide, the moral line is clear," he also wrote on social media.
More on this soon.
-
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)