In his recent performance at the 2015 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards in June, Los Angeles rapper Kendrick Lamar performed the song ‘Alright’ while standing defiantly upon a defaced police car, an impossibly large United States flag fluttering behind him. The obvious political nature of both the staging and song choice (with lyrics like ‘we hate po-po/Wanna …
View More Kendrick Lamar and the Dialectics of Performing Hip HopTag: violence
Snapshots of the Executioners
When the images of torture and abuse by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became public in 2004, what was it that shocked so many people? It surely came as little surprise to…
View More Snapshots of the ExecutionersExtraordinary Renditions: Voicing Opposition to War
Andrea Brady’s recent poem ‘Saw Fit’ and Alan Jenkins’ ‘Descent’ explicitly address the historical context of the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq…
View More Extraordinary Renditions: Voicing Opposition to War