Author: a.smith3
Liberate Create! Political Poems for Today
Last week, as part of 0FH002. Argufying: Rhetoric, Reason and Reflection, we were joined by Poet, Playwright and Creative Writing Lecturer Dr Kimberly Campanello for a session titled ‘Creative Writing for Political Activists.’ The poems below were composed during this session.
The Great White Orange Baboon
By Samuel Davis
The Great White Orange Baboon
Sits proudly in his seat
Another day
Another crime, ignored – twiddling his thumbs
The Great White Orange Baboon
Collects his thoughts for a speech
Adorning an ill-fitting monkey suit
He speaks
The Great White Orange Baboon
Has a plan
Discrimination, segregation, lawlessness
“Make America Great Again”
You Won’t Be The Underdogs Forever
By Michael Adair
If we were all liberal activists nothing would ever get done
Because if we were all liberal activists the world just couldn’t run
We’d all just sit here picketing, on our blogs or in the street
Weaving heart-left tales of how we should all eat a more artificial kind of meat
Then we’d do a Buzzfeed quiz, or maybe watch some Viners
We could say whatever we wanted, without being labelled as liberal whiners
But I feel we’d all accept that there’s no cause without conflict
And after a while we would get tired of our lefty populated nation
You see there’s no street cred in being a winner, due to the baddies being long dead
So maybe it’s good to be politically diverse, seeing the everyday horrors of the news
Anything to help me fuel my millennial liberal artist’s blues.
Liberate Review! Blade Runner 1982, A Retrospective
By Michael Adair
I’ll always remember the first time I saw Blade Runner: on a rainy October evening in 2009 as part of the short-lived Film4 ‘retro sci-fi season’. However, as a bright eyed 11 year-old, I failed to understand the cultural significance of Ridley Scott’s dark neo-noir re-imagining of a futuristic 2019 San Francisco (a setting which would go on to influence other works such as Akira, 2000AD’s Dredd, District 9, and Ghost In The Shell to name but a few).
Liberate Opinion! ‘Writing Can Make Me My Best Self’
By Will Swift
Writing is the natural and sophisticated expression of civilized society.
Writing is a form we consume on a daily basis: in books, newspapers, websites and social media. Writing nowadays is also instant. 140 characters is enough to influence the world. This is the power a good writer possesses. Ironically, it is challenging to express why writing is so important to me but I can at least try.