WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged activisim, album, alternative, Anger Can Be Power, anxieties, anxiety, Cate Le Bon, collective, conviction, create, Donald Trump, Dream Wife, fat white family, featured, gun control, human ceremony, indie, jacob faber, Jay Som, julia cumming, king krule, march for our lives, MGMT, music, New York, nick kivlen, norwich open, NRA, Parquet Courts, political music, presidential election, psych, punk, Pure X, republicans, Sheer Mag, student movement, sunflower bean, Twentytwo In Blue, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, US, USA, Washington, Wolf Alice.

by Rowan Gavin

Sunflower Bean are a band who know what they’re about. Sitting down with the trio of 22 year old New Yorkers ahead of their show at Norwich Open on March 26th, it becomes immediately apparent how certain they are of their musical and political convictions. Drummer Jacob Faber, guitarist Nick Kivlen, and bassist & vocalist Julia Cumming made quite a splash with 2016’s debut Human Ceremony and its fresh-yet-eerily-familiar blend of indie, punk, psych and alternative sounds.

Having previously visited the Fine City when they supported London alt-rockers Wolf Alice, they returned to headline here for the first time at Open off the back of their entrancing second album Twentytwo In Blue, which was already making waves when I spoke to them three days after its release.

“I LIKE MY REVOLUTIONS TO BE FUN” – AN INTERVIEW WITH BEANS ON TOAST

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged activism, alternative, anti-capitalism, Beans on Toast, Bobby Banjo, Brexit, capitalism, Cushty, DIY, Donald Trump, Essex, festivals, folk, Frank Turner, free party, Giant Wafer Studios, Glastonbury, Independent Venue Week, inequality, interview, Jenna Jones, jeremy corbyn, Labour, live music, london, Manchester attacks, Matt Millership, music, music venues, musicians, Naomi Klein, No Logo, Norwich Waterfront, poverty, protests, renewable energy, royal wedding, She Drew The Gun, Skinny Lister, social media, songwriting, squats, tony blair, Tristan Ivemy, Wales, Will Varley, Xtra Mile.

by Rowan Gavin

Today, Essex-born folk singer Beans On Toast releases his ninth album, ‘Cushty’. Last night, I saw Beans play live for the ninth-ish time (if I’m honest, I’ve lost count, but the symmetry is pleasing). If you’ve been to a British festival in the past decade you’ve probably run into Beans as well – he’s the kind of musician who pops up everywhere. With a new album out every year since 2009, he’s perpetually turning up in your town on tour, or supporting one of his many musical friends, or appearing at festivals you didn’t know he was on the bill for.

ALTERNATIVE ARTS EDUCATION – A BRIEF HISTORY

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Student and tagged access, Alexandre Gurita, alternative, Alternative Art College, alternative art school fair, art, artists, arts education, Black Mountain College, Catherine Despont, communal, creativity, culture, curricula, Dylan Gauthier, education, empowerment, Free Education, freedom of expression, government, history, informal teaching, John Rice, knowledge, neoliberalism, New York, passion, Pioneer Works, policy, schools, social change, teaching, tuition fees.

by Laura Potts

Education is amazing. It encourages the growth of passion for any number of subjects, and opens doors for many to enter into the field that that passion leads them towards, where their research work is often vital to the discovery of all sorts of new and exciting things.

However, the modern system that has emerged as society has ‘advanced’ does not always prioritise the curiosity and growth that education cultivates over more material concerns such as financial gain. The increases in the various fees and costs associated with higher educational institutions and the shrinking of the creative curriculum at earlier levels often means that a passion for a subject is no longer enough. But as with any monolithic trend, alternatives have sprung up down the years.

THE UNDERCROFT – ART, SPACE AND POWER

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Student and tagged 1960s, 1970s, access, aesthetics, alternative, alternative spaces, art criticism, art gallery, art history, art market, artwork, capitalism, cave paintings, conceptual art, culture, Dada, exhibitions, Gennadiy Ivanov, history, internet, modern art, norwich, political art, popular culture, power, Renaissance, revolution, Russia, social art, space, street art, technology, The Art of Revolution, Undercroft, USSR, viewer, virtual spaces, white cube gallery.

by Laura Potts

Artistic culture and practice has changed drastically over the past few centuries. From Renaissance painting and its high-minded focus on aesthetic and documentary purpose, to the eruption of absurdist Dada work in 1915, to the stark political statements of much modern art. The aesthetics of art and its chosen themes are not the only thing that has changed though; the spaces where we encounter art have also transformed.

SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING – WHY THE NUS DISAFFILIATION ARGUMENT FAILS TO CONVINCE

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged activism, activists, alternative, Brexit, controversy, direct action, disaffiliation, EU, EU referendum, HE bill, Leave Campaign, legal support, malia bouattia, nss, NSS Boycott, NUS, nus elections, organisation, protests, referendum, rent strike, representation, Richard Brooks, rights, solidarity, student activism, student politics, student services, students, students' unions, tef, Tom Harwood, tuition fees, UCL.

by Alex Powell

Recent years, have seen a spate of referenda within students’ unions on whether they should continue their affiliation to NUS. One of the union’s most prominent critics, Tom Harwood, is running for NUS president this year. With all this going on, I feel like it’s a good time to throw my hat into the ring.

THE LABOUR PARTY, PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY, AND THE POTENTIAL FOR ALTERNATIVES

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged alternative, angela eagle, economic, government, jeremy corbyn, Labour, labour party, owen smith, politics, private ownership, state ownership, uk.

by George Laver

There is an ongoing split within the Labour Party, and it is one that will not be able to reconcile itself easily. Two trends have emerged from amongst its ranks. One is keen on maintaining a centralist position, whilst the other is determined to sweep the party further to the left – and therein lies its abject failure. In order to secure itself behind the levers of authority, it will first need to secure a majority within its own ranks and further at the polls. Even within the confines of its own parliamentary rank-and-file, it will necessarily require the submission of opinion to a “general will” of the Party, epitomised in Eagle’s comment that the party must “come together so we [they] can have one candidate”. This is designed to be able to carry it forward for any degree of credibility in the eyes of government supporters, although it loosely translates to a restriction of voice for the sake of a higher count at the ballot box.

STATE MEDIA AND THE DETERIORATION OF FREE SPEECH

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged alternative, alternative media, china, Colombia, corruption, facebook, free press, free speech, freedom of press, freedom of speech, government, Gulf War, International Federation of Journalists, John Whittingdale, journalism, journalist, Lauren Kuenssberg, media, monitoring, Norwich Radical, press, Reporters Without Borders, RSF, Russia, social media, surveillance, Syria, turkey, uk, US, World Press Freedom Index.

by Gunnar Eigener

Out of the May 5th elections the biggest story was the criticism of the coverage by the BBC and other mainstream media outlets. Particular focus of this was on BBC Question Time and the BBC Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg. This isn’t the first time that Kuenssberg has come under fire and it probably won’t be the last. A petition was doing the rounds demanding an independent review of how biased her actions may have been but has now been taken down. Additionally, the lack of coverage over the alleged Tory fraud in the last General Election has generated a sense of distrust in the BBC, an organisation that states: ‘impartiality lies at the heart of the public service and is the core of the BBC’s commitment to its audiences’.

CAN BUSINESS BE RADICAL?

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Norwich Radical in Community, Perspectives and tagged alternative, business, business model, capitalism, economy, ethical, ethical business, fairtrade, norwich, radical, theory, work, workers.

by anonymous

Business seems to be the very opposite of a radical political strategy. Businesses are, after all, the primary unit of the way capitalists view the world and are, by virtue of their definition, intrinsically linked into the capitalist system. When left-wing radicals talk about how goods and services would be distributed in a post-capitalist world, they focus on need rather than profit, and social good rather than endless innovation. In the long-term, businesses as we know them are terrible for our livelihoods, our understanding of each other as people and for the majority of the human race. However, given the distinction between short-term and long-term strategies I laid out in my last article, the question remains: can business be part of a short-term radical political movement?Continue Reading

alternative

WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING – WHY THE NUS DISAFFILIATION ARGUMENT FAILS TO CONVINCE

THE LABOUR PARTY, PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY, AND THE POTENTIAL FOR ALTERNATIVES

CAN BUSINESS BE RADICAL?

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