Ice Cream for Crow

    Watching a documentary on Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) reminded me that my critical thinking developed against a backdrop of psychedelia, a sub-culture associated not only with psychedelic drugs, imagery and music but also with critical consciousness – a state of mind where ‘the ability to recognise and analyse systems of inequality and…

It’s time

In the quiet of the night she rises slowly, careful in her movements lest she wake the man.  She moves to the curtainless window looking out to an ink blue sky.  Fiery Mars low in the East.  High above, Ursa Major’s seven stars shine bright in anticipation of the coming blue moon; a portent of…

Language matters: Social representations of Gypsy/Traveller women

First published as part of Engender’s F-Words series (July, 2020). In considering the language used to categorise and indeed denigrate Gypsy/Traveller women, an examination of the role of the media in the ‘othering’ or cultural denigration and exclusion of the Gypsy/Traveller community en masse is crucial. Creators of ‘folk devils’ and drivers of moral panics who with “a…

A new normal

  The first long, warm evening of the year, we sleep with windows ajar. Drifting into sleep, we are minded that the summer Solstice will soon be upon us and so we will begin the slow descent into the darkness once more.                          …