Free Thinking

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New Thinking:The Innovative Shape of Poems Jun 30, 2021

Show notes

HIV's origins and colonial history have inspired the collection of poems by Kayo Chingonyi, which has been nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021. Paisley Rekdal is currently the Poet Laureate of Utah. Her latest collection of poems was inspired by Ovid. She's been thinking about where stories come from and what we mean by appropriation. Dr Nasser Hussain is interested in ‘lost’ fragments of language and in what we notice and what we ignore. New Generation Thinker Florence Hazrat studies punctuation. They join host Sandeep Parmar for a conversation about experimentation ahead of the Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Sandeep Parmar is a poet and Professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker. She has been running the Ledbury Poetry Critics scheme alongside Sarah Howe. This project encourages diversity in poetry reviewing culture, aimed at new critical voices. Ledbury Poetry Festival runs from 2 - 11 July 2021.

Kayo Chingonyi's book is called A Blood Condition.

You can find the full list of poets shortlisted for the Forward Prize at https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/

Paisley Rekdal's collection of poems, Nightingale, re-writes many of the myths in Ovid's The Metamorphoses. She has published an Essay Appropriate: A Provocation https://www.paisleyrekdal.com/

Dr Nasser Hussain teaches poetry at Leeds Beckett University. He published ‘SKY WRI TEI NGS’, a book of conceptual writing that composes poetry from IATA airport codes, and is working on an autobiographical poetic project Playing with Playing with Fire and The Life of Form.

Dr Florence Hazrat is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Sheffield studying rhetoric, punctuation and Shakespeare's use of music. She is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select academics to turn their research into radio.

This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find a playlist exploring New Research on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90

You can find more discussions in playlists on the Free Thinking programme website, featuring Prose and Poetry, and Ten Years of the New Generation Thinker Scheme.

Producer: Emma Wallace

Cornwall and the Coastal Gothic Jun 29, 2021

Show notes

Bait depicted Cornish second-home owners in a tense relationship with local fishermen. The 2019 film's director Mark Jenkin is one of Laurence Scott's guests along with author Wyl Menmuir, and Joan Passey, from the University of Bristol, where she is researching ideas about the sea as a monstrous space. Their conversation ranges from The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker via Wyl's novel The Many, centred on a derelict home in a coastal village and ideas about outsiders, to Celtic Cornish Breton connections.

In our archives and available to download, you can find a Free Thinking discussion about ideas of Revenge and Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel - about a young man brought up in Cornwall and the widow of his cousin who comes to the county. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08slx9w

Our Green Thinking playlist includes programmes exploring oceans, rising UK sea levels and the insights gained from new research. The Green Thinking podcast is 26 episodes 26 minutes long for COP 26 hearing from a range of academics looking at challenges facing the planet.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

World's Fairs and the future Jun 24, 2021

Show notes

From the Great Exhibition of 1851 to Shanghai 2010, Owen Hatherley, Emily MacGregor and Paul Greenhalgh explore visions of the future offered by world's fairs and expos with Matthew Sweet. Emily MacGregor describes the row which blew up over music commissioned by William Grant Still for the 1939/40 New York World's Fair. Paul Greenhalgh tells us about world's fairs from London and Paris to Shanghai. Owen Hatherley describes visiting an expo in Kazakhstan.

Owen Hatherley's new book is called Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances: Finding a Home in the Ruins of Modernism. He has made a film about the modernism represented in the buildings which house the London Czech and Slovak embassies as part of the London Festival of Architecture https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/

Paul Greenhalgh is the author of Fair World: A History of World's Fairs and Expositions from London to Shanghai 1851-2010. His latest book is Ceramic, Art & Civilisation. He is Director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich and a Professor of Art History.

Dr Emily MacGregor is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Music Department at King's College, London and is currently working on a project exploring The Symphony in 1933. You can hear more about the composer William Grant Still if you look up Composer of the Week

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

You can find other programmes hearing from architects and exploring architecture on BBC Radio 3 this week including Words and Music and a Music Matters report on Bold Tendencies, who host concerts in a former car park in Peckham.

Mid Century Modern Jun 23, 2021

Show notes

Peace, prosperity and formica - that's one way of describing the vision on show at the Festival of Britain in 1951. But domesticity had a radical side and in this Free Thinking conversation, Shahidha Bari talks to researchers Sophie Scott-Brown and Rachele Dini and looks at the domestic appliances selected for display in the newly re-opened Museum of the Home, talking to Director Sonia Solicari about how ideas about home, homelessness and home-making have shaped what is on show.

Museum of the Home, previously the Geffrye Museum re-opened on June 12th 2021 https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Part of BBC Radio 3's programming tying into the London Festival of Architecture. Madeleine Bunting recorded a series of Essays considering different ideas about home, homesickness, homelessness and Homelands which is being broadcast this week on BBC Radio 3 and available on BBC Sounds.

You might be interested in a Free Thinking discussion called Fiction in 1946 recorded at London's Southbank Centre with Lara Feigel, Kevin Jackson and Benjamin Markovits https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wrq03

Enid Marx, Edward Bawden and Charles Rennie Mackintosh are discussed in this episode called Designing the Future https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2mgpl

Building London Jun 22, 2021

Show notes

Stew, the name for brothels in London. A townhouse set to become luxury flats in the centre of Soho is the focus of the new novel Hot Stew from Fiona Mozley, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her debut book Elmet. SI Martin founded the 500 Years of Black London walks nearly 20 years ago. In his novel Incomparable World he depicts a bustling eighteenth century London which offers a refuge for the many black Americans who fought for liberty on the side of the British. Plus pianist and composer Belle Chen on her six original new pieces exploring London - each composition with its genesis in a field recording in the city from both before and during the pandemic. They join architects Eric Parry and Alison Brooks, and presenter Laurence Scott, for a conversation about the development of London, as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Alison Brooks is one of the judges for this year's Davidson Prize Exhibition: a digital showcase of architects’ solutions to ways of living in a post-pandemic world. Eric Parry has been thinking about the changing city skyline.

Fiona Mozley's novel called Hot Stew is out now, as is Incomparable World by SI Martin - part of the Black Britain: Writing Back series of books chosen by Bernadine Evaristo for republishing.

You can find out more about the music of Belle Chen here - https://www.bellechen.com/

The London Festival of Architecture runs throughout June with events online and around the city https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/https://www.alisonbrooksarchitects.com/https://www.ericparryarchitects.co.uk/

On BBC Radio 3 Essential Classics is broadcasting five classic choices of music composed for particular buildings. Words and Music inspired by architecture features readings by Marilyn Nnadebe and Henry Goodman, from writers including Caleb Femi, Marwa al-Sabouni, Susanna Clark, Thomas Hardy, Andrew Marvell, Adrienne Rich, and music from Hildegard of Bingen to Iain Chambers. Music Matters explored buildings, acoustics, and music, looking at Bold Tendencies and the former car park they use as a venue in Peckham, in London.

Producer: Emma Wallace

Masks Jun 17, 2021

Show notes

From Greek tragedy to Covid conspiracies via LGBTQI activism in Uganda, artist Leilah Babirye, classicist Natalie Haynes and BBC correspondent Marianna Spring join Matthew Sweet to explore the many roles of masks.

Leilah Babirye's first solo exhibition in Europe - Ebika Bya ba Kuchu mu Buganda (Kuchu Clans of Buganda) II - is at the Stephen Friedman Gallery, London until 31st July. Pandora's Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes is now out in paperback. You can hear Natalie sharing her musical choices with Michael Berkeley on Private Passions on BBC Radio 3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnv3 And Natalie discusses the legacy of the Trojan War in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000bg2k

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Displacement Jun 16, 2021

Show notes

Are you coming back? That is what potter Edmund de Waal was asked by readers when he published his best-selling book about his family's refugee history The Hare with Amber Eyes. It's not a question he had easy answers for. In Refugee Week, Anne McElvoy and her guests, Edmund de Waal, Frances Stonor Saunders and Fariha Shaikh look at what it means to have to move your family and belongings - from the Jewish people who fled from central Europe to the colonial settlers of Charles Dickens's novels.

Edmund de Waal's latest book is called Letters to Camondo. You can find a recent series of Radio 3's The Essay De Waal's Itinerant Pots available on BBC Sounds. If you want to hear the conversation between him and Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk in the Free Thinking studio - check out our archives all available to download as Arts & Ideas podcasts. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033cmt3

Frances Stonor Saunders has published a history of her family's travels from Romania, to Turkey, Egypt and then Britain in The Suitcase: Six Attempts to Cross a Border You can hear Frances Stonor Saunders discussing American Abstract Expressionist Art with novelist William Boyd in the Free Thinking archives https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048m2v5

Dr Fariha Shaikh is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which choses ten academics each year to turn their research into radio. She is a senior lecturer in Victorian Literature at the Department of English Literature at the University of Birmingham.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Nadifa Mohamed, Gentle/Radical, Dylan Thomas Jun 15, 2021

Show notes

A Somali man arrested for murder in 1950s Cardiff inspired the latest novel from Nadifa Mohamed. She talks to Rana Mitter about uncovering this miscarriage of justice in a newspaper cutting with the headline, "Woman Weeps as Somali is Hanged". On stage at the National Theatre in London, Michael Sheen, Karl Johnson, and Siân Phillips lead the cast in a production of Under Milk Wood, so we look at the craft of Dylan Thomas's writing and talk to Siân Owen about her framing of the story for the National Theatre stage. And we hear about the links between art and community demonstrated by the Cardiff collective called Gentle/Radical who've been nominated for this year's Turner Prize, and look at the work on show in Artes Mundi 9 at the National Museum, Cardiff, Chapter Arts Centre, and g39.

Nadifa Mohamed's novel, out now, is called The Fortune Men. You can find her discussing the writing life alongside Irenosen Okojie in the Free Thinking playlist called Prose and Poetry - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh

Under Milk Wood runs at the National Theatre in London from 16 June–24 July 2021.

An exhibition of work by Gentle/Radical will be held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry from 29 September 2021 - 12 January 2022, as part of the UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations. The Turner Prize winners will be announced on 1 December 2021.

The Artes Mundi 9 Prize exhibition is now open at the National Museum Cardiff, Chapter Arts Centre, and g39 until 5 September. The prize winner is announced on 17 June 2021.

BBC Cardiff Singer Of The World 2021 is taking place between 12 and 19 June in Cardiff, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.

Producer: Emma Wallace

How anthropology helps us understand the world Jun 11, 2021

Show notes

"Tunnel vision is deadly. We need lateral vision. That is what anthropology can impart: anthro-vision." So says renowned economist GillianTett, who trained as an anthropologist. She joins Anne McElvoy along with Tulsi Menon, who trained in anthropology and now works in advertising, for a debate about what the discipline offers business. We look back at the history of anthropology with Frances Larson, author of a new book about forgotten women anthropologists, and a previous book which looked at the West's obsession with severed heads. And we explore the way the discipline of anthropology is changing, talking to Faye Harrison - Professor of Anthropology at Illinois and the editor of Decolonising Anthropology.

Anthrovision: How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life by Gillian Tett, Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times, is out now. Frances Larson's books are titled Undreamed Shores: The Hidden Heroines of British Anthropology and Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found.

In the Free Thinking archives you can find a discussion about Family Ties and reshaping history - hearing about Joseph Henrich's work on WEIRD - Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic and ideas about kinship https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mjt2

In the Nayef Al Rodhan 2020 discussion with shortlisted authors Rana Mitter talks to Charles King about his history The Reinvention of Humanity: A Story of Race, Sex, Gender and the Discovery of Culture which tracks the work of Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Ella Deloria and Zora Neale Hurston https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n0bv

The Free Thinking Festival discussion 20 Words for Joy ... Feelings around the world brought together Veronica Strang, Aatish Taseer and Thomas Dixon https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004ds4

Producer: Eliane Glaser.

How anthropology helps us understand the world Jun 11, 2021

Show notes

The Free Thinking Festival discussion 20 Words for Joy ... Feelings around the world brought together Veronica Strang, Aatish Taseer and Thomas Dixon https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004ds4

Producer: Eliane Glaser.

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