The table departs.
The next day, I was meant to be talking to Lucia Osborne Crowley about her vital book The Lasting Harm, about the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and all those young victims of money and power and concealment. Sadly, a family bereavement means she cannot appear, so I tell the audience about the book and Lucia, and read a poem about speaking up in the hope it persuades a few people to buy her book.
On Sunday, I sit in a church pew to listen to Angeline Morrison, whose beautiful album The Sorrow Songs is the creation of folk ballads to covey the Black British experience. She sings with such love and activism, she cannot fail to stir a passion in the audience, a reminder of our own need to stand shoulder to shoulder as the brutal rise again.
I talk to a former England cricket captain about compassion and fast bowler Bob Willis, then watch a show about a dead cat revivified into something between Alexa and a theremin.
The final visit to the pews was for Jon Langford, punk and post-punk legend of The Mekons and The Three Johns, creators of possibly the best concept album about cannibalism. Tonight, he was leading the outfit Men of Gwent, a six piece who focus on singing songs that are almost entirely about Newport.
The weekend before, I went to see the exhibition of Mickalene Thomas’s work at The Hayward Gallery. I knew nothing of her before and left with my heart expanded with passion. On the first wall, it was written about how important love was in her work.
I saw similar words at the Noah Davis exhibition. I am reminded of the line from a biography of Leonora
Carrington, “for people who live in emotional poverty, other people’s happiness is a threat”.
All of this comes together in Laugharne: a reminder that activism that grows from love will always be a threat to those powerful people driven to dehumanise. There is no room for complacency when love is our goal.
The Ballad of the Noble Tin Plater (For Gary)
His presence in the room
Elevates the atmosphere
A sense of justice
And humanity
Activist, Tin Plater
Almost Sandinista
Badge Giver
Book Sharer
Comrade at the Bar
Life enthuser
Autodidact
Creator of possibilities
Defuser of conflict
And if all that fails
He carries a big, big stick
So he’s armed
If someone in Fountain’s
Is being a prick
Robin Ince is a comedian, poet and broadcaster. His new book, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity, is out on 1 May (Macmillan, £20). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.
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