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Apr 3

A pleasure chatting to

@avalon_emerson

for the cover of

@Mixmag

, ahead of her gleaming debut dream-pop album as Avalon Emerson & the Charm. We spoke confidence, creative shifts, and The Algorithm. Oh, and bloghouse, obviously. 🔮✨💎 (📸: Lillie Eiger) mixmag.net/feature/avalon

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only one week left to donate to

@hajarpress

there are so few publishers doing the work hajar is doing, continuously committed to publishing voices and ideas from the margins if you can, donate here ⬇️💫

crowdfunder.co.uk

Hajar Press is an indie publishing house run by and for people of colour. Please help us raise money so we can keep doing what we do!

23h

Remembered I am literally a music journalist and managed to get to Jai Paul's blissful London show last night – a jubilant, long overdue first hometown gig for the elusive artist who we've all projected so much meaning onto; reviewed for

@FinancialTimes

: ft.com/content/4404d7

A photograph of Jai Paul on stage in London. He is standing behind a microphone stand, in sunglasses and seemingly dressed in black. Behind him, a giant image of an ammonite is projected onto the wall. Photo credit: Rob Jones

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This paragraph from

🔥

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ArtReview_

@ArtReview_

kara jackson - debut album gyal

‘We are lost in a maze of competitive, disordered, expression. Web 2.0 values less the people who created an idea, and more those who can bring the most attention to it.’ @hollyherndon @matdryhurst artreview.com/ai-art-and-the

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Former US National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson is on a quest to make a space where love and loss sit hand in hand. Read the feature in full now: crackm.ag/44I1tAz

Tara Joshi Retweeted

kara jackson - debut album gyal

@fridahalo

i enjoyed our convo so much so glad to have this piece out in the world! ty Tara and

@CrackMagazine

💜💜💜

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adored chatting with the brilliant kara jackson (@fridahalo) for @crackmagazine about candour, grief, love, who gets to be a “literary” songwriter, being a beyoncé stan, and the beauty + pain of feeling it all!!

her magic debut album is out now: crackmagazine.net/article/profil

Kara Jackson is embracing life in all its messy glory

adored chatting with the brilliant kara jackson (

@fridahalo

) for

@crackmagazine

about candour, grief, love, who gets to be a “literary” songwriter, being a beyoncé stan, and the beauty + pain of feeling it all!! ❤️ her magic debut album is out now:

crackmagazine.net

The former US National Youth Poet Laureate turned folk truth-teller talks to Tara Joshi about grief, learning from her elders and her recent debut album for the May issue

if you're a South Asian creative - across any discipline - and working on some interesting stuff, I would love to have a chat, especially if you're releasing something this year. I'm working on a few things across media, festivals and curation.

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screaming crying throwing up (did not get the Jai Paul ballot)

Support independent artists, journalists & websites. Subscribe to a Patreon or Substack. Buy the record off Bandcamp. Go to a small club show and cop the merch. The only way out is to help your favorites directly, because these major corporations only want collusion and monopoly.

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More than anything, it reflects a cynical culture of late capitalist greed run amok, fueled by tech co's & multi-national corporations run by analytics consultants trying to feed people low-cost toxic slop in the guise of "content." Solidarity to any and all fighting against it.

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Between the massive media layoffs, the looming bankruptcy of Vice, the studios forcing the writers into a strike & the rise of A.I. there's been a grotesque devaluation of imagination & creativity – during a time where it feels like people are more desperate for it than ever.

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"The music he loved [...] stressed the mutual or shared experience. Anger can be crippling when it festers in isolation. Belafonte figured out how to push anger outward by bringing others close." RIP to a true great ❤️

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Amanda Petrusich

@amandapetrusich

Apr 25

I wrote about Harry Bellafonte for @NewYorker on the occasion of his 90th birthday, back in 2017. Hard to overstate what an extraordinary artist & thinker he was — a scholar of folk song, a revolutionary, a poet, a force: newyorker.com/culture/cultur

Show this thread

thrilled to have written my first

@BritishGQ

cover: i met the super cool Rish Shah to talk about

@NetflixUK

’s ‘obsession’, representation and “the movement”, and not just playing the heartthrob. read here! 🖤 gq-magazine.co.uk/article/rish-s

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looking forward to chatting all things dancing, public space, community and more, in conversation with Emma Warren about her fantastic book Dance Your Way Home, at

@KiteFSTVL

in June as part of the

@heavenlyrecs

takeover 🧡💫

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Heavenly Recordings

@heavenlyrecs

Heavenly Recordings:

HEAVENLY RECORDINGS AT KITE FESTIVAL 2023

MUSIC AND TALKS ALL WEEKEND

- mailchi.mp/heavenlyrecord

needless to say the precarious nature of independent press is something that feels especially sad + resonant atm. I would not have the career I do were it not for the Quietus and their relentless support of the weird and the new. please subscribe if you're able 🌹

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John Doran

@JahDuran

Apr 20

My website The Quietus is in massive trouble but you can help. We need 350 new subscribers to stay alive & are offering a huge discount off our top two tiers. I explain everything here... (Please share if you're feeling it dear hearts.) thequietus.com/articles/32853

one of my favourite publishers in recent years. please do support the truly magic work coming out of Hajar if you're able to 💛

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Hajar Press

@hajarpress

Apr 21

When we set up Hajar, we wanted to build a space of beauty and possibility in a bleak and harsh world. What has grown out of it is magical. We want to keep it going, but we need your help. Please donate to our crowdfunder so we can keep doing what we do. crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-hajar-p

One to watch: Léa Sen

The French-Martiniquan multi-instrumentalist has made waves alongside Joy Orbison and Wu Lu. Now she is becoming a star in her own right

One to watch: Léa Sen

Form 696 — the Met Police's controversial risk assessment form that led to accusations of racial profiling — was officially scrapped in 2017. But new evidence suggests it never really went away. Small excl. by me for this weekend’s edition of

@guardian

‘They’re doing this by stealth’: how the Met police continues to target Black music

Exclusive: London’s force denies conflating rap with criminality, but venues accuse them of ongoing racial profiling and censorship

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Why, asks

, do we reduce trans and minority rights to questions of culture as if their impacts weren't grimly material?

novaramedia.com

The Culture War Doesn’t Exist | Novara Media

Why, asks Amardeep Singh Dhillon, do we reduce trans and minority rights to questions of culture as if their impacts weren't grimly material?

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Spitting innocence: the use and abuse of drill lyrics in court - Rolling Stone UK

Apr 19

email in bio, or shout if you're looking for pitches. thank you! ✨

and finally a weird essay I wrote about how TV helped me find company during the lockdowns – am looking to write more on TV, books, films etc too for sure: gal-dem.com/in-a-uniquely-

a feature about the racist misuse of UK drill lyrics in courtrooms, for Rolling Stone UK:

rollingstone.co.uk

Drill lyrics are being misused in courts to prosecute Black and Brown young people in the UK, as a recent case in Manchester demonstrates

an essay about Arctic Monkeys and 'timelessness' for Guardian (also interested in doing longer form reviews like this)

The 50 best albums of 2022: No 6 – Arctic Monkeys: The Car

The Sheffield quartet’s elegant, lounge-funk-inflected seventh album was an introspective, elliptical ode to a time that may only live in the mind of its frontman

recent commerical work for Vanity Fair, speaking to Rema and Debbie (def keen to do more copywriting etc):

vanityfair.com

The Savoy Hosts Rema and Debbie to Celebrate Center Stage Fairmont’s New Music Program

Musicians Rema and Debbie take Center Stage at The Savoy as Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and Abbey Road Studios launch their new program in support of emerging talents.

profiled Florence + the Machine for the cover of Rolling Stone UK:

rollingstone.co.uk

Florence + the Machine: beyond the fairy tale

Florence Welch finds herself at a crossroads. As she releases her fifth album Dance Fever, she talks relationships, avoiding fame, and managing anxiety

co-edited this series on abusive behaviour in the music industry while I was music editor at gal-dem: gal-dem.com/open-secrets/#.

some examples of what i do: a Mixmag feature on the people behind Britain's '90s South Asian Underground:

mixmag.net

A potted history of the 1990s British (South) Asian Underground

Tara Joshi traces the '90s lineage of the Asian Underground movement, speaking to key figures DJ Ritu, Sweety Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney

hi! a reminder that i'm available for work. mainly do profiles, features, criticism, writing on music, culture, politics. also avail for editing, artist bios, research, media training, event moderation, presenting (& prob other things? sure why not ask) 💗 tara-joshi.com

💗🌹

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Nadia Whittome MP

@NadiaWhittomeMP

Apr 18

For 8 years, @galdemzine gave life-changing opportunities to writers from marginalised backgrounds and platformed perspectives rarely heard in the media. Following the sad news of its closure, I’ve tabled an EDM to recognise its achievements and legacy

edm.parliament.uk/early-day-moti

Avalon's

cover mix live now tooo:

mixmag.net

The Cover Mix: Avalon Emerson

Avalon Emerson shares a DJ mix of music that shaped her debut album project Avalon Emerson & The Charm

One to watch:

mixes Amazonian rainstorms, British birdsong and uncomfortable truths on the climate crisis By

Mixing Amazonian rainstorms, British birdsong and uncomfortable truths on the climate crisis, the London rapper-producer’s richly musical work moves up a gear

One to watch: Louis VI

Bow Foodbank Ramadan Appeal | LaunchGood

Apr 4

*realise that might not have been clear, but it means the number of guests is incredibly high again, so any help is appreciated

The number of guests visiting

@bowfoodbank

each week is now close to pandemic lockdown levels. The foodbank works so hard to serve the local community; if you're able to, please consider donating to their Ramadan Appeal. More info here:

launchgood.com

Providing food for the community this Ramadan.

New

cover stars

💫 The accompanying interview with

is a brilliant read, examining the motivations and contexts around her creative shift from techno to dream pop Link: bit.ly/aemixmag

Here is

's final thank you and farewell to our contributors, all of whom made gal-dem what it was over the years. This shareable directory is full of incredible creative talent - FYI commissioning editors, hiring managers, recruiters etc! gal-dem.com/gal-dem-contri

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Beauty amid the chaos 🦋

@avalon_emerson

speaks to