Excerpts from Planet 218
Anything Here Worth Fighting For?

Drawing on his experience of growing up and becoming a writer during the Troubles in northern Ireland, and current work with young Palestinians and Israelis, Damian Gorman weighs up why the arts matter, even where lives are being destroyed.
Welsh Key Words: Tangnefedd

In our ‘Welsh Keywords’ series on the contested meanings of words in Welsh, inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords, Mererid Hopwood reflects on ‘tangnefedd’, meaning approximately ‘peace’ - from the 8th century Book of Chad to the reaction to the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the fate of minorities under Western democracy.
Peoples, Nations, States and Genocides

Mike Joseph interviews the scholar Mark Levene in the lead up to the Armenian Genocide centenary commemorations, who examines the dark heart of the nation-state and warns of the threat to minorities today.

Rethinking Welsh Patagonia

As the 150th anniversary of Y Wladfa approaches, Lucy Taylor opens up new questions about the complex relationships between the Welsh and indigenous people.

Llandudno: Down the Rabbit Hole

In a collaborative article in our ‘Retracing Wales’ series, storyteller Peter Stevenson and scientists Erin Kavanagh and Martin Bates explore evidence from submerged settlements off the coast of Llandudno and beyond, and suggest how stories such as Planet Rhys Ddwfn could have been responses to periods of traumatic upheaval millennia ago. What can these stories tell us about how to adapt to climate change?

Dark Movements: Clive Hicks-Jenkins and the Return of the Mari Lwyd

Mary-Ann Constantine previews the new Clive Hicks-Jenkins exhibition coming up in June at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, and locates it within an ever shape-shifting folk tradition as the Mari Lwyd returns in radical new form…

From ‘Miscegenation’ to ‘Black Magic Madams’

Simon Jenkins examines media sensationalism about the sex trade in Cardiff, and its racial politics from the 1919 race riots to today – and how the voices of ethnic minorities are still excluded from coverage.

Focus on...

Hannah Austin on POLITICS

Sara Rees on ART

Dylan Moore on INDEPENDENCE

Steph Power on MUSIC

Reviews

Dan Bradley reviews The Fall of Language in the Age of English

Kathryn Gray reviews In Her Own Words

Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan reviews Post-War to Post-Modern: A Dictionary of Artists in Wales and much much more