Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-08-20 i The Big Issue

In recent weeks we have seen local lockdowns imposed at a few hours’ notice in cities across the UK. It is a reminder that the Covid crisis is far from over – ›luctuating infection rates around the country mean uncertainty for all of us. Our vendors have been warmly welcomed back by their customers, but we have seen how precarious that return is: from Leicester to Aberdeen, as city streets empty of people, Big Issue vendors in di›ferent parts of the country have been unable to sell the magazine for safety reasons. Our frontline teams across the country are keeping in contact with all our vendors on a regular basis, and are poised to resume the contingency measures that kept so many going through the first lockdown, with financial and…

‘SPACE AND NATURE ARE A NEED, THEY ARE NOT A LUXURY’ Award-winning architect Amanda Levete says the crisis has revealed that long-term individualism doesn’t work. It’s time to see ourselves as a human community sharing one planet We cannot unknow what has happened, we cannot ignore the risks our future holds and we cannot go back to normal without reflecting deeply. This pandemic has raised overwhelming existential issues – issues around race, inequality and the environment. But it has also revealed the breathtaking power of collective responsibility and shown that radical change is possible. With the entire office working from home, each of us has established our own rhythm to suit our personality and our circumstance. It has bought a new balance to our lives and given us more control…

“It has become more difficult for me to go out after having been in lockdown for months, and the inspiration to paint has also been eroded away,” says frequent Street Art contributor Christie. “I am desperate to find my inspiration again. The Big Issue continues to be a great support. I also make sure to keep supporting the vendors by buying an issue every week.” Christie’s latest artwork was inspired by our recent Letter to My Younger Self interview with singer Mica Paris. “She spoke about her background and her struggle to succeed in her artistic career,” says Christie. “Not only was it a story that I could relate to, but also it was like a friend giving me a pep talk, to keep going, not give up and believe…

01 Yardie by Victor Headley Probably the most realistic piece of fiction you will ever read. These gangsters were the cold-blooded inspiration for many of today’s vicious street gangs. Yardie has inspired so many non-fiction writers that it deserves a special place in my true crime collection. 02 Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden When it comes to narcos, this is the father of all books. Published during the aftermath of Pablo Escobar’s rule of terror in Colombia, it exposes the full extent of his bloody reign and provided the inspiration for the Netflix series. 03 The Iceman by Philip Carlo Welcome to the real world of a mob hitman. Carlo perfectly encapsulates the evil, detached world of a criminal with no soul who did the New York mob’s dirty work…

A hand up... Our sellers BUY the magazine for £1.50 and sell it for £3, keeping the difference. Not a handout… Vendors earn a legitimate income, and gain valuable social and employability skills. With your support now, we will continue to do so once the crisis has passed. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers to tackle social and financial exclusion. Prevention… Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

MUSEUMS The reopening of the V&A in London and Dundee Liberating millions of exhibits from lockdown at last, the world’s largest museum of design – as well as its much newer little sister in Dundee – are both reopening at last this month, albeit for pre-booked visits only (entry remains free). The V&A London is open now, with the exhibitions Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk and Filthy Lucre: Whistler’s Peacock Room Reimagined set to reopen from August 27. The V&A Dundee meanwhile reopens on August 27 with the exhibition looking at the life and work of fashion icon Mary Quant. vam.ac.uk, vam.ac.uk/dundee MUSIC Beyoncé’s new visual album hits Disney+ If it was a coincidence that Hamilton arrived on the streaming service at the height of a discussion about racism, then Disney…

VENDORS: Not all vendors have been returning at once. Health issues mean some are shielding and areas of the country may be subject to short-notice localised lockdown restrictions. We will continue to support vendors who need help until they can start selling again. PPE: Safety is key, we do not want to risk any vendor or customer’s health. So we have provided ‘Welcome Back Packs’ for each vendor that include masks, gloves, sanitiser and wipes. Vendors will also be given waterproof bags to safely store magazines. PITCHES: Some pitches may have moved, depending on local safety measures. A large number of vendors will now be offering contactless payment, but they will all continue to accept cash – there is no indication that handling cash or magazines will transmit the disease,…

I twitched. One thing that a lot of people seemed to agree was a ‘silver lining’ during the lockdown was the way that nature immediately rushed in to fill the gap left by the lack of human activity. You no longer had to tune into Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day to hear wild bird calls. They were all around us. The most haunting sound I heard during the confinement was the call of a male hen harrier in a nearby field while I was on a walk one day. Usually hen harriers are only seen up on remote moorland. This was next to a normally busy road. I’d say it’s “unprecedented” if I wasn’t so heartily sick of hearing that word. And all over the world there were similar…

The word ‘unique’ get bandied about a lot in the literary world, but this week we have a book that’s genuinely unlike anything else I’ve ever read. Even trying to describe XX by Rian Hughes is virtually impossible, but here goes. It’s a 983-page hardback graphic novel about first contact with aliens that manages to make questions about the nature of existence and groundbreaking elements of typography and design part of the DNA of the story. The author is a graphic designer, illustrator and comic artist as well as a writer, but he hasn’t attempted anything like this before. As a fan of science fiction I love first contact stories and have read quite a few, but this had ideas bursting out of it that I’ve never come across, and…

Sputnik Available on digital platforms from August 14 If the star of this unsettling Russian sci-fi fable seems familiar, it might be because Oksana Akinshina had a crucial role in the climax of 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy. There she was a blonde teen orphan staring at a home invader – an ashen Matt Damon, belatedly confessing to murdering her parents – and weighing up whether he was a man or a monster. In Sputnik, the grown-up Akinshina finds herself in a weirdly comparable situation. It is 1983 and she plays a Moscow therapist named Tatyana, whisked away to a remote containment facility by a gruff general. There she is tasked with assessing cosmonaut Konstantin (Pyotr Fyodorov), the survivor of both a mysterious encounter in space and a recent rocky landing.…

The Big Issue’s links with Jarvis Cocker go back 25 years. We have long flown the flag for Pulp, and it’s gone both ways. Jarvis’s interview with David Bowie for The Big Issue in 1997 is a piece of legend, and one that we celebrate through the years. Jarvis remains one of Britain’s most creative and fascinating cultural voices, a man who, in a few lines, can effortlessly articulate state-of-the-nation truths. It’s a joy to have him take over The Big Issue this week. Even though he’s been busy releasing the rightly acclaimed Jarv Is... album Beyond the Pale, he still found time to put together this remarkable edition. And it’s no surprise that his deep dive into what lockdown meant for thinking and creativity spins off in arresting ways.…

TIME TO THINK (AND RETHINK) When a whole global system shudders to a halt, it gives the opportunity to rethink how that system could work differently when it restarts. On pages 12 to 17 some of today’s most provocative and original thinkers present their ideas on how to rewrite the Operator’s Manual for Planet Earth. TIME TO HELP OUT One of the paradoxes of lockdown has been how enforced isolation has somehow brought us closer together as a society. On pages 18 and 19 we bring frontline reports from people stepping up to the plate to provide the essentials of life to members of their community: food and music (though not necessarily in that order). TIME TO HIBERNATE What did Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family do when the pandemic…

I’d wanted to be in a group from being really, really young, probably from around eight. I used to watch The Monkees TV show and The Beatles films on Boxing Day – they often had them on then – and that just filled my head with the idea of being in a group. I was a fairly shy kid, so the idea that you could have a band who were a gang and they all lived together was very exciting to me. And eventually, by 16, I’d managed to actually persuade some people to be in a band with me. I recently came across an old school exercise book from when I was 16, so I know exactly what I was focusing on then. It has a plan for the…

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t become a GP. Would I have been happier? Less stressed? Healthier? Still, I did. And to be honest it comes as a bit of a relief. Because I love it. For me, it is simply the most exhilarating and humbling way to spend a career. I mean, every day I get the privilege to peer through a window that you choose to hold up to me. To peer into your life. And I hope, to try and make it better. Happier. Healthier. And because we all have different windows to hold up it means that every single 10 minutes, I can see a totally different world. Your world – and in it, one of the things most of us hold…

PITCH: High Row, Darlington Tuesday-Saturday, 8am-2pm When I was in lockdown I was itching to get back out on my pitch. It was a struggle but The Big Issue helped a lot with vouchers and bits and bobs. But since I’ve been back out it’s been slow – it’s starting to get there now, getting better, busier. I feel safer for having the PPE, you just need to have it. I was a bit wary about coming back and handling money. Tracy in The Big Issue office offered me the card machine and I think that it’s going to be a lot easier to now I have that. She even went out of her way to help me set everything up so I was ready to sell with it. I…