Levantarse

Love the minimal vibe of this track by Bambounou Levantarse, released this year on his label Bambe. Check it out!

Stars Over Wars

Artwork: Mural by GOIN, Stars Over Wars, Grenoble, France, 2025

Great mural by GOIN (@goin.art) for the Grenoble Street Art Fest, France, Stars Over Wars. Absolutely agree!

For the Free

A short travel film by Ain Raadik, For the Free. He had this to say about it: “Shot on Super 8 film, For the Free – A Travel Vignette is a 36-second visual journey across Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Brazil, and French Polynesia. This cinematic travel short blends nostalgic textures with a curious, reflective voiceover about the meaning of freedom, exploration, and wanderlust. A poetic glimpse into the beauty of slow travel and the spirit of adventure—raw, real, and for the free.”

STILLLOVEU

Got this track by ZEP on repeat, STILLLOVEU, released this year on the EP, wtfuknow. Love the energy. Check it out!

Take care...

Artwork: Kenny Random, Take care of yourself, Padova, Italy 2025

Sometimes you just need a hug and someone to lean on.

Madleen

Artwork: Sand sculpture by Yazid Abu Jarad (@yazidabujarad), Gaza City, 2025

The freedom flotilla ship, the Madleen, with its crew of twelve people was intercepted and boarded illegally yesterday in international waters by the IOF, the crew taken to Ashod Port to be processed and then handed over into custody by the Israeli authorities to be moved to the Ramleh detention facility, with the possibility they may be permitted to fly out of Tel Aviv. The Madleen crew’s mission to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid may not have been successful, but it was a resounding symbol of solidarity and hope worldwide in its journey to break the humanitarian blockade on Gaza. In many ways it is a spearhead as further humanitarian actions to break the aid blockade by international citizens is happening with the Samud Convory from Tunisia with 7,000 plus people driving to Cairo to meet with thousands from all over the world prepared for the March to Gaza on June 12. For Gazans, the Madleen was a much needed symbol that they were not forgotten, that the world is watching and that people are prepared to act and to help them in whatever way they can to end the genocide. Palestinian artist Yazid Abu Jarad and a group of young people, created an artwork on the beach of Gaza City near the port where the Madleen was supposed to dock. For Abu Jarad the sculpture expressed his solidarity with the activists aboard the ship, a gesture of appreciation and defiance against the ongoing siege and aggression.

S.O.S.

Absolutely brilliant new track from Aaron Hibell, s.o.s. Check it out!

Watermelon

Artwork: Mural by Alice Pasquini, Molise, Italy 2025

Great new mural by Alice Pasquini for street art festival at Civita Campomarona, Molise, Italy. For Palestine.

F*** ChatGPT

Artwork: Drawing by Kenny Random, FUCK CHAT GPT, 2025

Italian artist Kenny Random (@kennyrandom) created this drawing recently. I agree completely.

We did not live silent

Image: Steel wool fireworks celebrating Ramadan in Gaza,, 2025 (source: Mohamed Al Khalidi, @m7md_vo)

Heartbreakingly beautiful words from a video by @pa_allies, expressing Palestinian voices in Gaza. It reads as a poem and the cadence of the opening lines reminded me of Dylan Thomas’s poem, Do not go gentle into that good night:

Tell them

We did not live silent

We lit up the sky

We laughed

We took care of each other

 

Tell them

We were broken

But we did not live silent

We reached for the impossible

And it was impossible

 

If I die

Tell them

We did not live silent

We sang

We taught

We learned

We grew

We messed with each other

We danced

And we danced

We made it work

We prayed for each other

We cried

We held each other

 

But tell them

We did not live silent

We resisted

And resisted

And resisted

And resisted

We bled

We stitched each other up

We leaned on each other

We fed each other

 

Tell them

We did not live silent

We told stories at night

We rode at dawn

We ran for our lives

We swam for our lives

We risked it all

We never gave up

Until the last breath

 

Tell them

We did not live silent

And we died

Free

A Meeting of Silent Threads

Artwork: Waqas Khan, A Meeting of Silent Threads, ink and acrylic on canvas, 2025

Pakistani artist Waqas Khan created this stunning artwork Meeting of Silent Threads to be featured in the exhibition Cosmic Frequencies: Consciousness and Quantum Cosmology in Art at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, May 2025. Khan wrote this about the ink and acrylic work on canvas:

“I share this work with you as a quiet offering — a symbol of peace, unity, and hope between Countries.
This piece speaks through silence. It’s about connection beyond borders, beyond conflict — where threads meet not in noise, but in understanding. We are bound by shared history, culture, language, and love. It’s time we honour that.
Let this be a reminder: art can heal, dialogue can begin in stillness, and peace is always possible.”

Captain Wayne Coon

Artwork: Paste-up by @tianooo_the_cat, Captain Wayne Coon, Vico San Domenico Maggiore, Naples, 2025

Move over Jack Sparrow! Great paste-up by @tianooo_the_cat featuring Captain Wayne Coon! Love it.

Weary

Photo: Rajab from @gaza_skate_team, Gaza City, 2025

These words hit hard from Rajab of Gaza Skate Team (@gaza_skate_team), “How weary I am from dwelling on these massacres... Where have the friends gone? Where are the children’s laughter? If only the universe would lean, even slightly, toward mercy.”

Think of Others

Artwork: Banksy, Art Attack, West Bank barrier, Ramallah, 2005

Discovered this poem Think of Others by Mahmoud Darwish; it’s beautiful, poignant and relevant.

As you prepare your breakfast, think of others

(do not forget the pigeon's food).

As you conduct your wars, think of others

(do not forget those who seek peace).

As you pay your water bill, think of others

(those who are nursed by clouds).

As you return home, to your home, think of others

(do not forget the people of the camps).

As you sleep and count the stars, think of others

(those who have nowhere to sleep).

As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others

(those who have lost the right to speak).

As you think of others far away, think of yourself

(say: "If only I were a candle in the dark").

 

(source: Mahmoud Darwish, Almond Blossoms and Beyond,

Interlink Books, 2010)

Ya Teleen

Tunisian-American singer Emel Mathlouthi shared this incredibly beautiful recording on Instagram of a song she sung in a church in Cairo called Ya Teleen (To those who are climbing the mountain). The folk song is believed to be from Galilee, possibly during the time of British occupation, and it’s said that Palestinian women used to sing this song, often changing words to encrypt messages, to their loved ones who were in prison.

Continuum

Artwork: eL Seed, Continuum, Diriyah, Riyadh, 2025

French/Tunisian artist eL Seed’s recent project Continuum involves 7 artworks spread around Diriyah, Riyadh shaped by his signature “calligraffiti”. Central to the project is eL Seed’s exploration of the nature of identity, especially what he terms “Third Culture” individuals who constantly navigate a journey of rediscovery; of straddling the past and present, tradition and evolution, where identity is this dynamic thread, a journey rather than fixed state of being. In eL Seed’s view the walls he paints tell stories of “resilience, while sculptural additions symbolize fluidity, presenting identity as both rooted and ever-expanding”. In a short film about the project eL Seed had this to say:

 “Continuum. This is a continuity of something. You know, it’s about identity. All of us, we’re complete in a certain way, but there is a layer of your identity that is not expressed. You know, because of circumstances. And then you reach a place, or a moment in your life that makes you express it. And I think me as a ‘third-culture’ kid, I felt this, you know, my Arabic culture was something that I started expressing only when I became a teenager, you know when I started learning how to read and write Arabic. I hope that a lot of people will find a reflection into this project as well. It’s a combination of different stuff. So, we have this project in the street and I created an installation in my space in JAX. The pieces in the street and the piece in the studio are related, which is like another interpretation of this concept I’m doing, mixing painting and sculpture. So, super exciting.”

Koo Jeong A's skateparks

Artwork: Koo Jeon A, OooOooO, skatepark installation, Milano, 2020

In 2015 South Korean artist Koo Jeong A was commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial to create an artwork, and the result was a skatepark sculptural installation. In consultation for over a year with skaters, kids at Shewsy Youth Club and locals who helped shape the design process, the site-specific installation was constructed at Everton in Liverpool and named Wheel’s Park. A key feature is that it was painted to glow in the dark, creating an added experiential dimension for skaters, giving them the chance to skate at night with no additional lighting. One skater said skating at night felt “like you are floating.” Jeong A’s work has previously been described as “poetry built with physical materials instead of words”. This was the second skatepark Jeong A created in an ongoing series, the first was OTRO made in rural France in 2008. Part of her inspiration was to create an artwork to reach out to a younger audience who wouldn’t usually engage with a public art installation that combines beauty and practicality. In 2020 Jeong A designed another glow-in-the-dark skatepark, this time indoors, for the Triennale Milano called OooOooO. The installation was part of an exhibition curated by Julia Peyton-Jones and Lorenza Baroncelli titled Year of Play, exploring the importance of physical interaction in an increasingly digital world.

Maybe

Artwork: Banksy, West Bank barrier, Ramallah, 2005

Poem by Nour Elassy, Gaza, 2025:

Maybe years
from now
history will tell
our story.

Maybe people
will read about
the night Gaza 
was promised 
peace, but given 
death.

Maybe they will 
say they did not 
know.

But we will know 
the truth:

They knew.

They all knew.

And they chose 
to look away.