Line Langebek

When Out-Spoken Press held a MAP fundraiser back in October 2023, we featured the poetry of Haia Mohammed, a young poet in Gaza who had recently sent us some of her work. Over the course of the unfolding genocide we stayed in touch. She even joined us in the Poetry Room amid all the devastation and upheaval she was experiencing just to work on her craft.

Over the course of the year Haia continued to write on what she was experiencing. In March 2025, she messaged me saying she was unsure if she would survive the genocide and wanted her poems to defy borders, hold witness and act in service of her people being brutally silenced.

We published her pamphlet, The Age of Olive Trees, in May with all proceeds going directly to her and her family. At the same time, Goldsmiths University in London opened their Palestinian Scholarships programme, offering four Palestinians full scholarships to pursue their studies at the university. Haia messaged to say she wanted to apply for the scholarship, to come to London and write poetry that held at its centre a testimony to the violent oppression and the endurance of the Palestinian people.

Haia prepared her application under relentless bombardment, mass killings, starvation, and illness. Out-Spoken Press, together with a small committed team to whom I'm forever indebted, supported her with the tools to finish her submission. The pamphlet received critical acclaim in The Guardian and has continued to win the hearts of readers from all over the world in the space of a few months.

Please read & share the scholarship story of Gazan poet Haia,

❗️and how you can take one action now to help her and the other scholars trapped in Gaza by UK govt red tape ❗️

Photo of the panel, hosted by Tosin Otudeko (left). The other panellists are pictured left to right, Olivia Hetreed, Andrea Gibb and Line Langebek

From left to right: panel host Tosin Otudeko, WGGB Film Chair Tom Williams, Andrea Gibb, Olivia Hetreed and Line Langebek

The panellists are seated at the front of the stage while the audience looks on and listens

An inspiring event at the Garden Cinema yesterday, where we heard from three leading screenwriters + WGGB activists, Olivia Hetreed, @gibbzer.bsky.social + @linelangebek.bsky.social

They spoke about the art of ‘spinning plates’ - professionally, personally + in the sphere of activism + mentoring

The way it’s been made into a problem now is so strange to me.

‘If I die, I want a loud death’: Gaza photojournalist killed by Israeli airstrike Fatima Hassouna, who had been documenting war in Gaza for 18 months and was subject of new documentary, killed along with 10 members of her family As a young photojournalist living in Gaza, Fatima Hassouna knew that death was always at her doorstep. As she spent the past 18 months of war documenting airstrikes, the demolition of her home, the endless displacement and the killing of 11 family members, all she demanded was that she not be allowed to go quietly. “If I die, I want a loud death,” Hassouna wrote on social media. “I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group, I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place.” Continue reading...

‘If I die, I want a loud death’: Gaza photojournalist killed by Israeli airstrike

Omar El Akkad says “One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”

I think about this quote a lot.

The White House Twitter account’s dishonest & hideous doctoring of a New York Times front page describing Senator Chris Van Hollen’s meeting with a wrongly deported man with no criminal record.

The cruelty is the point. The banal, vicious, performative cruelty. Turns out ‘anti-woke’ just meant anti-decency, anti-humanity & anti-rule of law.

Supreme Court blocks Alien Enemies Act deportation of Venezuelan men The Trump administration was planning to deport a group of at least 30 Venezuelan men under a rarely invoked wartime statute before the Supreme Court ruled.

Get ready to act. Things are heating up.

wapo.st/4jCdn5B

#DoTheWriteThing @societyofauthors.bsky.social

"It seemed like a good thing to do."

The Government is considering allowing AI companies to freely use your works, unless you opt-out. This is unfair and unworkable.

Now is your chance to tell them what you think! Submit a response to their AI consultation using the guidance below.

www.alcs.co.uk/news/your-ri...

The Talk This is "The Talk" by Lava Films sp. z o.o. on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Great conversation between Magnus and Cate Blanchett. #TheGirlWiththeNeedle🪡

vimeo.com/1055567044/7...

The Talk This is "The Talk" by Lava Films sp. z o.o. on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Great conversation between Magnus and Cate Blanchett. #TheGirlWiththeNeedle🪡

vimeo.com/1055567044/7...

In other news, a plum tree captured the moon last night.

Our film is going to the Oscars. But in Masafer Yatta, we’re still being erased As the world watches ‘No Other Land,’ Israeli settlers are raiding our villages while soldiers arrest us, abuse us, and demolish our homes.

Our film is going to the Oscars. But here in Masafer Yatta, we’re still being erased - https://www.972mag.com/no-other-land-oscars-masafer-yatta-erasure/

It's...not countering if....it's....the same stuff.

Bloody Horror in Black and White: ‘Nosferatu’ Director Interviews Danish Oscar Contender (Exclusive Video) Robert Eggers and 'The Girl With the Needle' filmmaker Magnus von Horn discuss using period detail and practical effects to bring out the terror in their Oscar contenders.

Some more Eggers vs Magnus von Horn... #TheGirlWiththeNeedle🪡

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

HELLO WRITERS

No biggie. 🥸🫠

674 - The One vvith Robert Eggers Podcast Episode · Scriptnotes Podcast · 04/02/2025 · 50m

Entirely cool about the fact Robert Eggers recommended #TheGirlWiththeNeedle at the end of this Script Notes episode! 😜🌟🙏

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Study finds microplastic contamination in 99% of seafood samples The peer-reviewed study detected microplastics in 180 of 182 samples comprising five types of fish and pink shrimp

Study finds microplastic contamination in 99% of seafood samples

‘The Girl With the Needle’ Stars Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne Ready for Oscar Campaign in the Trump Era, Talk Abortion Rights: ‘Every Woman Should Be Able to Choose’ ‘The Girl with the Needle’ Stars Trine Dyrholm and Vic Carmen Sonne ready for Oscar Campaign in the Trump Era, talk abortion rights

variety.com/2025/film/gl...

Enjoy this lovely poem by @salenagodden.bsky.social !
#poem #poetry #poetrycommunity

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #766: Writing is a community. Participate in it if you can. Engage with other writers. Lift them up, and they’ll do the same. Try to go it alone, or treat other writers as rivals, and you’re more likely to sink than swim.

Save The Prince Charles Cinema The iconic Prince Charles Cinema in London’s West End future is under serious threat! We are beyond disappointed that our landlords Zedwell LSQ Ltd and their ultimate parent company Criterion Capital...

#SaveThePCC

Some of you may have read about the situation regarding our new landlord wishing to add a new redevelopment break clause, with only 6 months notice to our lease.

For now, we're simply asking you all to share & sign the petition below;

you.38degrees.org.uk/p/princechar...

A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing by So Mayer An essay on art, bodies and fascism In an era where identity politics is being weaponised against the very people it has sought to make visible, how can we reclaim complexity? In 1937 the ...

"But is it fascist?" My book A NAZI WORD FOR A NAZI THING has the answer: yes it is.

So is endlessly classifying shit, which is eugenics.

What do we do about it? My book also has the answer: make & love messy queer anarchist art to keep each other alive.

peninsulapress.co.uk/products/a-n...

My favorite scene in Magnus von Horn's devastating THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (2024), now streaming on Mubi. Cracking up at an Asta Nielsen screening!!! 🤣👒

Thank you @suchmayer.bsky.social! 🩵And Maggie. Pleased to meet you too and so happy you love the queer Asta scene! (I do too). And the film. Medusan outbursts in dark times should be on our poster. 🙏🙏

Rachel Reeves hints at support for Heathrow third runway Sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand, the chancellor tells the BBC.

"sustainable fuel" is "changing the carbon emissions from flying" so "the government would support a third runway at Heathrow"

Imagine a world where you never learned or tried anything new, you just kept pushing the button for another pellet like a rat.