Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s SPACE issue. From the very small to the enormity of our imaginations, essays grow from the furtive earth-bed of mushroom forests to the stars. Granville Carroll’s afro-futuristic cover artwork “Becoming” places us in space. John Angerson provides the obligatory rocket-propelled photos. Matilde Gattoni reminds us that one’s freedom to explore space can suddenly be taken away. The connection with space doesn’t stop there. Melissa Tuckman’s aptly titled poem “Space Junk” connects space debris to modern living. A new section on New Nature Writing probes the world beyond our urban confines. In the second outing for Decolonising Travel, there are excruciating, painful stories, sexual imaginings in the steam room, and personal reflections on historical ties to oppression; all whilst giving writers who have come through VONA/Faith Adiele’s writing programme space to share their work. We finish the issue with a stroll through London — the most ethnically diverse world capital — through the lens of Books Editor Nicolas D. Sampson.
...As Russia continues to lay siege to the offices, archives, and staff of human rights organisation Memorial, we share this documentary that explores the origins of one of the last bastions of resistance to oppression in the country. Made by TV Rain, prior to its closure following the onset of the war, this documentary features interviews with key figures that stood at the foundation of Memorial, and others who have championed its work since. The struggle to establish a robust civil society under the pressure of increasing authoritarianism has been a common thread throughout Russia’s history and is no less relenting now. Whilst the collapse of the soviet union presented an optic that freedoms would follow, the film argues that that chance was missed almost immediately.
...