Liberty Martin’s cultural highlights

Liberty Martin is a Creative Writing Master of Studies student at the University of Oxford. Her short story Bleach was highly commended for the 4thWrite Short Story Prize in 2023. She is currently working on her first novel.

Photography: LMK WHEN U REACH by Bernice Mulenga at Auto Italia, London

For the past decade, British-Congolese artist Bernice Mulenga has dedicated themself to recording Black and brown queer nightlife in London. Mulenga photographs these moments, where the crowd becomes a congregation and the meeting of bodies become communion, like glimpses of memory rather than mere documentation. My favourite piece of the exhibition had to be the massive, floor-to-ceiling image of someone in a durag getting low. It dominated the first wall you see as you walk in, and what a way to let someone know you’ve arrived.

https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/gallery/35726/6/bernice-mulenga-lmk-when-u-reach

Album: Forever, Ya Girl by KeiyaA (2020)

This album found me the summer that I graduated. I was living in New York at the time, and every month I had to scheme how I was going to make rent. So you can imagine how I felt when I heard the lyrics, ‘Gone for so long/I can barely afford to eat much more red meat.’

KeiyaA’s debut album Forever, Ya Girl is as raw as it gets: she wrote, produced and released the album herself, looping harmonies, samples and spoken word into a sonic cocoon. There’s an honest, tender roughness to KeiyaA’s production, vocals and lyrics that slice into me every time I listen. And within that cathartic pain where KeiyaA ruminates on loneliness, weariness, and betrayal, she still finds the space to heal. ‘Hvnli’, the song that I quoted earlier, ends with: ‘I can barely afford to eat/But my love is heavenly.’

KeiyaA’s second album, hooke’s law, was released on 31 October 2025.

https://keiyaa.bandcamp.com/album/forever-ya-girl-3

Book: Boy Parts by Eliza Clark (2020)

My favourite book that I’ve read this year. The writing is energetic and bawdy from the get-go, and I can’t lie, a hundred pages in, I thought, ‘Is there any point to this?’ But then the point absolutely arrived. Without giving away too much, I can say that Eliza Clark explores gendered power dynamics, sexuality and violence in a way that is both gripping and thoughtful. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into her next novel, Penance (2023) and her short story collection, She’s Always Hungry (2024), the title of which I relate to a little too much.

Boy parts published by Faber & Faber

Video series: Under the Cover

For once, the Instagram algorithm was useful and introduced me to this lovely video series. Under the Cover interviews writers and booklovers about their favourite literature through rapid-fire questions. My favourite thing about the series is that they don’t just interview famous authors, but the people who work with books as well, like librarians and independent booksellers. It’s a simple idea executed in such a charming way – before you know it, you’ll be scrolling all the way to the bottom of their feed.

https://www.instagram.com/underthecover.books/

Cinema: Brixton Community Cinema

I first encountered Brixton Community Cinema under the stairs that lead to Platform 1 of Brixton train station. Underneath the steps was scaffolding that created a shelter for a makeshift movie theatre. On one side were tiered stands for seating and on the other was a projector showing an independent film on a simple screen. People huddled on the stands or crouched to peek through the scaffolding. It was wonderful. Absolutely anyone passing along Atlantic Road could stop to watch the film, which is the spirit of Brixton Community Cinema – everyone should have access to the arts. Run by volunteers, the film club has screened independent and foreign films in a myriad of locations, from the Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva) to the BFI to a butcher’s shop (shout-out to Michaels Meats).

https://brixtoncommunitycinema.com/

My favourite WritersMosaic author

Can I be cheeky and choose two? Professor Vincent Brown’s work on Tacky’s Revolt, one of Jamaica’s biggest slave rebellions, has been essential for writing my novel. Kam-Bu is criminally underrated; his song ‘Are You On?’ is incredible. Listen to it with good headphones and you’ll see what I mean.

Liberty Martin

Liberty Martin is a Creative Writing Master of Studies student at the University of Oxford.