Overland 254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today. Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life.
John Marnell is a researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Overland’s copyeditor. His writing has appeared in Overland, Sexualities, History Workshop Journal and the Mail & Guardian. His recent publications include Creative Resistance: Participatory Methods for Engaging Queer Youth and Home Affairs: Rethinking LGBT Families in Contemporary South Africa. In July 2018, his latest book, Seeking Sanctuary: Sexuality, Faith and Migration will be published by MaThoko’s Books.
