Keith Kahn-Harris
@keithkahnharris.bsky.social
Author. Sociologist. Senior Research Fellow at Institute for Jewish Policy Research and Lecturer at Leo Baeck College but here in a personal capacity. Interested in metal, Jews and much else. https://linktr.ee/keithkahnharris
I'm supporting this fundraising campaign by JW3 London. There aren't many Jewish venues whose default response when I suggest launching my most recent book with Palwin cocktails and a museum of crap Judaica would be an enthusiastic 'yes'. Chuck them a quid or 2.
www.charityextra.com/jw3/keithkah...
www.charityextra.com/jw3/keithkah...
Keeping JW3 the safe home of Jewish culture and conversation - Keith Kahn-Harris
www.charityextra.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I'm supporting this fundraising campaign by JW3 London. There aren't many Jewish venues whose default response when I suggest launching my most recent book with Palwin cocktails and a museum of crap Judaica would be an enthusiastic 'yes'. Chuck them a quid or 2.
www.charityextra.com/jw3/keithkah...
www.charityextra.com/jw3/keithkah...
Looking forward to speaking at this event in Leipzig on Sunday
November 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Looking forward to speaking at this event in Leipzig on Sunday
Observing reactions to Mamdani's victory in NYC and thinking back over his campaign, 1 thing's clear: In a broad church party like the Democrats (or Labour in UK), liberals are no less resentful about voting for 'their' candidate when they come from a different wing of the party than leftists are.
November 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Observing reactions to Mamdani's victory in NYC and thinking back over his campaign, 1 thing's clear: In a broad church party like the Democrats (or Labour in UK), liberals are no less resentful about voting for 'their' candidate when they come from a different wing of the party than leftists are.
Satire: I used AI for a tricky bureaucratic task. It performed it so well that I am really confident that use of AI will lead to a future where all of us have more leisure and will have freedom to live more creative lives. I'm sure that's the morivation behind those rolling AI out.
October 28, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Satire: I used AI for a tricky bureaucratic task. It performed it so well that I am really confident that use of AI will lead to a future where all of us have more leisure and will have freedom to live more creative lives. I'm sure that's the morivation behind those rolling AI out.
Reposted by Keith Kahn-Harris
...kind of blows my mind now.
Here is @keithkahnharris.bsky.social making sense of an album that is, by any sane rubric, very hard to make sense of:
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
Here is @keithkahnharris.bsky.social making sense of an album that is, by any sane rubric, very hard to make sense of:
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
All this and Ian McShane too: Grace Jones' Slave To The Rhythm at 40 | The Quietus
Keith Kahn-Harris still doesn't quite know what to make of an audaciously experimental, sometimes problematic Grace Jones (& ZTT) LP.
thequietus.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:08 AM
...kind of blows my mind now.
Here is @keithkahnharris.bsky.social making sense of an album that is, by any sane rubric, very hard to make sense of:
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
Here is @keithkahnharris.bsky.social making sense of an album that is, by any sane rubric, very hard to make sense of:
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
I've never written before about being a Grace Jones fan, so it was great to have the opportunity to write about the brilliantly bonkers 'Slave to the Rythm' album for @thequietus.com.
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
All this and Ian McShane too: Grace Jones' Slave To The Rhythm at 40 | The Quietus
Keith Kahn-Harris still doesn't quite know what to make of an audaciously experimental, sometimes problematic Grace Jones (& ZTT) LP.
thequietus.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:54 AM
I've never written before about being a Grace Jones fan, so it was great to have the opportunity to write about the brilliantly bonkers 'Slave to the Rythm' album for @thequietus.com.
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
thequietus.com/opinion-and-...
I have no better idea than anyone else what this peace deal will bring. One modest hope for those of us outside I/P though, is that it will give some space for the temperature of 'the discourse' to drop a few notches. We've been in crisis mode for 2 years and that often shuts off reflection.
October 9, 2025 at 9:43 AM
I have no better idea than anyone else what this peace deal will bring. One modest hope for those of us outside I/P though, is that it will give some space for the temperature of 'the discourse' to drop a few notches. We've been in crisis mode for 2 years and that often shuts off reflection.
Reposted by Keith Kahn-Harris
Their fourth album may have been born under punches, and may still raise questions over its authorship for the band’s exceptional rhythm section – but it hangs together perfectly, and it never seems to age.
Many Happy Returns to #TalkingHeads' Remain In Light, which turns 45 today
buff.ly/msIf9ER
Many Happy Returns to #TalkingHeads' Remain In Light, which turns 45 today
buff.ly/msIf9ER
October 8, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Their fourth album may have been born under punches, and may still raise questions over its authorship for the band’s exceptional rhythm section – but it hangs together perfectly, and it never seems to age.
Many Happy Returns to #TalkingHeads' Remain In Light, which turns 45 today
buff.ly/msIf9ER
Many Happy Returns to #TalkingHeads' Remain In Light, which turns 45 today
buff.ly/msIf9ER
I had the great pleasure of attending the opening night of Black Sabbath: The Ballet a few weeks ago. Here's something I published about it. Really worth seeing and it's touring the UK soon. (article free with registration)
www.thenewworld.co.uk/keith-kahn-h...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/keith-kahn-h...
Black Sabbath with attitude
Carlos Acosta’s ballet celebrates a band that is woven into Birmingham’s cultural soul
www.thenewworld.co.uk
October 6, 2025 at 9:14 AM
I had the great pleasure of attending the opening night of Black Sabbath: The Ballet a few weeks ago. Here's something I published about it. Really worth seeing and it's touring the UK soon. (article free with registration)
www.thenewworld.co.uk/keith-kahn-h...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/keith-kahn-h...
One bitter irony: There has been a lot of loose talk in recent years that British Jewish schools and synagogues are forced to have armed guards. That's actually incredibly rare, although visible security certainly is the norm. But from now on? I guess we'll see....
October 2, 2025 at 8:31 PM
One bitter irony: There has been a lot of loose talk in recent years that British Jewish schools and synagogues are forced to have armed guards. That's actually incredibly rare, although visible security certainly is the norm. But from now on? I guess we'll see....
Well, it took longer than many of us expected, but in the end it happened. Let's try and not turn the horror in Manchester into an opportunity to advance any and every agenda.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
If British Jews are attacked, respect our dignity – and keep your agendas to yourself | Keith Kahn-Harris
I dread the cacophony from right and left on how we should react to antisemitism. What’s important is supporting our survival as a community in the UK
www.theguardian.com
October 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Well, it took longer than many of us expected, but in the end it happened. Let's try and not turn the horror in Manchester into an opportunity to advance any and every agenda.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Scared for what remains of American democracy right now. And the wave that's coming will reach these shores too.
September 10, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Scared for what remains of American democracy right now. And the wave that's coming will reach these shores too.
Last Sunday I spoke at a conference in Birmingham and managed a brief side trip to this place of pilgrimage. Consider this a teaser for something exciting I can't talk about publicly yet....
September 9, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Last Sunday I spoke at a conference in Birmingham and managed a brief side trip to this place of pilgrimage. Consider this a teaser for something exciting I can't talk about publicly yet....
On a train, listening to music and thought I'd check out the new David Byrne album: I really think that the happiness he found in his middle and later years hasn't been a good thing for his art.
September 7, 2025 at 10:15 AM
On a train, listening to music and thought I'd check out the new David Byrne album: I really think that the happiness he found in his middle and later years hasn't been a good thing for his art.
He's going to defend Cradle of Filth's employment contracts.
He's making an announcement tomorrow afternoon.
What's the announcement? Wrong answers only
What's the announcement? Wrong answers only
September 2, 2025 at 6:29 AM
He's going to defend Cradle of Filth's employment contracts.
This was an interesting podcast to be interviewed for: My attempt to explain where Diaspora Jewish communities are currently dealing or not dealing with the Gaza war
www.patreon.com/posts/voices...
www.patreon.com/posts/voices...
Voices From Gaza 2 - 'Our sheer importance is not good for us. We need to recover a sense of mundane, every day Jewishness' | Ewan MacKenna
Get more from Ewan MacKenna on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:53 AM
This was an interesting podcast to be interviewed for: My attempt to explain where Diaspora Jewish communities are currently dealing or not dealing with the Gaza war
www.patreon.com/posts/voices...
www.patreon.com/posts/voices...
I'm really honoured that Jeremy Wallach wrote a retrospective piece on my book Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. He remarks on my general 'pessimism' about how far metal might go in engaging with diversity. I am much more optimistic these days!
doi.org/10.1386/mms_...
doi.org/10.1386/mms_...
Eggheadbanger classic: A reflection on Keith Kahn-Harris’s Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge | Intellect
A reflection on Keith Kahn-Harris’s Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (2007).
doi.org
September 1, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I'm really honoured that Jeremy Wallach wrote a retrospective piece on my book Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge. He remarks on my general 'pessimism' about how far metal might go in engaging with diversity. I am much more optimistic these days!
doi.org/10.1386/mms_...
doi.org/10.1386/mms_...
Ironically, Labour's Corbyn years negate both pro- and anti-IHRA narratives: Its adoption made absolutely no difference to the antisemitism controversy.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Sultana: Corbyn 'capitulated' on antisemitism definition
The vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said Zarah Sultana's words were "a grave insult".
www.bbc.com
August 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Ironically, Labour's Corbyn years negate both pro- and anti-IHRA narratives: Its adoption made absolutely no difference to the antisemitism controversy.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
It isn't just Trump. The most dangerous people I have met in my life are - regardless of their politics - those who are convinced that the thing they do worse than anybody is in fact the thing I do better than anybody.
August 17, 2025 at 11:06 AM
It isn't just Trump. The most dangerous people I have met in my life are - regardless of their politics - those who are convinced that the thing they do worse than anybody is in fact the thing I do better than anybody.
I was today years old when I discovered that Peter O'Hanrahanrahan-inspired metal existed:
youtu.be/2M0y93DnD3w?...
youtu.be/2M0y93DnD3w?...
Ich Nichten Lichten [ Very Metal Instrumental ]
YouTube video by Gordon Heaney Guitarologist Flatulist Onanist
youtu.be
August 14, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I was today years old when I discovered that Peter O'Hanrahanrahan-inspired metal existed:
youtu.be/2M0y93DnD3w?...
youtu.be/2M0y93DnD3w?...
Today I remembered that the film 'Hannibal Brooks' was a thing.
August 11, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Today I remembered that the film 'Hannibal Brooks' was a thing.
I've always known about this interview and am grateful to Spencer for adding to the story
my August Patreon is from the archives: a 1993 interview with David Vincent of the death metal band Morbid Angel where he openly espouses White Supremacist views. I show the copy of it, with a gleeful note, that his pal Michael Moynihan sent to neo-Nazi James Mason. www.patreon.com/posts/illibe...
"Illiberal comments in magazine interviews" -David Vincent of Morbid Angel in 1993 | Spencer Sunshine
Get more from Spencer Sunshine on Patreon
www.patreon.com
August 1, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I've always known about this interview and am grateful to Spencer for adding to the story
Reposted by Keith Kahn-Harris
Book of the month: M.G. Sanchez ayearofreadingtheworld.com/2025/07/28/b...
Book of the month: M.G. Sanchez
This writer came onto my radar thanks to Keith Kahn-Harris, author of The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, with whom I did a musical incomprehension experiment a few years back. He shared …
ayearofreadingtheworld.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Book of the month: M.G. Sanchez ayearofreadingtheworld.com/2025/07/28/b...
'2, 4, 6, 8. Time to transubstantiate' - Tom Lehrer z'l
July 27, 2025 at 6:18 PM
'2, 4, 6, 8. Time to transubstantiate' - Tom Lehrer z'l
(Yes I know this is the Telegraph) Rachel Creeger performed Bulgarian orthodox Christian standup at my book launch last March. She absolutely didn't deserve this.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
Jewish comedy gigs at Fringe cancelled ‘over safety concerns’
Acts allegedly cancelled as venue bar staff express fears of ‘feeling unsafe’
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 24, 2025 at 7:18 PM
(Yes I know this is the Telegraph) Rachel Creeger performed Bulgarian orthodox Christian standup at my book launch last March. She absolutely didn't deserve this.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...