The ObserverTheatreReviewTheatre Royal, Glasgow; and touring A racist ode by the court poet William Dunbar is the problematic inspiration for the fourth of Munro’s James plays exploring Scotland past and present Rona Munro’s sequence of plays about Scotland’s Stewart kings was launched at the Edinburgh festival in 2014. Like its three predecessors, covering the reigns of James I, II and III, this latest uses real historic events to ask audiences to consider the nature of Scottish identity past and present.

FashionThe London-born New York rapper Slick Rick talks us through the history of rappers’ accessories, and shows off his collection, from gold teeth to diamond eye patch I have been telling stories through my attire and adornments for as long as I’ve been telling them with beats and rhymes. Jewels are my thing and every piece in my collection is attached to a fun story and deserves its own Wikipedia entry.

A pool game in a drinking club in Tchula. Photograph: Sean Smith/guardian graphicsA pool game in a drinking club in Tchula. Photograph: Sean Smith/guardian graphicsAmerica's poorest townsUS news This article is more than 8 years oldThis article is more than 8 years oldIn his second dispatch from the US’s most deprived communities, Chris McGreal visits Tchula in Mississippi, where crime is high and opportunities are few Part 1: American’s poorest white town: abandoned by coal, swallowed by drugs

The ObserverBiography booksReviewThe Throbbing Gristle co-founder communes with electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire and 15th-century mystic Margery Kempe in her account of female artists who fought to be heard First, some introductions. Cosey Fanni Tutti – her name is a pun on the borderline misogynist Mozart opera Così fan tutte (literally “that’s what women do”) – is a multimedia artist who first made her reputation as part of 1970s art collective COUM Transmissions and their sonic heirs, Throbbing Gristle.

08.39 ESTRussian forces take control of Vesele in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region, says Russian defence ministryRussian forces have taken control of Vesele, a settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, reports Reuters citing a statement by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday. The ministry provided no details about the settlement. It said only that the village had been taken by what it called the active efforts of units which are part of Russia’s southern military group.