Latest in Culture Highlight
Latest in Culture
Arab nudes defy taboos in Paris show
By Pascale Mollard-Chenebenoit / AFP The naked body in Arab art is the theme of a new Paris exhibit meant to broaden views of Arab culture, spotlighting the many artists willing to break taboos and depict nudity in all its forms. “The Body Uncovered” at Paris’ Arab World Institute aims to “challenge the stereotypes usually …
First Assange TV show to be aired next week
By AFP LONDON: The first episode of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s new TV interview show will be broadcast on Tuesday on Russia Today and online, the whistleblowing website said on Friday. WikiLeaks remained tightlipped on the identity of Assange’s interviewee in the first of the 12-episode weekly series entitled “The World Tomorrow.” It has promised …
Music incognito: Kareem Lotfy
By Chitra Kalyani He is holding something small up in his hand, “Look at the 70s.” Kareem Lotfy is describing what he does when he “dubs” music; essentially he is simply playing with a sound that he likes from another time. A request to describe his music launches him on a Wikipedia journey through music history, …
Cairo to host first Global Voice Hall forum in Mideast
CAIRO: Global Voice Hall (GVH), a free membership-driven web-based social news platform, will broadcast its first Pangaea Forum in the Middle East on April 24 from the American University in Cairo. The Pangaea Forum is a live produced international town hall event that is live streamed in front of a live studio audience. The Cairo …
Ridley Scott teases fans with ‘Prometheus’ 3D clip
By Emma Charlton / AFP Ridley Scott gave a sneak 3D preview of his new movie “Prometheus” this week, the latest step in an elaborate promotional campaign marking the “Alien” director’s return to sci-fi, three decades on. First conceived as a prequel to the “Alien” franchise, the British director’s new project, set for release on May …
Soul sustenance: Swedish opera singers make house calls
By Igor Gedilaghine / AFP Are you lonely? Do you miss a loved one? Is your marriage on the rocks? Just place a call to a Stockholm opera and a singer will make a house call with an aria specially chosen to fit your state of mind. “I’ve had the experience of singing for a couple …
Nermine Hammam’s voluble cry of freedom
By Mariam Hamdy I didn’t used to be a fan of Nermine Hammam’s earlier work, but recently I’ve fallen in love with it. It’s time to pay it its dues. To those who have not yet been to her exhibit at Safar Khan Gallery in Zamalek, rush to it now. Hammam has always been a controversial …
Ukraine blocks film on soccer match against Nazis
By Maria Danilova / AP It’s a game that every Ukrainian knows about: The “Death Match” of 1942, when top Kiev soccer players trounced a team of Nazi occupiers and reportedly paid for it with their lives. But Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday froze the release of a movie depicting that Soviet defiance of Nazi Germany because …
Street art and the power to mobilize
By Mennatallah Fouad Youssef It’s after sunset on a Friday night. A few weeks after clashes took place in Mohamed Mahmoud Street, a group of young artists enter Tahrir Square and observe the scene ahead. Their eyes set on the street where hundreds faced death and suffocation — their next target, they set up their gear …
Lady Chichester and Danny Wyler on Royal Opera’s ‘Beloved Friend’
By Joseph Fahim The Royal Opera House’s highly touted production “Beloved Friend” was the highlight of the 8th Abu Dhabi Festival, which closed on April 7. Based on the letters exchanged between Russian music composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and his muse/patroness Nadezhda von Meck for 13 years, this beautiful, intimate production was the very first Royal Opera …
One-on-one with Oscar-winning writer Sir Ronald Harwood
By Joseph Fahim It’s not every day that you watch a Royal Opera House production in the Arab world, let alone a gala production that has only been staged twice before, the second time at Buckingham Palace for the Royal Family. To call the showing of the Royal Opera’s 2009 production “Beloved Friend” — performed at …
Slow French sculptures head to hectic Hong Kong
By Anna Maria Jakubek / AFP Time and how it shapes us is key to the work of French sculptress Nathalie Decoster, including the giant bronzes she has just shipped off to Hong Kong — quiet meditations for a hectic-paced city. Forty monumental human figures of bronze and steel, from two to six meters high (six …
Hesham Al-Gakh’s Tahrir Square poetry honored in Istanbul
By Istanbul Arts News The poetry of Egyptian revolutionary poet Hesham Al-Gakh amazed audiences at a major gathering of international poets assembled in Istanbul this week for a one-night celebration of the world’s oldest love poem, which is currently in Istanbul’s archaeological museum. An English translation of Al-Gakh’s poem, “An Honest View of Liberation Square” from …
Ant Hampton’s Autoteatro turns audience into performers
By Chitra Kalyani Assigned roles, seemingly at random, your group of five is attached via headphones to a device. In the minutes that follow, you produce a psychiatrist, an amalgam of Freud and Frankenstein, and one of you has to save the others from madness. So goes “GuruGuru,” an experimental work by Ant Hampton, or …
Middle Eastern Americans transcend politics with humour
By Sadia Ashraf LOS ANGELES, California: A motley crew of diverse Arab, Persian and American comedians is making audiences laugh and unraveling stereotypes at the same time. With their own comedy brand, sold-out worldwide tours, documentaries and frequent appearances as commentators on major news outlets, Aron Kader, Maz Jobrani, Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah have built …
East Berliner’s lifelong passion for vintage fashion
By Kate Millar / AFP When Josefine Edle von Krepl fled East Berlin just before the Wall fell in 1989, she managed to save her vast hoard of vintage clothing by wrapping her china and glassware in it. The fashion designer, journalist and mother-of-two was allowed to take many of her belongings with her to the …
Fishing for meaning in a play of patriotism and immigration
By Tom Dale “If I Weren’t Egyptian” is a play about a young man who wants to emigrate to Italy, a middle aged German-speaking belly-dancer, a silent old gentleman who has water dripping from his trousers, and a giant robotic orange clownfish. This critic cannot pretend to have a firm grasp on what happened in the …
Judge: 3,200-year-old mummy mask can stay in US
By AP ST. LOUIS: A judge says a 3,200-year-old Egyptian mummy mask at the center of an international dispute will remain in a US museum. The US government sought to return the funeral mask of Lady Ka-Nefer-Nefer to Egypt, claiming it had been stolen before the St. Louis Art Museum bought it from a New …
One on One with Abu Dhabi Fest founder Hoda Kanoo
By Joseph Fahim Of the various cultural festivals I’ve covered and attended over the years in the region, none has managed to offer the pure delight I experienced at the Abu Dhabi Festival, a momentously rich event with a laudably ambitious scope, a seductively intimate ambiance and a big heart. Unlike most festivals in the region, …
Arab Spring coverage dominates Peabody Awards
By AP ATHENS, Georgia: Coverage of the Arab Spring dominated the Peabody Awards, the oldest in broadcasting. CNN, Al Jazeera English and National Public Radio all received the prestigious award Wednesday for their coverage of the movements that led to leaders being unseated in Egypt and Libya. Two Japanese news outlets won for their coverage …
Deneuve, icon of French cinema, honored in NY
By Jocelyn Noveck / AP Of her more than 100 films, only seven have been in English. So Catherine Deneuve said she was surprised to win an American film award. But nobody else seemed surprised as Deneuve, an icon of French cinema as well as a global star renowned for her icy beauty, was handed the …
Spring has been around a while, says Spring Lessons
By Chitra Kalyani It is late March in Berlin, one of those rare days when the sun is making a generous appearance, and people are out enjoying its light and warmth. Another kind of Spring is being celebrated at Theater Aufbau Kreuzberg (TAK), where co-founders of Spring Lessons, Caram Kapp and Sara Duana Meyer are presenting …
Picture an Arab man
By Nada Akl BEIRUT: Picture an Arab man. Better yet . . . run a quick search on Google Images in English. You’ll find the fighter, the flag-waving protester and the religious sheikh. You’ll find the Arab man in subjective folkloric representation, framed by a loaded message; you’ll find clichĂ©s and stereotypes that seem to be …
Egypt revolution graffiti brings down barricades
By Mostafa Aboul Ezz/ AFP CAIRO: They were hit, pushed back and even fired at, but Egyptian activists have returned to the scene of deadly clashes in the heart of Cairo, determined to keep their revolution alive, this time armed with paint brushes. From a distance, Sheikh Rihan street, a wide avenue in Cairo’s usually busy …
Israel seizes sarcophagus lids stolen from Egypt
By AP JERUSALEM: The Israel Antiquities Authority says inspectors have seized two stolen Egyptian sarcophagus covers at a bazaar in Jerusalem’s Old city. The two plaster-covered wooden lids had been sawed in two, causing irreparable damage. The covers were adorned with decorations and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The authority says one dates between the 16th and …
I Fell in Love: When love takes you to the edge of death
By Sherif Azer In his latest novel, “Ana A’sheqt” or “I Fell in Love,” Muhammed El-Mansi Qandil is telling a love story that went beyond reality, and beyond love. It all started with the girl, Ward, who suffered from a rare medical illness close to stupor after she paid farewell to her lover, Hassan, at the …
Sandler sets worst-movie record with Razzies sweep
By David Germain / AP Adam Sandler and friends have scored a new high — or low — among voters of the Razzies, an Academy Awards spoof that presents prizes for the year’s worst movies. Sandler’s “Jack and Jill” managed a Razzies first on Sunday, claiming 10 awards to sweep every single category. Along with the …
Taylor Swift wins ACM entertainer of the year
By Chris Talbott / AP Taylor Swift won her second consecutive entertainer of the year award at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday night, just 24 hours after she was saluted by first lady Michelle Obama for her charity work on The Kids’ Choice Awards. Even by Swift’s lofty standards, it was an outstanding …
Exclusive Interview: Art Dubai’s Antonia Carver
By Heba Elkayal If there’s anything that could be said about Art Dubai this year is that it’s overwhelming in the most positive sense: not least for the hundreds of carefully selected pieces that were on sale by 75 different galleries, or by the commissioned pieces of artworks that were dispersed throughout the fair, nor because …
Jordan play pokes fun at Arab despots
By Kamal Taha / AFP AMMAN: Week after week Jordanians pack the Concorde theater in Amman where they shed their usual reserve to laugh uproariously at the shortcomings of their government and regional politicians still resisting the Arab Spring. The two-hour play “Now I Understand You” was inspired by the infamous words of Tunisia’s ousted dictator …