By Aida Nasr “This revolution is far from over.” That’s the dynamic message of “Lessons in Revolting,” a theater performance currently showing at the intimate setting of the Rawabet Space for Arts in Downtown Cairo. Co-directors Laila Soliman from Egypt and Ruud Gielens of Belgium have created a challenging, thought provoking play that portrays the Jan. …

Franco-Chilean director Raoul Ruiz died Friday in a Paris hospital of a lung infection, cutting short a career that was still producing poetic cinematic marvels in his 70th year. Ruiz’s "Mistérios de Lisboa" (Mysteries of Lisbon), a four-and-a-half hour saga about the life of the 19th century Portuguese aristocracy, was last year acclaimed by critics …

By Maha ElNabawi Subtle seeds of change have started to blossom through the liberation of artistic expression, since former Tunisian president Zine Al-Abdine Bin Ali’s ousting in January. Cue Badiaa Bouhrizi — the underground Tunisian singer/songwriter whose Ethno-musical positions reflect passionate socio-political convictions and the dilemma of personal freedom. Bouhrizi, who performed this past Thursday in …

A rapper and a reggae artist, two leading Burkina Faso musicians belt out similar lyrics to different beats: "Blaise, go!" — their favorite refrain is a dig at the long-standing president. Smockey, with an Afro ‘do’, and dreadlocked Samsklejah are pushing change in Burkina Faso, where protests this year led many to believe President Blaise …

Currently showing at the Picasso gallery in Zamalek is a calligraphy exhibition by artist Khodeir El-Borsaiedy. Calligraphy is a tricky form of art, since for the average layman, it may not be considered ‘art’ per say. People usually take for granted the effort required to properly transcript everything from the Quran and store signs to …

By Christophe Koffi/ AFP Bullet holes pock the vault door and empty display boxes litter the showroom floor of Abidjan’s Museum of Civilization, robbed of 100 ancient artifacts under the cover of deadly conflict in April. “A piece of our history has been wiped out,” museum director Silvie Memel Kassi laments of the collection’s lost crown …

“There is God between me and every breath that I take.” With such profound lyrics and enchanting music, the fourth edition of the Sufi Music and Chanting Festival got off to a captivating start. Eleven troupes from 11 different countries, with different styles of singing and disparate rhythm, scale and even language, came together to …

“Man is the homeland, and the homeland is man.” With this humanistic slogan, Entesar Abd El Fatth, director of El-Ghouri Center for Musical Heritage opens the fourth Samaa International Festival for Sufi Music and Chanting in Cairo on Monday. A variety of nasheeds (Islamic religious and praise songs) from around the world are featured in …

By Diana Simeonova / AFP Cars zoom by on the boulevards overhead as work progresses on expanding the subway underneath —and in between a full-fledged Roman city has emerged right in the heart of the Bulgarian capital. Archaeologists have little by little unearthed well-preserved stretches of cobbled Roman streets, a public bath, the ruins of a …

“It’s the living room one aspires for but never has,” said one client. “It’s a geek’s pub,” said another — and that succinctly summarizes that mood and feel of Bikya Book Café. Since opening in early January, Bikya Book Café has become more than what its five young female founders intended. It is not simply …

The house where American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe lived in poverty for several years in the 1800s, and which now serves as a museum, could soon be forced to close its doors for evermore. For the second year running, the house, situated off the beaten path in a poor part of Baltimore, in …

Shammi Kapoor, who died on Sunday aged 79, was India’s Elvis Presley, a gyrating, swivel-hipped actor who revitalized Bollywood’s song-and-dance sequences with a modern, racy style. As one of the Kapoor acting dynasty that has dominated Hindi-language cinema virtually since its inception, he was perhaps always destined to be famous. But it was his dancing …

By Maha ElNabawi Outfitted in funky-ethnic jewelry, dreadlocks, and a bohemian aura — Spanish singer Araceli Muñoz and her band, Ara Musa Honra, entertained Cairenes with musical messages of love and positivity this past Thursday at Al-Azhar Park’s Geneina Theater. The concert was the opening performance of Al Mawred Al Thaqafy’s annual Hayy festival. Before interviewing …

A new Bollywood film tackling the thorny issue of caste quotas in Indian government jobs and education is released this week in the face of vocal protests from minorities. Politicians and interest groups championing low-caste Hindus and other marginalized groups that the system is designed to help have come out in force against "Aarakshan" (Reservation). …

By Michel Viatteau/ AFP A fictional red-headed orphan, whose adventures were penned a century ago, is proving a tourist boon to a corner of Canada, even drawing the attentions of Prince William’s new bride, Catherine. “Anne of Green Gables,” the Canadian novel by author Lucy Maud Montgomery, has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide since …

The most striking aspect of Amir Wahib’s exhibition, “Architectural Insight,” is the contrast in his work. Some paintings are exact and almost look as though they had been drawn with a ruler, while others are much gentler, with bold colors and blends. Wahib’s work has been exhibited all over the world; in Egypt, the US …

Chance had it that all the stars in the first Hayy program in 2006 were female. But the success of the first program set the trend for coming years, according to Charles Akl, co-coordinator at the Al-Mawred Al Thaqafy that now organizes the yearly Ramadan program. “One of the main aims” of the festival, said …

  “Al-Hassan wal Hussein” can be classified as yet another historical and religious TV series, but the increasingly popular TV series breaks a religious taboo, once thought untouchable in the Arab world: depicting the Prophet’s family.   It isn’t the first. Last year, TV channels aired the Iranian-produced “Yusuf El-Seddiq,” chronicling the life of Prophet …

No other Vietnamese filmmaker has come close to matching the critical and commercial success that greeted the films of Anh Hung Tran. With his first two pictures, Tran earned Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion prize, the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and a César. Every new project of his has become an …

  CAIRO: Popular Egyptian folk singer Hassan El-Asmar died Sunday at age 52 in Cleopatra Hospital from a fatal heart attack.   His funeral was held at the Noor Mosque in Abbasiya. Born in the southern governorate of Qena in 1959, El-Asmar rose to stardom in the late 1980s with a string of hits such …

By Rana Moussaoui / AFP Lebanon’s few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology. “The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces,” says Mahmoud Bayoun, one …

By Heba Elkayal The joke’s on us: graffiti art fans run around Cairo trying to document the surge of street art and the foreign media churn out article after repetitive article about the post-revolution art scene and its heavy connotations of political expressionism. As we pin meaning to spray-painted slogans and caricatures, graffiti artists themselves have …

Kolkata, once capital of British India, on Tuesday began work to transform the congested and fading city into a "second London" complete with a London Eye ferris wheel. Mamata Banerjee, the feisty new chief minister of the state of West Bengal, made an election pledge to turn the dysfunctional and poverty-stricken Indian metropolis into a …

By Maha ElNabawi The demographic cohort born between the 1980s through the late 90s has been branded with popular culture titles such as Generation Y, The Millennials, MTV Generation, and Generation Next. But how does one define the culture of this generation? Mariam Elias’ first self-published book, “Thawret El-LooooL,” aims to do just that. “The book …

The Cape Wind project is New England’s never-ending story, tangled in debate and litigation ever since it was proposed in 2001. But a group of filmmakers say they’ve told the tale in about 84 minutes. "Cape Spin" is a new feature-length documentary on the battle over Cape Wind, a 130-turbine offshore wind farm planned for …

South African literary classic "Jock of the Bushveld" has been turned into the country’s first 3D animation film and features the voices of global celebrities like Bryan Adams and Desmond Tutu. The film, which opened pm Friday in southern Africa, is based on the 1907 bestseller by Percy Fitzpatrick who details his true-life bush adventures …

By Ron DePasquale/ AP It’s been an exciting summer for the musician known simply as E. He may be 48 and a long-established master of melodic, delightfully odd rock music, most famous for his hit song “Novocaine for the Soul.” But even after releasing nine albums with his band Eels and chronicling the loss of several …

Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, in a surprise visit to Bosnia, on Saturday attended the closing ceremony of the Sarajevo Film Festival at which the actress received an honorary award. Jolie was given the "Honorary Heart of Sarajevo" award not "only because of her exceptional career in the movie world, but also due …

A modern ballet with music by cult US rock band The White Stripes has wowed Bolshoi Theatre audiences, helping the company shake off a conservative image as it plans a return to its historic home. "Chroma," British choreographer Wayne McGregor’s 2006 exploration of the influence of psychology on movement, is a sharp contrast to the …

CAIRO: Nineteen artifacts taken from the tomb of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun will be returned to Egypt next week after more than half a century at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Egypt’s antiquities authority said Saturday. The trove includes a miniature bronze dog and a sphinx-shaped bracelet ornament, the Supreme Council of …