Category: News

7th April 2020

Ravi Shankar, godfather of world music, a century after his birth

One hundred years after the birth of sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, his meditative reinvention of Indian classical raga music has particular resonance during the corona crisis. The loneliness that many experience during the corona crisis is a feeling that was often shared by Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar. “I have received so much love, but my loneliness has not disappeared,” said the musician in 1977. “Somehow I got it by inheritance, and I’m carrying it all the time in my life.” Perhaps Shankar’s lonesome spirit explains, 100 years after his birth, why his music has a special relevance in this...

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7th April 2020

Coronavirus in the Middle East: Creativity to help knows no bounds

From mounting death tolls in Italy and the US to fractured responses to the global crisis, there is no shortage of tragedy across the globe. But even in such darkness, people have a way of bringing out the best of humanity. In the Middle East, people across the region have launched personal initiatives to help their communities deal with the...

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24th March 2020

Lara Downes Explores the Many Resonances in Roots Music

Lara Downes | Credit: Max Barrett In liner notes for her new album, Some of These Days, pianist Lara Downes expresses the 14-track CD’s origins and significance. A line in an African-American spiritual, “Welcome Table,” provides the album’s title and the final track is an adaptation by Downes of the composition by African-American composer Florence Price (1887–1953). Following a pull quote from the refrain,...

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24th March 2020

Bay Area Musical Luminaries Plan a Tribute to Hamza El Din

Hamza El Din | Credit: John Werner There were so many right reasons why the tribute to the late Nubian musician Hamza El Din, at San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre, was planned for March 21. “It’s on the weekend of World Water Day,” notes the producer of the event, Mina Girgis, who’s also the founder of the Nile Project and a fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering and...

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16th February 2020

PRÊTE-MOI TON RÊVE: This contemporary art exhibition in Dakar tackles African migration and reframes colonization By Ciku Kimeria

MUSEE DES CIVILISATIONS NOIRES Siriki Ky’s, Têtes précieuses (Precious heads), sculpted bronze heads piled on a regal red pillow, laments how the continent has forgotten the wisdom from its griots The first work exhibit you come across at the Prête-moi ton rêve (lend me your dream) exhibition in Dakar’s Museum of Black Civilizations might be one of giant matchsticks by Senegalese artist,...

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5th February 2020

Say No to Violence in the Media and in Toys by Kealey Pringle

The average child between 6 and l4 years old will see about 11,000 murders. Cartoons are the most violent with 26 violent acts per hour Media and toys Playing with violent toys and exposure to violent forms of media: TV, videos, computer games, and the Internet is all part of the same picture. Violent toys and media teach children that:...