ARTS & CULTURE

UN Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a significant move to mobilise global support, the United Nations, Project Everyone and 72 Films are launching 'Nations United - Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times'. A first of its kind film has been released September 19 on the UN YouTube channel and global broadcast networks.

The importance of the move lies in the fact that with just ten years to go for the 2030 deadline, implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is far from satisfactory. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening decade of global progress.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 20 September 2020

Shakespeare Festival in South Africa Performed by An All Woman Cast

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – “Theatre will rise again,” declared James Ngcobo, artistic director of the renowned Market Theatre in Johannesburg. “COVID hasn’t stifled our passion, just moved it into another space.”

This month, Ngcobo is spotlighting speeches from some of Shakespeare’s iconic plays, mostly written for male characters but acted here by women. Reversing the roles, he says, will provide the actors with artistic challenges in dramas that were written more than 400 years ago but are still relevant today.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 September 2020

Photo: Zukiswa Wanner. Credit: Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study

Zambian Writer, ‘A Role Model for A Generation’, Tapped for Cultural Prize

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – This year’s Goethe Medal has been awarded to African writer and publisher Zukiswa Wanner, Elvira Espejo Ayca of Bolivia and Ian McEwan of the U.K. for their commitment to international cultural exchange.

Zukiswa, a writer, journalist and publisher, is the author of the novels The Madams (2006), Behind Every Successful Man (2008), Men of the South (2010). and two children's books, Jama Loves Bananas and Refilwe. As an essayist, she wrote “The Politics of Race, Class, and Identity in Education” and 2011 Mail & Guardian’s book of Women Introductory essay, “Being a Woman in South Africa”.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 31 August 2020

El Sistema Brings Forth Genius in Every Child

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Simon Rattle, the former chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and now conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, has said that El Sistema in Venezuela is “The most important thing happening in classical music today in the world”. Julian Lloyd Weber, the renowned cellist, has said, “It’s surely the most extraordinary musical phenomenon of our times”.

It seems like whenever I switch on Mezzo, the superb French TV classical and jazz channel, I see either conductors, Valery Gergiev, maestro of the Mariinsky or Gustavo Dudamel, chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Gergiev, along with Rattle, are probably the world’s top conductors and Dudamel, close behind them but only 39 years old, is a graduate of El Sistema.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 25 August 2020

Collage of pictures (left) of Senator Kamala Harris, official US Senate photo (Source: Wikimedia) and (right) her parents, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris. (Source: San Jose Mercury News).

From Lotus Goddess to Holy Basil: Transnational Racio-scapes in US Presidential Politics

By Radhika Parameswaran and Pallavi Rao *

BLOOMINGTON, USA (IDN) – On June 27, 2019, the night of the second Democratic primary debate, Donald Trump Jr. shared and deleted a tweet posted by the right-wing provocateur Ali Alexander. Alexander’s social media post alleged that presidential candidate Kamala Devi Harris was “not an American Black” because she was half Indian and half Jamaican. Trump Jr.’s spokesperson then offered a dubious defense of his boss claiming that he had not intended to endorse racism, but had simply been surprised to learn about Harris’s Indian background.¹

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 21 August 2020

Photo: Bronislaw Malinowski with Trobriand islanders, 1917 – 1918. | Wikicommons/LSE Library Collection. Some rights reserved.

Chronicles of Culturological Quackery

Viewpoint by Martin Paleček*

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News

Hradec Králové, Czech Republic (IDN) – The concept of culture as a ‘driver of societies’ that has become the lucky charm of nationalists has its origins in the oeuvres of some prominent academics.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 15 August 2020

Photo: "The Guardian of Time", a sculpture by Lebanese artist Tony Farah outside the lower cave at Jeita. CC BY-SA 3.0

Embedded in Beirut: A Communion with Ancestors

Recollections by a Nigerian journalist who toured Lebanon two years ago

By Louis Odion

*The writer, Fellow of Nigerian Guild of Editors, is the Senior Technical Assistant on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari.

ABUJA (IDN) – Many wished they were allowed to capture the moment with the camera, but the literary amazon from Borno beheld a different picture in the officially restricted space. She saw politics in the classification of the Jeita Grotto as the "world's 15th wonder" and not within the first 10.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East; 06 August 2020

A Train Tour for Children of the World into 2030

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Grenada, Mr Denis G. Antoine, has authored an extraordinary children's book: Get on Board, Dear Children of the World. He served as a Vice President of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, marking the 70th anniversary of the world body.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 09 July 2020

Image: Cover of Bolton's book. Credit: The writer

Bolton's Book Fires Blanks at the Trump Administration

Viewpoint by Charlotte Munns

Charlotte Munns is a London-based freelance writer who has specialized in English Literature and Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, New York

LONDON (IDN) – John Bolton's 'The Room Where It Happened' opens with a bizarre epigraph touting the British triumph over Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo. To liken Bolton's 'tell-all' memoir of the Trump administration to the actions that destroyed an empire is a stretch, to say the least.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 09 July 2020

Photo: The shooting dead of popular Ethiopian political singer Hachalu Hundessa has sparked unrest in the country. Hundessa is considered a voice for Ethiopia's largest ethnic group, the Oromo, during years of anti-government protest. He is a Nobel Peace laureate. Source: DW Africa.

Murder of Popular Protest Singer Swells Opposition Against Ethiopian Leader

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ethiopian protest singer and revered musician Hachalu Hundessa sang about love and unity, recalled his friend Amensisa Ifa, raising issues that many would not dare to bring up.

He addressed issues of marginalization – capturing the struggles and frustrations of his Oromo people who faced efforts by successive Ethiopian regimes to destroy the Oromoo language, exploit its precious resources, and expropriate Oromo lands into an expanded Addis Ababa.