Category: Culture
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Skopje: From Brutalism to Balkan Identity
Immediately upon entering Skopje, its charm and beauty cannot be denied. Situated in the heart of the Jakupica Range and constructed at the base of the 1000-foot Mount Vodno with its looming 200-foot iron cross on the summit, the city offers a combination of cultural tradition, history and modern architecture, and makes for a unique…
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No Country for These Old Men
Exploring an origin story of R&B and soul music in Nashville, and how local DJs and the media helped drive it to a national audience. Music historians will argue over the exact origins of the music industry in Nashville, although any stance depends on the genre under debate, and how far back one is willing…
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Journeying Through Memories of Illinois Route 3: Brooklyn
Part 7 of personal reflections and historic explorations of the Grafton to Cairo length of Illinois Route 3 by writer and poet Richard Stimac. I’ve been to a strip club twice, both associated with my military service. A friend of mine and his older brother were both army veterans. When I enlisted, they decided on a pre-shipping-off-to-basic-training trip…
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Hey, Who’s Nicked our Henry Moore! ‘Reclining Woman: Elbow’, off to Kew Gardens
For as long as I’ve been using Leeds Central Library, located next to the art gallery, it’s been part of the landscape. Since 1982, Henry Moore’s Reclining Woman: Elbow has dominated the public gathering place that has hosted all sorts of civic comings and goings over the years. On breaks from the laptop on warmer…
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From a Whisper to a Scream: The Tempests, Allen Toussaint and Hurricane Katrina
Joining the dots between a North Carolina soul band and New Orleans music legend Allen Toussaint. For Roger Branch, sound engineer and founder of the sixties R&B band The Tempests, New Orleans had an attractive pull for studio engineering and production work. Like most musicians in the South, there was a deep affinity for the…
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Brushstrokes, Light and Tradition: Art Rituals that Renew the Year
In Helsinki, December afternoons arrive and leave quickly, like a visitor without an intention to stay. As temperatures drop well below freezing point, city dwellers refuse to leave their homes as early as 3pm. Many experience Kaamos, a Finnish term for seasonal depression. On an online discussion forum, a business traveler visiting Helsinki writes: “By…
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Santa Cruz de Tenerife—Exploring a City of Contrasts
Intersected by the dormant volcano of Mount Teide, Tenerife is a story of two halves. While the sunworshipper pilgrimage tends to head south for the beaches and pretty much guaranteed dry, warm weather, tropical Tenerife lies to the north, often offering lush vegetation, plantations and palms. OK, it’s slightly cooler here. And more humid. That’s…
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The Babu, the British and the Cartoonist: Visual Satire in Colonial Bengal
Protest art takes its shape in various forms, emerging as creative elements that challenge and criticise the injustice powerplay in society. Political cartoons and caricatures have long had a dual purpose: to critique political figures and to entertain the masses. Whether it was the Roman satirical drawings, James Gillray’s political cartoons or Benjamin Franklin’s 1754…
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Malta: Exploring Manoel Island and Valletta
Malta has been on everyone’s hit list, and not just that of tourists – centuries of invasions and colonisation are confirmation of that. There’s a theory that Greeks gave the island its name – Malta is close to their word Melite meaning honey-sweet, affirming the centuries-long association with production of varieties such as ghasel tas-saghtar,…
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The Keffiyeh—On Culture, Consumerism and Sumud
Sumūd (Arabic, noun: steadfastness, perseverance) Among the uncertainties that laid ahead for the Global Sumud Flotilla as it sailed towards Gaza last week, there was one known—that its effect on holding the world’s focus on Gaza hasn’t gone unnoticed. Uninformed, or biased armchair critics may have fired predictable comments that the flotilla is futile saviourism.…
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The Soul of Nashville. Exploring an Alternative Music History
Regarding a personal obsession of writing about soul music, the book House of Broken Hearts: The Soul of 1960s Nashville was undertaken in an attempt to resolve one nagging omission. A fair chunk of my travels has been spent scouring the Carolinas, Virginia, and Louisiana in an attempt locate, research and document the oral histories of solo…
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Carolina History: How Black Music Influenced 1960s Southern White America
Rightly, history books are full of how African American racial and cultural identity was suppressed in the southern US states. Even North Carolina, sometimes cautiously described as one of the more ‘progressive’ states of the South, was not entirely exempt from a reputation of hostility toward Black communities. In the 1960s, this was ably demonstrated…
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The Cellar: A North Carolina Music Venue Remembered
I reckon there were a few tears shed in the Carolina Rock n Roll Remembered and I Remember the Cellar Facebook groups when The Cellar burned down earlier this year. Once upon a time, this place really meant something to the music-loving teenagers of Charlotte. The first time I set eyes on this venue was 12 years ago. I’ve…
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The Power of Song, from the Underground Railroad to Chicago Rhythm and Blues
Wade in the waterWade in the water childrenWade in the waterGod said He’s gonna trouble the water We are the sons and the daughtersWe gotta stand up and make it loudJust like our God told the PharaohLet my people go We are a new generationFrom the ones who have gone beforeHe’s calling us out of…
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Hidden Histories of the Mississippi Delta: Po’ Monkey’s Juke Joint
“We had to ask the owner of Abe’s BBQ in Clarksdale how to get there. His hand-written directions on the back of a napkin was our GPS for this shack at the edge of a cornfield. Don’t expect signs to point you there. Heck, don’t even expect signs with road names. It opens around eight…
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Discovering the Street Art of Santiago’s Barrio Bellavista
Admittedly, the Windles were all pretty jaded with the early flight into Arturo Marino Benitez airport. But as the taxi eventually pulled up outside our accommodation we had serious concerns about rushing the research. There was no expectation of luxury but Expedia images can also lie, and the entrance of iron bars and an intercom-only…
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Cultura Magazine: Stories of Global Travel, Culture and Relocation
Welcome to Cultura! Seizing the opportunity for travel and cultural experience is important on many levels. It broadens perspective and personal growth, encourages an appreciation of ecological and human diversity, and fosters an awareness of global affairs. For so many of us, the desire to explore the world is driven by an innate curiosity of…