Africa
African Soul Rebels, Barbican HallSunday, 21 February 2010
Here’s a deceptively simple question. What is African music? Does a band make African music simply by dint of the fact they come from Africa? One of last night’s three African Soul Rebels acts was South Africa’s Kalahari Surfers. Ensconced behind a... Read more... |
Vampire Weekend, Brixton O2 AcademyWednesday, 17 February 2010
The death at the weekend of Doug Fieger, the co-founder of The Knack, meant that melodic US pop had lost a fine exponent. But more than 30 years on from the eternal über-hit "My Sharona" the appeal of infectious hook-lined music lives on in the work... Read more... |
Interview: Oumou Sangare, Soul RebelMonday, 15 February 2010
Oumou Sangare, Malian diva and one of the world’s great singers, is not, as I eventually found out myself, a woman to be trifled with. When she bought some land outside Bamako, the capital of Mali, a local official by accident or oversight also sold... Read more... |
Interview: Director Peter BrookWednesday, 10 February 2010
Theatre director Peter Brook is back in London. Brightly, eloquently, he's promoting his new show, in English (most of his work since the 1970s has been in French), currently running at the Barbican: entitled Eleven and Twelve, it's a dense chamber... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Playwright David GreigSaturday, 06 February 2010
A new play by David Greig opens at the Hampstead Theatre for the Royal Shakespeare Company next week. A theatre director as well as playwright, Greig (b. 1969) is one of the most prolific and artistically ambitious playwrights of his generation and... Read more... |
Art Gallery: Afro Modern, Tate LiverpoolFriday, 05 February 2010
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic is without doubt one of the year’s most enterprising and original exhibitions. Attempting to trace the impact on art of black cultures from around the Atlantic – in Africa, Europe and the Americas –... Read more... |
Chris Ofili, Tate BritainThursday, 28 January 2010
Dazzling and surprising, this Tate Britain retrospective by the 1998 Turner Prizewinner Chris Ofili should erase memories of the media sniping about him making money from using the so-called "gimmick" of incorporating elephant turds in his paintings... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Mariza, Diva of FadoSaturday, 23 January 2010
Marisa dos Reis Nunes (b. 1973) is an African-Portuguese singing superstar whose music has deep roots in fado, Portugal’s dark-blue, intensely poetic national music, but which over the course of five albums has gradually taken on inflections of jazz... Read more... |
Mugabe and the White AfricanTuesday, 05 January 2010
He thought he owned his property - he had the title deeds to it, after all - but suddenly the ground shifted under his feet and there came an aggressive bid to snatch his home away. His savings became worthless in the economic chaos; the social... Read more... |
Storyville: Simon Mann's African Coup, BBC FourWednesday, 02 December 2009
It always used to be said that boarding school prepares you for every hardship. Whether that includes prison in one of the most impenitent dictatorships in Africa is not a question that was put to Simon Mann in last night’s edition of Storyville.... Read more... |
Staff Benda Bilili, BarbicanWednesday, 11 November 2009The stage of the Barbican is alive with black dudes in wheelchairs going bonkers. It's an extraordinary spectacle. To rocketing afro-funk, backed by a drum-kit of boxes and bells, Staff Benda Bilili's frontmen are rolling their chairs back and forth... Read more... |
Art Gallery: Romuald HazouméThursday, 29 October 2009An extensive selection is shown here of the work of Romuald Hazoumé, the Benin contemporary artist whose iconic masks made from petrol canisters dumped around his poverty-stricken homeland of Benin launched his international career. A major... Read more... |
