All Blog Posts Tagged 'Encounters' (10)

Website: Life of a Travel Writer - WorldHum

I love the website WorldHum. Maybe it's because I always love to write when I travel. For me it is the best time to find inspiration or think about things in a new way. Or maybe I'm digging the site because it has reviews about graphic novels that document travels to Burma, Naples, and North Korea (And I am loving graphic novels these days!). Whatever it is, I'm hooked.

Take for example, the story written by Doug Mack called… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 21, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Praying For FOKAL - My Time With The Prime Minister of Haiti

We are here in shock at what is happening in Haiti and praying for the people of this small island. When I visited Haiti in January 2008, I spent some time meeting some of the cultural leaders. I had heard of an arts center called FOKAL (Knowledge and Freedom Foundation), so I sent an email to the then Director, Michele Pierre-Louis- who went on to become the country's Prime Minister- and she agreed to see me the next day.…

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Added by Create Culture on January 14, 2010 at 6:00am — No Comments

Create Culture Interview with Jeremy Beck

TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF.

My parents both grew up in Missouri: my father in a small town with no stoplights and my mother in a more urban, college town. I was born in Michigan but spent most of my childhood in Dallas, Texas and my young-adulthood in Arlington, Va (Dad's job in newspapers moved us around a couple of times). I have extended family in Missouri, California, Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan, and Georgia (to name a few) so I have… Continue

Added by Create Culture on January 7, 2010 at 6:00am — 2 Comments

Article: Opening Arms and Ears to Cuban Music

This article, published on November 18th in the New York Times, examines cultural exchanges with Cuba. I was in Havana and Santiago in 2002 with Global Exchange and had mixed feelings about the trip. We want to know what you think about the article and Cuba. Have you visited the country? Were you part of a "cultural exchange"? Is it time for the U.S. to allow visitors? Or is the embargo working and necessary? See excerpts from the… Continue

Added by Create Culture on December 3, 2009 at 6:00am — No Comments

What New Orleans Taught Me About Havana

New Orleans played a large part in why I wrote a book on the greatest figure in all of Cuban music. It was something of an accident that sent me on the search for Benny Moré, a chance hearing of Qué Bueno Baila Usted, one of the best songs to come from any recording studio on the island of Cuba. Throughout her history, New Orleans had lots of cultural contact with her old penpal, Havana. Trading between these Caribbean sister cities included French opera, brass band instruments left over from… Continue

Added by John Radanovich on October 25, 2009 at 12:38pm — 1 Comment

Dancing My Way to West Africa

My mother taught me from the time I was a little girl that sometimes shutting out the world and letting the rhythm of a great song move your spirit is a sure way to heal the soul. Think about it, even if you’re in a horrible mood, you can put on your favorite tune, dance your heart out, and feel much better afterwards.

I have been dancing professionally for ten years with a traditional West African dance group called Iwa Lewa Heritage Dance Ensemble. We perform mostly in New Jersey… Continue

Added by Metra Lundy on August 10, 2009 at 8:12am — 4 Comments

CC Interview with Ruud Matthes - Finding the essence of art in the transfer of emotions.

Tell us about yourself.

I was born in 1948 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. As a child I already wanted to become an artist, but I lost this confidence when I was getting older. Being an artist seemed a very insecure position so I tried something close to it: going into advertising. This didn’t work because I have no commercial talent. Then in 1972 I decided to study Social Pedagogy with the idea to specialize for becoming a… Continue

Added by John Rouse on May 8, 2009 at 9:30pm — 5 Comments

A Man Who Works The Land

Don Maya asks me one simple question as I stand on the other side of a volcanic stone wall that separates us and our two worlds, “ What is it you want to know from me?” He is a direct, no-nonsense type of man, very real. I had come to Mexico to learn from those who lived life here, those who were connected to the land and were a part of the “handed-down knowledge” I had read about. Up until now, all my learning and education came from books. I read about the culture and the people of Mexico. It… Continue

Added by Michael Heralda on May 6, 2009 at 11:00am — 2 Comments

CC Interview with Artist Josefina Baez: Performing the Self

Create Culture interview with:

Josefina Baez

La Romana, Dominican Republic

Writer, actor, theatre director, educator, & Director of Ay Ombe Theatre since April 1986.

CC: Tell us a little bit about yourself

JB: A bit of me…ummmm.

Could be

M

But that’s half of ME

I was Born and raised in La Romana, Dominican Republic. I moved to New York in the early 70s and I… Continue

Added by Nico Daswani on April 8, 2009 at 9:00pm — No Comments

May 7, 2007

This is something I wrote in a stream of consciousness a while back and that I just found...

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May 7, 2007

A day after voting in the French presidential election (by proxy), I took and passed my US citizenship test today. Within 24 hours, I managed to demonstrate my singular national allegiance to two countries. This is besides the fact that my current status in the US is as an Indian-named British citizen…

7.45am. Downtown Manhattan. Sitting on the… Continue

Added by Nico Daswani on January 30, 2009 at 7:00pm — 1 Comment