PRI: Arts and Entertainment

Once dismissed as working-class “noise,” sonidero DJs are now part of Mexico City's cultural identity — and women are helping lead the transformation. The post Once marginalized, Mexico City's sonidero parties draw crowds across social divides appeared first on The World from PRX.

Brazilian singer and rapper Brisa Flow made history in 2023 as the first Indigenous artist featured on the lineup of Lollapalooza Brazil. Her music mixes hip-hop with ancestral singing, jazz, electronic and neo-soul. She's also an activist and educator. The post Brazilian hip-hop artist Brisa Flow brings Indigenous issues to the fore appeared first on The World from PRX.

The beloved musical “Mar i Cel,” which premiered in 1988, is back on stages in Barcelona for a fourth, and perhaps final, time. The love story tackles dark issues like bigotry, deportation and cycles of violence — something that people say may be more relevant than ever today. The post A decades old Catalan musical may be ending its run, but its message still resonates today appeared first on The World from PRX.

"The White Lotus," on HBO, is all about Americans behaving badly in tropical locales, and the third season is set in Thailand. The series is stacked with American celebrities. It's also catapulted a 77-year-old Thai actress to global fame. The post Why Thailand's ‘Judi Dench' left retirement for ‘The White Lotus' appeared first on The World from PRX.

About an hour outside of London, Thames Carpets sells handmade carpets mostly from the Middle East. The business goes back decades, and now, the next generation is spreading awareness of the ancient art on a new platform. The post A father-daughter duo brings an ancient art form to Instagram appeared first on The World from PRX.

Comiket is the world's largest comic festival. Twice a year, more than 300,000 comic enthusiasts from around the world travel to Tokyo to support their favorite artists. While the vast majority of artists are Japanese, some foreigners manage to grab a table to show their wares.   The post ‘It’s like a dream’: Artists and fans connect over the love of comic books at Japan’s biannual Comiket appeared first on The World from PRX.

“Maybe Happy Ending” is an intimate science fiction story that has been performed many times in Seoul, South Korea. Now, its adapted version is playing on Broadway. The story, about a pair of robots, sheds light on the human condition in this digital age. The post Can robots fall in love? A sci-fi musical from South Korea is now a hit on Broadway. appeared first on The World from PRX.

Chile's biggest carnival is kicking off at full speed today. As many as 150,000 people have traveled to the northern Chilean town of Arica to participate. But this is not your typical carnival. Most of the dances and music come from Bolivia. It is a celebration of Indigenous Aymara, Quechua and Afro-Chilean identities. The post Chile's Indigenous carnival kicks off in the city of Arica appeared first on The World from PRX.

Murat Palta makes a splash in the Turkish art world by imagining how a 16th-century Ottoman miniaturist would depict the world today. He blends traditional miniature techniques with modern themes by drawing from pop culture. The post Turkish artist captures pop culture through traditional miniature techniques appeared first on The World from PRX.

Artists in Mexico's Iztapalapa borough are using murals to highlight local residents and send positive messages, in what's been dubbed the largest mural project in the world. The post A massive mural project in Mexico City is transforming some of the poorest neighborhoods appeared first on The World from PRX.

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek tells host Carolyn Beeler about his first stop after having walked through the Middle East. On Cyprus, he found beaches with baking European tourists, a busy port city and a checkerboard of olive groves and yellow hay fields. But he also found the vestigial border line that divides the island's Greek and Turkish communities, and walked through an abandoned tourist city, a relic of a border war that has never been fully resolved.

Sudanese American Haneen Sidahmed is digitizing cassettes tapes of classic Sudanese songs dating back to the 1960s. In the process, she's created a music archive called Sudan Tapes Archive. Reporter Hana Baba, of station KALW and the podcast, "The Stoop," talked to Sidahmed about how her work has taken on new urgency amid war in Sudan.

Antoine Carrier, a middle school teacher in Bordeaux, southwest France, stays up late many nights, pen in hand, crafting math rhymes. Online, tens of thousands of kids know him as A'Rieka, the rapping math teacher. 

Brazil is remembering the 1964 coup that began on March 31 that year. The event 60 years ago sunk Brazil into a brutal 21-yearlong dictatorship that would last until 1985. Today, the country is still grappling with the meaning and memory of what happened. 

Jews around the world just celebrated the holiday of Purim, which is said to mark the survival of Jews in ancient Persia. In Israel, it is known for being a raucous holiday with parties, costumes, sweets and drinking. But for many Israelis, the war meant this year's holiday felt different.

University Art Gallery at San Diego State University has just unveiled an exhibit, "The Imaginary Amazon," featuring works by contemporary artists, many of them Indigenous inhabitants of the forest. The artists' intent is to address some of the stereotypical Western perspectives of the Amazon.

Lawmakers in Ghana recently passed a bill that could lead to a severe crackdown on LGBTQ activities that have many people worried. Ghana's president is under pressure domestically to sign the bill into law, but could face economic consequences if he does. 

March 18 marks the 10-year anniversary of a movement that changed Taiwanese politics for a generation. The Sunflower Movement saw hundreds of students occupy Taiwan's Legislature — demanding that lawmakers reconsider a trade deal they were about to ratify with China.

New York City is home to over 700 languages, but some will soon cease to exist. Is there still time to save them? The World's Carolyn Beeler talks to linguist and author Ross Perlin about his new book, “Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York."

‘Oppenheimer' is expected to win big at the 2024 Academy Awards. But one point of controversy is that the director did not depict any images of the devastating aftermath of the dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Getting those images out to the public was a longtime quest for Herbert Sussan, then a 24-year-old filmmaker who filmed in Japan at the time.

The World's host Carolyn Beeler talked with National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek about his experiences walking through different parts of Saudi Arabia as a part of his "Out of Eden Walk" project.

Food is, of course, an important part of culture. A new exhibit at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois, is exploring the role delis have played in Jewish culture and history. In America, many delis were founded by Holocaust survivors.

Camel racing is an ancient sport. There are records of races on the Arabian Peninsula that date back to the 7th century. These days, it's still hugely popular, with robot jockeys and cash prizes. But a new team is taking camel racing back to its roots — with a twist.

Seiji Ozawa, who led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) for nearly three decades, died this week in his home country of Japan. The World speaks to Brian McCreath, who broadcasts the Boston Symphony Orchestra on WCRB in Boston, about Ozawa's life and legacy.

Since the latter half of the 20th century, the influence of Frantz Fanon has been felt in fields as distinct as psychiatry and postcolonial studies. A new book explores the "revolutionary lives" of the psychiatrist, writer and anti-colonial rebel, whose understanding of identity evolved through his travel and experiences, including confronting colonial hierarchies as a person of color in postwar France, and eventually joining the Algerian War of Independence. Host Marco Werman learned more from Adam Shatz, author of "The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon."

The Haitian population of Miami has remained unchanged since the beginning of the century, with about 30,000 people. But little remains of the neighborhood that Maria and Viter Juste founded in the 1970s that came to be known as Little Haiti.

The World's host Marco Werman previews two of the artists who are featured as part of the 24th annual edition of International Guitar Night touring North America.

This week, jazz fans in Haiti will once again gather for the 17th annual PapJazz Festival. The event draws enthusiasts from across the island, as well as international jazz aficionados. Festival organizer Milena Sandler says the gathering in Port-au-Prince is "an act of resistance" amid security and economic challenges in Haiti.

The AfD, or Alternative for Germany, has been around for over a decade and has significant public support. But there's been widespread protests against them since news broke that AfD members had met with neo-Nazis to discuss mass deportations from Germany.

On Jan. 22, a temple of Lord Ram will open its doors in Ayodhya, in northern India. The temple stands where the Babri mosque once existed, before it was torn down by a Hindu mob. The occasion marks a victory for Hindus and a sorrowful reminder for Muslims of the ongoing tensions between the two groups in a Hindu-majority country.

Turkey is famous for its elaborate breakfasts, featuring a huge spread of a wide variety of foods that can take hours to eat. Critics say the traditional breakfast is indulgent and leads to food waste. Others say it's part of the culture and here to stay.

Birdwatching is a rapidly growing and lucrative part of the tourism sector worldwide, but women make up a very small minority of professional guides. Uganda Women Birders, a bird guide club, is revolutionizing the industry by encouraging and supporting women who want to get into the business. Anita Elash reports from the town of Entebbe, Uganda.

The small Baltic nation of Estonia is experiencing a folk music renaissance, with young musicians bringing traditional songs and instruments to the forefront in an attempt to reassert a unique Estonian identity and keep the country's ancient heritage alive.

Commercial surrogacy is banned in many European countries. In the US, the laws vary from state to state. The pope wants to see the practice outlawed worldwide.

When Ellie Highwood was crocheting a blanket as a baby gift in 2017, she wanted to make something that would mean something to the baby's climate-scientist parents. She ended up making a "global warming blanket." And she never could have guessed the impact that the blanket would have.

A new exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art takes visitors on a journey to explore food and art through the Middle East and beyond. It includes recipes by an Iranian American chef dating back to 10th-century Baghdad and artwork influenced by different cultures.

For Palestinians in the diaspora, staying connected to their ancestral home and making sense of the politics in the region has long been a challenge. Meklit Hadero, host of “Movement,” a series on music and migration, spoke with Clarissa Bitar, a Palestinian American who found that a musical instrument could bridge history and great distance.

Al-Iraqiya news recently started a Syriac-language broadcast in an attempt to preserve the ancient language, which derives from Aramaic, the original language of the Bible and Jesus. They are based in Baghdad. People at the network and in the Iraqi Christian community talk about what this means for them.

From 1943 to 1945, Curt Bloch, a German Jew, published the magazine “Het Onderwater Cabaret” from a crawl space in the Dutch home he was hiding in. His work is being featured next year in an exhibit at the Jewish Museum Berlin.

New York's Big Apple Circus is collaborating with a famed German circus this year, giving the annual show a distinctly European flair. Jeff Lunden reports on the mind-boggling juggling, the clowns and the poetry.

For the past few weeks, a floating film festival has been plying the waters of Ecuador's Amazon region. The films are transported aboard a solar-powered boat. It stops in Indigenous communities along the rivers, sets up a projector, and shows films by and about Indigenous people around the globe.

Since the Brexit vote of 2016, hundreds of thousands of Britons have applied for citizenship of European countries, allowing them to continue to work and travel freely while holding onto their British passport. Thousands have been able to acquire passports of other European nations through sometimes distant Jewish roots.