What a night we are in for on Friday as all the elements come together for a visceral night’s “entertainment” at the MAC in Belfast. Let’s look at the ingredients. First of all you have one of the greatest poems ever written in Irish, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, translated into English by Pulitzer-prize winning poet …
Category Archives: Arts
Re-kindling the fire and fury in the Civil Rights-era music of Nina Simone
I don’t know if you can put a primal scream to music but Josette Bushell-Mingo’s show, Nina – A Story about Me and Nina Simone has all the power of a holler against racism, whether it is in her native London or in Simone’s North Carolina or anywhere else in the world. Bushell-Mingo comes from …
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Suibhne Geilt le tuirlingt sa Cheoláras Náisiúnta anocht
Tá Neil Martin iontach sásta leis féin – agus cad chuige nach mbeadh? Beidh an cumadóir Feirsteach ag stiúradh coirme de shaothar úr dá chuid i gcomhair le Ceolfhoireann Shiansach Náisiúnta RTÉ sa Ceoláras Náisiúnta, sa phríomhchathair ar lá éarlamh na hÉireann, anocht, 17 Márta. Anuraidh, d’iarr RTÉ ar Neil saothar a chumadh do Lá …
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New Arrivals make for great drama
Have you ever spent any time in a house that was lived in by a diverse group of immigrants? Have you ever wondered what life is like for the Roma, the Africans, the eastern European who are living in what used to be one of the most homogeneous places in Europe? I saw Arrivals last …
Early wax recordings
I really enjoyed the first programme in Neil Brand’s BBC4 series, Sound of Song especially the beginning about the early history of recorded sound. Early recordings were made on tinfoil which sent me back to the childhood game of playing a comb covered in tinfoil and how it tickled the lips! From tinfoil, the great …
All aboard The Holy, Holy Bus
It comes as little surprise to hear that Brassneck Theatre Company’s Holy, Holy Bus has won the Belfast Telegraph’s Audience Award at this Belfast Festival at Queens. Having seen it at the Waterfront Hall I can understand why. The Holy, Holy Bus, written by Pearse Elliott, is about four generations of women from west Belfast, all …
Armagh Artists at the Duncairn Centre
Wednesday, 1 October sees the launch of an exhibition of new work from two artists originally from Armagh, Lorcan Vallely and Stephen Farnan, at the beautiful new Duncairn Centre for Culture & Arts in north Belfast. Lorcan Vallely, who has recently moved back to Armagh and set up studio in the city, studied fine art at …
Open House, Bangor
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, Oh I do like to be beside the sea … Bangor on the north Down coast has turned into Festival City, with something exciting happening nearly every weekend for the past month and arguably, the best of the bunch still to come thanks to the Open …
Walking Towards a Song
I like quizzes. My field of knowledge might not be very deep but it is quite wide. I know things others amongst of my peers aren’t remotely interested in which earns me looks of admiration during University Challenge or at the pub quizzes I used to go to. The Scór is a competition run by …
Eastside Arts Festival
There has long been the impression that the north’s Protestants don’t do the arts. It is patently untrue as Eastside Arts festival in East Belfast is about to prove. To my casual eye, it seems that Eastside have got it just right. The most successful festivals manage a perfect mixture of the local and the global, …