The Power of Culture

Charleville-Mézières, in the French Ardennes, is the world’s puppet capital. One company which performed at the triennial international puppet theatre festival was the Mandalay Marionettes Theatre from Burma.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 enabled fruit seller Khosrow Hassanzadeh to become an artist: the chaos created new opportunities. His compelling work, created since the 1980s, contains elements from the art of Japanese prints, the French Nabis artists, art nouveau and Andy Warhol.

Theatre group Sakhna was one of the participants in the Central Asian Theatre Caravan Meeting that was held from 7 - 10 June 2006 in Bishkek. The goal of the meeting was to establish a Central Asian 'performance' network. Previous meetings have been held in Tadzhikistan and Uzbekistan.

"The best poetry is the folk epic," declared Taban Lo Liyong during the 37th Poetry International in Rotterdam, where he gave the tenth lecture in Defence of Poetry.

"I’m no expert on the Hip Hop culture in Gabon," says Brazilian Max Soares. "But my research in countries including Namibia, Angola, South Africa and Tanzania has taught met that Hip Hop is an extremely important part of today’s African culture.

"My country’s bloody history and the play Blood Wedding by Fredrico Garcia Lorca were my major sources of inspiration," says Rassoul Labuchin as he explains how Le Mariage Linglinsou evolved.