The world is most transfixed at the “death or glory” of a musician’s career, especially at that moment when they’re either making a comeback after a long absence from music or marrying new genres into their music. Gaye Su Akyol is having a go at both with her latest album Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian Dragon). She […]
A former senior British diplomat who served in the Middle East will give a special talk at the Yunus Emre Institute, tracing through history how a hunting hound known as the Saluki came to feature in the cultural heritage of the Middle East. Sir Terence Clark, who served in many parts of the Middle East […]
For centuries, Turkish culture has encompassed a wide range of art forms, such as calligraphy (hüsn-i hat), paper marbling (ebru), illumination (tezhip), miniature, Turkish ceramic (çini) and batik. A new month-long London exhibition, The Noble, will showcase these traditional Turkish arts, displaying the works of eleven contemporary artists regarded as masters in their respective field. […]
A dystopian patriarchal world, where in the absence of women, plants are the substitutes for men to fully control. Each man owns an empty pot called a ‘void’, which they must fill with a plant purchased from the “Board of District Void and Matchmaking Administration” at some point and take care of it’s living conditions. […]
A nostalgic glimpse at Şimuni and Hurmüz Diril’s last reunion with their family in their home village of Meer (Kovankaya), one of the only remaining Chaldean Catholic villages in Türkiye today. Director Etna Özbek films the family as they prepare for the winter season, stocking supplies and wrapping up the fine honeycombs to share out […]
A contemporary Turkish retelling of Hamlet is set to hit London in December. This humorous play, Bir Baba Hamlet [Big Boss Hamlet], has been seen by thousands of people across Turkiye to great acclaim, and is set to debut in the British capital with a one-night performance at Indigo at The O2 in Greenwich. It […]
Food presenter and writer Leyla Kazim has announced she is to appear on BBC One’s hit cooking show MasterChef as a food critic in the episode airing on Friday, 11 November 2022. Posting on her social media page, The Cutlery Chronicles, Leyla wrote, “There’s a new MasterChef UK critic in town”, adding that she will […]
Having sold out their last show at The Jazz Cafe with months to spare, Derya Yıldırım and her band return for two more gigs, including their biggest UK show yet, at the Islington Assembly Hall. This critically acclaimed modern super-quintet and their electrified and highly danceable Turkish psych sound follow up their debut album release […]
The much-hyped Istanbul band Islandman continue their stratospheric rise with their biggest UK show to date early in the New Year. The electro-acoustic live trio provide a unique mix of mellow electronic dance beats with spacey live guitars, backed up by shamanic rhythms. Combining Turkish psychedelia and rhythms rooted in East Africa with electronic structures, […]
The 1st of November 2022 marked exactly one hundred years since the Ottoman Empire officially ended. In existence for over 600 years, and widely regarded as one of the greatest ever empires, the Ottomans left an indelible mark on our lives. Now a new book by Diane Darke, The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy, re-examines the impact […]
