New York’s huge Gay Pride fest launches with star-studded concert

New York’s highly anticipated World Pride festivities officially opened Wednesday with a benefit concert hosted by performer Whoopi Goldberg and featuring headliner Cyndi Lauper.

The event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena launches days of celebrations including more concerts, exhibitions, movie screenings, theatre shows and workshops as the city pays homage to those who took part in the 1969 Stonewall riots, a week-long protest against police harassment of the New York gay community at the time.

Ticket proceeds from Wednesday’s concert will go to three New York-based organizations supporting LGBTQ rights in the city.

Also set to perform are singers Chaka Khan and Ciara as well as Billy Porter, known for his showstopping red carpet looks and role on “Pose,” a television series about the primarily Black and Latino underground drag ball scene of the 1980s and early 1990s.

On Friday, a large crowd will gather outside Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn where on June 28, 1969 hundreds of gay and transgender people pushed back against the latest police raid on the establishment, sparking six days of unrest.

The weekend celebrations will feature concerts by Madonna and Grace Jones, winding up with a giant World Pride Parade on Fifth Avenue. It will be the sixth edition of World Pride, which began in Rome in 2000 and brought together droves of people from across the world.

New York’s Gay Pride is regularly one of the largest such events globally, but for this year’s milestone anniversary, authorities expect an additional two to three million visitors to attend.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Pick up the pieces– turning junk into art

Jan Andrew Denila has a message: Let’s help each other and  get the country back on its feet after every crisis.

He didn’t need elaborate materials to convey his optimism. He used scrap and other found objects, transforming them in something beautiful and outstanding.

His work has won the grand prize in the sculpture category of the 47th Shell National Students Art Competition—the longest-running and most anticipated contest for young Filipino artists.

His entry, “Buuin Natin Ulit. Bangon Na, Sulung Na!” was his first-ever for the Shell contest.

The 26-year-old senior Interior Design student from the Philippine Women’s College (PWC) of Davao emerged victorious in a formidable category (which included an entry from the University of the Philippines Diliman) and impressed Filipino contemporary artists and competition judges Ral Arrogante, Junyee and Leeroy New. 









Imagination

“I formulate my ideas in a junk shop where I can easily compose artistic figures in my mind,” he said in an interview. “When I see a pile of junk with different shapes in front of me, I  imagine what my art will look like.”

Denila’s winning artwork is mostly made up of nuts and bolts. “I started by picking up some junk materials, and classifying them according to shapes and then material,” he described the process.

After deciding on an angle and visualizing his piece, he brought his draft to his small shop where he used a welding machine to assemble the pieces. He did it while praying to God for guidance; his attachment to his process was evident when he revealed its meaning.

Islands of hope

“I dedicate my masterpiece to the ‘Yolanda’ survivors. The three figures symbolize the three islands of hope: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,” he said.

His sculpture shows how we all can help each other in times of dire need. “The drowning man represents ‘bangon na,’ while the man at the center holding the rope expresses ‘sulong na,’” he said. “The figure at the top is more complete compared to the two other figures—this time conveying the process of survival from tragedy to recovery.”

Denila earned well-deserved prizes of P60,000 in cash, a medal, and a plaque.

Art and culture

“Being a Mindanaoan artist, I dedicate my work to my countrymen, because for me, the soul of a real artist comes from his or her culture,” he said. “Culture develops values and inspirations—very important if you’re an artist.”

He believes that being an artist doesn’t only require skill; the creative process also involves the heart and mind.
“Before I started doing my piece, I made sure that I went through the process of feeling and thinking,” he said.

‘Design thinking’

Denila is one of the artists-and-visionaries-in-the-making at PWC, where “design thinking” is said to be at the core of its art education. The student’s recognition nationwide also earned the PWC of Davao a citation for Excellence in Curricular Program of Study in Fine Arts.

The Shell competition was aptly titled “Art Spark,” symbolizing the new revolution in modern art forms. The contest received a record number of 1,600-plus entries across all categories.

The awarding ceremonies were held at the Ayala Museum in Makati.

“I believe that one of the roles of an artist is to contribute new ideas for change, to inspire people to innovate and to make impossible things possible,” he said. “I want to make something meaningful for humanity.”

The young artist wants to mount a solo exhibit soon and open his own furniture store—a one-stop shop for paintings and sculptures.

“I want to help my countrymen develop their skills, too. I believe that Filipinos are skilled and strong,” he said.

His vision for the country is reflected in the scraps of metal that are pieced together to form art that speaks from the heart and mind of its creator.

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

The essence behind the symbols

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the Islamic world celebrates the Amon Hadid, or the Islamic New Year.  The presence of the waxing new moon, or a crescent moon, symbolizes the start of the month of Muharram, first of 12 months of the Islamic lunar calendar. Despite its strong presence in Islamic symbolism, scholars argue that the crescent moon has in fact, figured more strongly in other cultures and religions.

The moon is the symbol of Artemis, the Greek female goddess of the hunt, and her Roman counterpart Diana. In ancient Celtic civilizations, the crescent moon signified femininity. In the Chinese culture, it is suggestive of emotions. In early Islam, the symbol defined the conquest of Constantinople, its use possibly evolving from the Ottoman Turks who so widely used this symbol to represent their city. Eventually, the flags of Egypt, Pakistan, and other Islamic nations adapted it into their own.

The domes of the mosques have held the same association to Islam. In Islamic architecture, places of worship have distinct pointed domes, a major structural feature that sets them apart from their western counterparts. In Turkey, the mosques have been built with vast interior spaces, made possible by the extensive use of structural vaults. Framed by towers or minarets, this style of architecture was that of the Ottomans, who mastered this to be distinctly theirs as their empire flourished in what is now modern-day Turkey.

Aside from imposing dominion over the territory, the essence of building mosques was for congregational worship and prayer—and the internalization of the presence of God’s grace (or whatever you would call him in your religion).

Radical breakaway

In Turkey, one particular mosque stands out a as radical breakaway from conventional mosque design. The Sancaklar Mosque designed by Emre Arolat Architects flaunts not only the crescent symbolism now so associated with both Islam and Istanbul but the traditional vaults and minarets so distinct of the architecture of this region as well. This mosque returns to the very essence of worship and religious space, and creates an environment where one can connect to the higher regions of spirituality.






Built on a savannah-like environment along a major roadway in the suburban neighborhood of Buyuk Cekmece in the outskirts of Istanbul, the Sancaklar Mosque is so unlike its traditional counterparts. It is made of geometric planes that create a half sunken space. Its planes hug the horizontality of its site, a topography that is both harsh yet serene. Its thick walls jut out of the ground and define its boundaries.

More width than height

The inside of the mosque is equally rugged: natural stone is used for almost all its interior surface that stretch, covered by a six-meter wide concrete canopy that mimics the mild slopes of the exterior landscape, a vastness achieved with the modern technology of reinforced concrete that has outgrown the need for a vaulted structural system. Here, there is more width than height.

The wide interior worship spaces are defined by filtered light weaving through the passages of its layered entrance hallway, and a sliver of light coming down the opposite wall, on what would otherwise be known as the “mihrab,” indicative of the direction one must face while in prayer. There are no vaults, nor minarets. Not even the crescent moon.

The lone beacon of the mosque’s presence is a rectangular tower that lights at night. The light at the top whispers of its existence, almost like the crescent moon of the great Islamic domes. The Sancaklar Mosque manages to be a modest and quiet symbol of religious worship in times of modernity, reminding us that despite the need for symbolism, structures must be built to be true to their essence.

source: business.inquirer.net