Razmig Bedirian

3 weeks ago | thenationalnews.com | Razmig Bedirian

Stairwells often take on a new function during war and natural disasters. These in-between spaces – typically designed to merely connect one floor to another – become something else entirely in moments of crisis. Structurally resilient and tucked away from exposed facades, they serve as improvised shelters where people gather in hope, fear and resilience. Their mundane utility is transformed. In the face of destruction, stairwells become spaces where life clings on.

4 weeks ago | thenationalnews.com | Razmig Bedirian

More than 300 public figures have signed an open letter calling on the British government to cease what they describe as its “complicity in the horrors in Gaza.”The letter was initiated by the UK-based charity Choose Love and is addressed to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. It features figures from across the entertainment industry, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Dua Lipa, Annie Lennox, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed.

1 month ago | thenationalnews.com | Razmig Bedirian

In May 1975, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina became the first Arab and African to win the Palme d’Or, the top honour at the Cannes Film Festival, for Chronicles of the Years of Fire. It was not just a moment of cinematic triumph for the Algerian filmmaker – who has died aged 95, his family said on Friday – but a testament to his resilience. After all, the screening of Chronicles of the Years of Fire was rife with tension.

1 month ago | thenationalnews.com | Razmig Bedirian

This week’s list of exhibitions are united by a common thread – textiles as mediums of memory, identity and power. Handwoven artworks created in collaboration with artisans in Afghanistan, raw silk panels dyed using natural materials and royal African attire and textiles symbolising authority, the works in these exhibitions show how textiles transcend their materiality to become profound expressions of cultural narratives and personal stories.

1 month ago | thenationalnews.com | Razmig Bedirian

Zadie Smith, Elif Shafak and Hanif Kureishi are among the 380 writers and organisations from the UK and Ireland that have signed an open letter denouncing Israel’s war in Gaza as genocidal and urging an immediate ceasefire. The letter begins with A Star Said Yesterday, a poem by the late Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. The poem, imagining a cosmic sanctuary, is a poignant yearning for refuge and safety amidst devastation.