This is Beirut - Culture

Funk Legend George Clinton Brings Psychedelic Energy to Paris Gallery

This is Beirut, 01/11 14:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

At 84, George Clinton is a funk legend, ubiquitous hip-hop sample source, father of psychedelic Afrofuturism — and now, a painter with a show opening in Paris. Through it all, the self-taught American artist, the force behind the celebrated groups Parliament and Funkadelic, has hewed to his signature vision: “Gotta have that funk.” A life ...

Rachida Dati’s Plan to Protect France’s Cultural Crown Jewel

This is Beirut, 01/11 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Museum Louvre Security Rachida Dati France Culture

France's culture minister said Friday anti-ramming devices would be set up around The Louvre by year's end, after a high-profile heist at the famed museum reignited debate over its security. The announcement comes after four thieves parked a truck with a moving lift under one of its windows during opening hours on October 19, then used cutting ...

Kim Kardashian: Queen of Visibility

Bélinda Ibrahim, 31/10 19:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Kim Kardashian Social Media Instagram Exposure Culture

In the early 2000s, Kim Kardashian lingered on the edges of the celebrity world, known for her influential friends and low-key ventures. Everything changed in 2007 with the launch of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which transformed family intimacy into a public drama. It was no longer just about appearances; it had become a lifestyle staged as a ...

Lagos Fashion Week Spotlight: Onalaja Puts Nigerian Heritage at the Heart of Fashion

This is Beirut, 31/10 17:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Fashion Lagos Heritage Runway Adire Nigeria Culture

Models strutted down the runway, their beaded and sequined dresses evoking the traditional facial scarring still done in some parts of Nigeria. Others donned outfits paying homage to adire, a traditional Yoruba indigo fabric long prized for its craftsmanship. Kanyinsola Onalaja's show kicked off Lagos Fashion Week in style, in what has been a ...

10 Years of Aïshti Foundation

Lea Mehanna, 31/10 17:00 - Reading : less than a minute

Lebanon Culture Arts Beirut Paintings Exhibition

This is Arts steps into the opening of Flesh Flowers, an exhibition celebrating 10 years of the Aïshti Foundation, co-curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Roberta Tenconi. A powerful show bringing together over seventy female artists from around the world, exploring the dialogue between the body, identity, and painting. Featuring special interviews ...

Richard Linklater Says AI Can’t Capture Human Genius in Film

This is Beirut, 31/10 13:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

AI Film Broadway Cinema Culture Art

Can great art be made without human genius and all its flaws? It's a vital question at a time when artificial intelligence threatens to subsume Hollywood. Through new movies Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon, director Richard Linklater offers an answer—delving into the lives of two brilliant, volatile men whose films and plays shaped French New Wave ...

Inside Egypt’s Grand Egyptian Museum: A Monument to History

This is Beirut, 31/10 10:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Egypt Museum Culture Art Pyramids Civilization

Near the ancient Pyramids of Giza just outside Cairo, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is gearing up for a lavish opening on Saturday after two decades of delays. Massive statues and historic artefacts from the country's ancient civilization will be on display across the 24,000 square meters (258,000 square feet) of permanent exhibition space. Here ...

Universal Music and Udio Partner to Launch Licensed AI Music Platform

This is Beirut, 30/10 16:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Music Universal AI Copyright US Culture

Recording industry giant Universal Music Group said Thursday it had struck a licensing deal with AI music generation startup Udio, in an industry-first tie-up aiming to launch an AI creation platform next year. Universal and Udio said in a statement that their platform, as yet unnamed, "will be powered by new cutting-edge generative AI technology ...

Behind Bars, On Screen: Inside the San Quentin Film Festival

This is Beirut, 30/10 14:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Film Festival Prison Hollywood Redemption Culture

Held inside a notorious prison among some of California's most dangerous felons, the San Quentin Film Festival is not your typical Hollywood affair. Red-carpet interviews take place just yards (meters) away from a now dormant execution chamber where hundreds of death-row inmates met grisly ends. Convicted murderers sit alongside famous actors ...

Charlotte Gainsbourg Returns Under the Spell of a 'Blurry Moon'

Marie-Christine Tayah, 30/10 11:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Charlotte Gainsbourg Single Music Culture Art France

With her new single Blurry Moon, released in September 2025, Charlotte Gainsbourg marks a magnetic and deeply personal return to music. Produced by Saint Laurent and SebastiAn, the track blends elegance, restraint, and emotional clarity. The music is elevated by a video that is both artfully stylized and strikingly simple, a visual mirror of the ...

Benching: Keeping the Other on Hold

David Sahyoun, 29/10 18:00 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Benching Psychoanalysis Culture Relationship

In the new digital dictionary, we are learning to decode, “to bench” means keeping someone on the sidelines, like a player who is sent neither off the field nor fully into the game, but kept warmed up, available, and waiting. Benching is not the radical severing of connection seen in ghosting, nor the deliberate freezing of icing. It belongs ...

Swiss Town Returns Sacred Artefacts to South Africa

This is Beirut, 29/10 11:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Culture Art Artefacts Switzerland Africa Neuchâtel

The Swiss town of Neuchâtel on Tuesday handed over to South Africa three artefacts that had spent more than a century in one of its museums. The set of 30 divining bones in a woven basket, a bull's foot bone used as an amulet, and a walking staff were purchased by Swiss missionary and ethnographer Henri-Alexandre Junod. The items came from the ...

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