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They call it an orchestra, but this atypical all-percussion group is far from featuring the range of musicians found in a conventional ensemble. Which does not mean that the music they make is not rich and varied, as the young amateur musicians produce an amazing array of sounds.
The Marist congregation’s youth shelter Casa da Acolhida Olho d’Água has been running for less than three years. Its Percussion Orchestra is called to play at events, gatherings and parties throughout São Luis, the capital of the state of Maranhão, besides playing a key social role in poor communities.
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French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has been awarded by the Swedish Academy with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature. Le Clézio thus wins the prestigious prize of 10 million Swedish krona (US$1.4 million), for being "an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, an explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation," according to the Academy.
His first book, Le Procès-verbal, was published in 1963, when the novelist was 23 years old. Now, aged 68, he receives the Nobel Prize in Literature being recognised as a a key figure of French literature.
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In La Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Romeo and Juliet's love story is impossible because they live on hills controlled by rival gangs of drug traffickers.
Shakespeare no morro vivo (Shakespeare Live on the Hill) is put on in the heights of the favelas (shantytowns) every time the author and director of this theatrical adaptation, Joana Medeiros, obtains a donation to finance at least the costs of transportation and food for the cast.
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A polar bear is in the middle of the Sahara desert. It is not a mirage.
Underneath the bear's head could be seen the face of an Inuit actor, who is
wearing the skin for a skit. Artcirq -- an Inuit circus collective -- had
travelled from the Arctic to Africa for Festival in the Desert, held here on the
weekend.
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After decades of cold neglect, the distinct and intricate cultures of the tiny islands that surround the archipelago of Japan's four main islands have recently begun to gain public attention.
Japan's small island culture is rich in its diversity, given its historical background, which is very different from the mainland. In many ways, the islands reflect a Japan that is ethnically mixed, an image that contrasts with the official depiction of Japan as a homogenous country, says Junko Konishi, a musicologist at Shizuoka University.
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Alternative News 
Our Leonardo da Vinci screensaver celebrates the genius of the man and displays 54 of his greatest artworks (some with different versions), drawing scientific studies and drawings.