Paul Rob Wright

TsinderAsh is a twenty-something British lyricist who plays 12 instruments and counting, from celtic harp (his mother’s influence) to Appalachian dulcimer (his dad’s side) – oh and he knows his way around a Roland EG-101 synth. And he’s just released his new Both the Wound and The Blade EP: a contemporary taunt of folkloric belief.

What can people expect to see when they come to your Instagram page?

Well, lots of selfies, but I guess more recently it’s been based around this new project that’s

July 29 2020 marks 4th anniversary of the unveiling of ‘Dolphin’s of Hollywood’ Square in LA, a street renaming invoked by an LA Councilman called Curren Price. Its aim: to commemorate the contribution of African American businessman John Dolphin, the guru well-known for pioneering interracial music marketing in 1950s LA. Dolphin’s tactics brought Black, Hispanic and White kids together in unity.

But pitched against a shady setting of 1950s LA Authority Councilmen, we see how they set-out to fa

Shannon Kay picks up my call over What’sApp and is unfazed by my thinking-out-loud opening gambit, “so how are you coming across, with the level of your voice?” I ask. Shannon responds – encouragingly – “erm, I can hear myself fine, so you’ll have to tell me... how much louder [do] you need me to talk?”

A believer in the notion that process is sometimes as important as the outcome, for Shannon “it leads to strong personal connections and trusting relationships between people,” a point from which emerges through humanity’s better traits, those of empathy and patience.

Launching our Skype chat Omar Berakdar explains where the distant din of sound is coming from “yeah, this is downstairs, the cafe, everybody is downstairs.” Talking to me from Turkey using the admin computer at ARTHERE, an art-cafe meet-up space which he co-initiated. “This [is] mainly a space for connecting, and mainly for creativity”.

Omar is a trained chemist and practicing photographic artist and activist who departed Syria with his wife for Istanbul in 2012 in reaction to escalating conflict between prodemocracy rebels and government sympathizers. From his role as an artist and activist but
also as a human being, he’s in constant search of, what he illustrates abstractly as, ‘home’.

A straight talker from the get go, Hanzade Germiyanoglu responds to my initial set-up question with frank humility. “Communications... the team mentioned that it was going to be like a personal affiliation to the project, a personal profile; I’m fine with that... though, I don’t know if I’m eligible or it’ll inspire...” Germiyanoglu has spent the last 2 years as Field Coordinator of Support to Life, and actually inspires wherever she treads. Talking of her reasons for getting into the Humanitarian Aid work.

Between November and December 2020, France entered the second wave of lockdown. Restaurants have to close and the residents have to stay within a 1km radius from their houses. However, you can still get take-away!

As a Paris Spotter I thought it would be nice to put together this list of my favorite places around my neighborhood Faidherbe – Chaligny to break the routine.

What draws me in there, is the fine quality of the ‘egg and bacon’ roll. Served on sourdough bread, the egg is perfectly poa

V-VIBE is a grassroots visual festival which is taking place in record shops, or there abouts. Its aim is to bring a visual ‘V’ as visual art exhibitions to the window displays, or interiors of local record retailers. Hit social media and you’ll see we’ve posts saying ▼i s u a l artists X ⓇecordⓈhops #RecordshopVibes – new for 2020 (a festival in and about record shops, running 10 Oct – 22 Nov).

Such an initiative of combining visual artists and record shops isn’t so new, but in response to get

Paris’s 1st district, more locally known as the Louvre district, dates back to the Middle Ages, and a summertime ramble around the area can reveal a rather peculiar Paris.

Here’s a Spotted by Locals review of 5 spots which search out some wonderfully lesser-known nooks and crannies but also its historical left-overs. Enjoy the beautiful architecture!

As folies go, Paris has its fair share of them, and for folie-hunters, the corner of Rue de L’Arbre Sec and Rue Saint Honoré is riddled with foli

After working with information science students here in Paris, now with the spring semester at an glorious end, this week I found time to reach out to a fellow Parisian Hugo (pictured) to find out how an algorithm that Hugo’s been working on will affect the market for the printed paper map, but also our personalized experience of exploring the city.

As Spotted by Locals city apps are totally digital, but essentially UGoMap is a printed wall map (measuring approximately 1.4 metres x 1 metre) wha