Sharmini Brookes

February 2010

Organising chaos: a natural imperative

It seemed the end of the Newtonian dream. We could never know the starting point accurately. Scientific certainty dissolved. Chaos was seen everywhere, hard-wired into every aspect of the world in which we live.

January 2010

Don’t look on the bright side – it’s positively fatal

‘Crayons?!!!’ she asked incredulously, ‘what are they for?’ ‘So you can express your feelings’ she was told. As an established writer and author of fourteen books, including the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch she was incensed. This infantilisation of adults in the face of what was for her a frighteningly traumatic experience made her want to throw up.

April 2009

The idea that drives the music

Projects that involve children in learning how to be a DJ or how to write rap and dance to hip-hop are no doubt enjoyable for the children involved, but will not transform their reality. In many instances, this is the only reality they know. The El Sistema approach, by contrast, would have forced them to engage with a different more rigorous tradition than the one they have grown up with

February 2009

Geregtigheid in a Rainbow Nation

Beckett’s characters speak Seffricanese, the language of Josi or Joburg as the locals call their city – an exuberant mix of English peppered with popular phrases and slang words from Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho.

November 2008

El Sistema – social engineering with inspiration

El Sistema takes children from varied backgrounds and abilities and forces them through a system that demands discipline and application, and the rewards have been inspiring.

Music
August 2008

Learning Chinese

Ting deliberately intersperses her English dialogue with snatches of Chinese exclamations and sayings to bring the characters to life and remind one of their Chinese heritage.

Theatre
July 2008

Speed dating on progress

‘India has been successful in producing the Tata car to replace the rickshaws that many people have to depend on for transport. The Indian people want cars not rickshaws. Now we’re bringing their rickshaws to central London. What’s that about? We should be happy for the Chinese and the Indians.’

Last week on Culture Wars


Heroic horizons
High-rise London, cynicism about heroes, and London theatre.
4 March 2010


Culture Wars in association with the Battles in Print, specially commissioned essays for this year’s Battle of Ideas festival.

Culture Wars has been included in creativetourists’ Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs.



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