A new music venue will open its doors in Birmingham this year.
Housed in a building formerly home to the city s Birmingham Ballroom and Birmingham Academy, the newly renovated, multi-faceted 3,500-capacity Forum a venue designed with DJs and live electronic acts in mind is getting ready to open for summer.
Promoters already confirmed to host events include AEG Presents, Goldenvoice, Kilimanjaro Live and Cream, with local Birmingham promoters Leftfoot, Shadow City and Foliée also planning to host events at the new Forum. Tom Ranger, who has worked with the likes of Oval Space, The Pickle Factory, Percolate Live and Dreamland Margate, has been named the Head of Events & Programming.
For this bookseller of Kabul, the pandemic was a blip in a country afflicted by long-term war
Shah Muhammed Rais of Shah M Book Company fame was inadvertently prepared for the pandemic. Inside Shah M Book Company, Kabul
“…But all this world is like a tale we hear
Men’s evil, and their glory, disappear.”
This is one of the 50,000 couplets that make up 10th century poet Abul Qasem Firdausi’s
Shah Nameh: The Book of Kings, a masterpiece in Persian that offers philosophical insight into almost every human dilemma. That, at least is the feeling of Afghanistan’s legendary bookseller Shah Muhammed Rais, a man whose own tumultuous biography is perhaps no less epic than Firdausi’s magnum opus.
Stone Soup Newsletter: December 19, 2020
December 19, 2020
A note from Sarah
Stone Soup.
Just a note that if you are still looking for a gift for a young creative person,
Stone Soup is a great option! Subscriptions and eBooks don’t require stressing about last-minute shipping and provide inspiration and joy for young readers. On the subject of gifts, I’m sure a lot of us are partial to giving (and receiving) books as gifts. I’d like to point you also to the treasure trove that is the Book Review section of our blog. There you can find young readers reviewing all kinds of books, from classics like
Unshackling Kabul From Cliches: An Interview With Author Taran Khan
Taran N. Khan s âShadow City: A Woman Walks Kabulâ won the 2020 Tata Literature Live! first book award in the non-fiction category.
Afghan schoolgirls pause by the side of the road in Kabul, November 7, 2019. Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Rina Chandran
Books16/Dec/2020
The very act of a woman walking alone is enough to make curious heads turn in most cities around the world. More often than not, whichever alley or main road it may be, the male gaze eventually makes itself known. For the walker, the act can be both infused with fear and and a sense of rebellion. It is for exactly that reason why Taran N. Khan’s book
Kiki Strike: Inside The Shadow City, Reviewed by Sita, 11
December 14, 2020
The YA novel
Kiki Strike: Inside The Shadow City, is unlike any book I’ve ever read. The main character, twelve year-old Ananka Fishbein, lives a relatively boring life until she finds an enormous subterranean city underneath New York, and meets Kiki Strike, a young girl who notices everything about everyone and seems to be able to appear and disappear at will. Together, they assemble a crew called the Irregulars, composed of delinquent Girl Scouts with unusual talents, to explore the labyrinthine city. The book is filled with hilarious quips, heartfelt gestures of solidarity, and an empowering message for girls and geeks everywhere.