Somali Art and Entertainment

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K'NAAN

 

 

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, just as the civil unrest that rocked the country was beginning, K'Naan spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to the hip-hop records (such as Nas & Rakim) that his father (working as a Taxi driver in New York City), who had left Somalia earlier, sent to him from America. When K'Naan was 13, he, his mother, and his two siblings were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in Harlem, where they stayed briefly before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where there was a large Somali community. As soon as K'Naan's English started improving he began rapping, and in grade ten he dropped out of school and traveled around North America for two years, performing occasionally.

 

Through his friendship with Sol Guy, part of promotion team Direct Current Media, K'naan performed in Geneva at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2001, where he used his platform to publicly criticize the United Nations' handling of the Somali crisis in the 1990s.

 

One of the audience members, Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, was so impressed by the young MC's performance and courage that he invited him to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges, a project through which K'Naan was able to tour the world.

 

Solo Career

 

In 2002 K'Naan met Jarvis Church, part of the Track and Field Productions team that helped to propel Nelly Furtado to fame, a connection that eventually led to a record.

 

In 2005, he performed with DobaCaracol during the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario. His full-length debut album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher, was released in 2005.

 

His song "Soobax" (pronounced "So-Bah") is now featured in the best selling video game FIFA Football 2006, made by Electronic Arts.

 

K'naan participated in the Breedlove Odyssey Tour with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch and Jean Grae. He also participated in the "Welcome to Jamrock" tour along with Damian Marley.

 

The Dusty Foot Philosopher received a 2006 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year, and was nominated for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize. He also featured in a song by M1, titled "Till We Get There".

 

Discography

 

The Dusty Foot Philosopher (2006)

 

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Nuruddin farah

 

is one of Africa’s most significant writers, best known for the 1998 novel Secrets (from the trilogy Blood in the Sun), the Penguin Classic From a Crooked Rib (1970) and his recent book Links (2003). In prose alternatively described as exuberant, inventive, poetic, dreamlike and luminous,

 

books by Nuruddin Farah

 

 

The multilingual writer Nurudin Farah was named the 1998 Neustadt Laureate. He was the first African to receive this award, a literary prize which is considered to be secondary in prestige to the Nobel Prize for literature.

[ElPunto]

^I simply can't get into Mr. Farah's fiction - some of the stuff leaves you aghast - his non-fiction is more palatable.

[Chimera]

abdisalam Aato: Director

 

formed Olol Film Productions in 2002, the year he arrived in Columbus. in 2003 he launched the distribution company Somalywood Studios

 

 

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Throughout the Iraq war, Rageh Omaar stood on a hotel rooftop in Baghdad and told it to us straight. We talk to the news man whose cool, calm delivery - and boyish good looks - made him a household name.

 

Little had prepared Rageh Omaar for the reception that awaited him when he eventually left Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

 

For three months - almost without cease - he took the temperature of the beleaguered capital in reports seen by almost 90% of Britons

 

on either BBC bulletins or News 24, despatches that were also syndicated widely abroad.

 

In the process, Omaar developed quite a fan base. Viz magazine dedicated its latest issue to "Britain's best-loved bullet-dodging dreamboat". The New York Post dubbed him the Scud Stud. A website all but sold out of T-shirts bearing his noble visage. And in New Zealand, where tributes come typically low-key, a reporter with the national radio network named one of her lambs Rageh.

 

 

What he finds somewhat bewildering is the interest in him as a person - indeed, when he took a break from reporting duties, the BBC received numerous e-mails inquiring as to his safety.

 

People come up to me on the street and say 'oh, we were so worried about you'. It's over-whelming, humbling, a little bit frightening as well," Omaar told BBC News Online.

 

"And people got fixated on the oddest things, like my red fleece or the buttons on my shirt. People have said 'your reporting's great but please stop wearing that red jacket'."

 

Was it embarrassing that of the three BBC correspondents in Baghdad - let alone the scores of journalists in the Gulf - he was the one to catch the limelight? In a word, yes, in part because those same colleagues teased him mercilessly. "They made sure my feet stayed firmly on the ground."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3028179.stm

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Director

 

Mohammad Ali ''Mighty Mo''

 

With a name like Mohammad Ali, we weren’t surprised when the East Londoner told us of his previous potential career. “I used to be a boxer,” reveals the man known more commonly as Mighty Mo. “I even had two professional fights under my name. It was going well - until I busted my knuckle.” Pre-knuckle buckle, his opponents must have been shook when they looked at the card, but when they saw him, he laughs, they weren’t so scared anymore. “They would say, ‘Yeah, he’s pretty skinny. I can take him.’ They nearly did until I was biting their ankles!” So how did the ex-boxer turn into one of the UK’s most promising video young guns? For that we have to revert to his childhood. Like Mike TV from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Mo spent much of his early years in front of the box. “I’ll tell you the truth,” he says, opening up to RWD. “When I was younger, the babysitter would just plop me in front of the TV. To me then, it was just noise and flickering lights and stuff, but when I was older, say around 12, all I knew is that I loved the TV itself.”

 

Getting into the video direction game by chance, Mo remembers his first meeting with Hollywood was totally unexpected. “I used to hang around Beckton and Full Metal Jacket was shot there. On day one, one of the art directors came up to us in a 4x4, asking for a location [to shoot]. We showed him some derelict buildings and he loved it. He was really impressed and asked if I wanted to become one of his assistants over the summer holidays. I did it even though for a while I didn’t even know what I was doing.” Despite, ‘just running about and making tea,’ the budding lensman found himself loving everything, from complex matters like lighting to ‘simple things like waiting for planes to pass before shooting.’ With new cheap Argos camera in tow, Mo started putting together his own short films. “I would go into my local college and just hassle them. After a week and a half they let me in and I learned the basics.”

 

From those early days of doing Matrix remakes and looking up to Hype Williams and Chris Cunningham - which he still does - Mo has progressed and thrown himself into learning the craft. “I got a random bunch of rappers from around my area, turned them into a crew and made their video,” he says of the first vid that made it onto satellite. “I started charging more and more and thought, ‘Rah, I wanna be a director.’” Mr Ali soon found himself working in LWT studios on daytime projects but the big break came when an MC called Lethal B came knocking. “I showed him my work, he liked it and the next thing you know we’re meeting in a KFC car park talking about a tune called Pow!.” Knowing little but liking a lot, he went to work on a budget of ‘peanuts’ but he still went all-out with it. “I got my friend who does professional lighting, someone’s Dad who does camerawork for the National Geographic channel and mixed that with some people off the street.” That video, as we all know, became one of the grime scene’s most iconic. And memorable. That is until the Murkle Man video came along. “Jammer showed me an image, [RWD’s Issue 44 to be exact] and said he wanted it to be like that. It went from there.” Thanks to the video, that track has blown up the underground leading Mo to work with Plan B, Cream Cartel, Bruza, Choong Family, Blazin’ Squad (if that counts) and many more.

 

Due to his talent and graft Mo was recently snapped up by a big video production company, Draw Pictures. Getting all retrospective, Mo leaves RWD with a few down-to-earth words, “I’ve seen guys older than me get me cups of tea. That humbles you to think where you’ve got to, and right now there’s lots of work coming in,” he concludes. “I just wanna keep learning and living the dream.”

 

 

^^Major track last year in the UK

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Photographers Tariq Mohamed and Abdi Roble, arts advocate and author Donn Vickers and broadcaster and actor Chuck White have been named winners of the 2006 Arts Freedom Awards by the South Side Settlement House and Huntington Bank.

 

The Arts Freedom Awards program, in its sixth year, was "created to celebrate artists who, through their life’s work, have impacted the human condition in central Ohio," Sunami said.

 

"All of these artists represent the best of what central Ohio has to offer in terms of generosity and commitment to giving, in its most meaningful sense."

 

Winners are selected by a panel of judges made up of professionals in the arts community.

 

Proceeds from the celebration will help support an endowment fund for the settlement house.

 

"I don’t believe there is any other award ceremony that recognizes the work and lives of central Ohio artists quite like the Arts Freedom Awards," said Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art.

 

source

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SKYHIGH FAMILY

 

Skyhigh family is a hip hop group from Somalia, but based in Minneapolis, MN, USA. The group consist of Alian, AG, Kashulty and Medman.

 

These 4 young gifted Somali born have been making much noise throughout America's Underground Hip Hop Scene for quite sometime now and they have torn the mics at various hip hop shows. With their energy and passion for music the group is aiming at the top.

 

You will hear more of their work on their highly anticipated album "The Arrival" which is in stores right now. Currently in studio working on bigger projects for both mixtapes and next LP. Skyhigh will tour the United States and Europe on selected dates.

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The Story of a Somali Girl

 

Author ,Aman

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NOORA NOOR

 

The Norwegian-Somali r&b and soul singer Noora Noor got a record contract with Warner Music when she was only 16 years old. In 1999 she released the album “Curious” which sold 50 000 copies in Japan. This year she released the album “All I Am”, also a huge success in several countries.

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written by Safi Abdi

 

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Presenters Mohamed Farah & Bashire Mohammed

 

name of the show FANKA IYO SUUGAANTA

 

 

anyone in the UK following this show?? i heard it's quite popular.

[Jacaylbaro]

Man ,, how can i get Nuradin Farah's books ,,, been looking for them and couldn't find any ,,

[man_in_malaysia]

interesting

[Chimera]

i like Malaysia 2

 

how's Kuala Lumpur?