Inside: Issue 20

Summer Music Festivals: The Alternative

Glastonbury, Reading, Bestival, Creamfields, the Isle of Wight…sound familiar? They should do, as these festivals are hard to escape once summertime approaches.
Our country is renowned for holding some of the most famous festivals in the world and they are becoming more popular than ever amongst music lovers. If indie, dance, dubstep, drum & bass and [...]

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Inside: Issue 20

At the Heart of the Community: Brixton Village

In the heart of Brixton, partially concealed amidst the thriving commerce beneath the railway bridge, an oversized blue door announces the entrance to Brixton Village.
Also known as Granville Arcade, Brixton Village is a sprawling indoor market that until late last year was slowly but certainly limping towards obsolescence.
The property company managing the market hadn’t received [...]

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Inside: Interviews

Still Fresh: Tatyana Ali Takes On the Digital World

Making it onto the silver screen and small screen seems like a fight to the death for most Hollywood actresses, but when you’re a woman of colour the number of roles available to you are even smaller. So what’s a girl to do when she has the talent, but doesn’t plan on spending the next [...]

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Inside: Interviews

Ty on Special Kind of Fool: ‘Everything on this album starts with me’

Hip hop artist Ty has been an integral part of the UK musical scene for more than a decade. His achievements over that time include three critically acclaimed albums, a Mercury nomination, and a diverse name-check of musical collaborations that range from indie front man Damon Albarn to De La Soul [...]

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Inside: The Vault

FAB Magazine: Fabulous, African and Black

Catchavibe.co.uk caught up with Sinem Bilen-Onabanjo, the founder and editor-in-chief of FAB Magazine, which is due to launch in March. The high-end quarterly aims to be the first-of-its-kind fashion & lifestyle magazine for both men and women, with 80% African content. Sinem explains why we need a magazine truly made by Africans for Africans…
CAV: So [...]

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Inside: The Vault

Music Reviews: Sade, Corinne Bailey Rae, Jose James, Krystle Warren

Sade
Soldier of Love (Sony)
Buy on Amazon
Sade’s sixth album is a welcome return for those who know and love the reclusive one’s breathy and sensuous style – this is the first release since the classic Lovers Rock from 2000. Those yet to get acquainted are treated to a concise 10-track suite of calm and serene melodies, [...]

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Inside: Reviews

Film review: The Princess and the Frog

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker – 2009
With starring Anika Noni Rose, Terrence Howard, John Goodman and Oprah Winfrey

It has been nearly a year since Barack Obama officially took office as the first black president of the United States of America. We are thus now living under the Obama dispensation; a direct result of [...]

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Inside: The Vault

Haiti, from Dumas to Wyclef

A week after the earthquake that ravaged Haiti experts are calling the disaster the worst humanitarian crisis of the decade. The UN has launched an appeal for a £346 million relief fund and the death toll is estimated at 100 000 people. As aid is finally trickling through, many are wondering why tragedy is once again striking Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. With a country plagued by political unrest, violence and at the mercy of tropical storms, it is easy to forget Haiti’s rich cultural heritage. Here is a reminder of what Haiti (formerly Saint Domingue) has given the world.

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Inside: Issue 8, The Vault

Good Times are back! With Norman Jay

A local West London pub is not the place where you’d expect to meet a DJ who has received a MBE from the Queen and played for Will Smith, Prince or Bruce Springsteen. And yet, after a few minutes chatting with Norman Jay, the choice of place for this interview becomes obvious. For the pioneering DJ, music needs no pretense, glitz nor glamour. His Good Times NYE party will be a celebration to music and old school partying; a trip to back to the roots of Djing, where anything goes. Read on.

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Inside: Issue 7, The Vault

Review of the play A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Performing the 1974 version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, the story of Brick Pollitt a recently married man who goes back down south to celebrate his father, Big Daddy’s, birthday. This is the first time a Broadway play with an all black cast has transferred to the West End. That alone makes the play stand out but what makes it truly remarkable is that all the actors in this production of Cat are first class.

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Inside: Issue 6, The Vault

Perfect popcorn fodder

We’ve seen the set up before: a good man turns to violence when his wife and child are brutally murdered in front of his eyes and he seeks revenge. Although it’s not the most sophisticated film of all time, Law Abiding Citizen is certainly better than the 80s straight-to-video machine-gun fest (possibly starring Steven Seagal) that you would expect based on its opening scene. Thankfully the “good man” in question (played by Gerard Butler) has a much more contemplative take on getting his own back than your average Arnold Schwarzenegger, which makes for a brutal and twisty thriller.

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Inside: Issue 5, The Vault

PRECIOUS awards: celebrating the achievements of black women

In 1999, frustrated by the lack of magazines representing women of colour, publishing and new media specialist Foluke Akinlose launched PRECIOUS Online. The event was to mark the beginning of a remarkable journey that led Akinlose to expand the Precious brand into an online network and a sought-after business awards scheme. Mainstream media took notice, making Foluke one of Courvoisier’s Top 500 people to watch in 2008! The business woman took time out of her busy schedule to tell us about the PRECIOUS Awards.

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Inside: The Vault

Channel 4’s Race Season

Consider this: two women are sitting side by side; one woman is black, the other white. Physically their differences are obvious, but what about mentally? Could one be, by virtue of her race alone, less intelligent than the other?

The notion that black people are inherently less intelligent than their white counterparts is not a new argument and is rarely met with anything other than fervent contempt, criticism and the denunciation of those who would dare to utter such a concept, as promoting a culture of racism.

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Inside: Issue 3, The Vault

Lucky you, Ô! A review of Aya Of Yop City

Graphic novels about a city in the Ivory Coast in the 1970’s are not a regular occurrence and Aya of Yop City is a shining example of how versatile the graphic novel format can be. The story itself is not about Aya, but about the antics of her friends and family in the community of Yop City. Abouet’s writing really shines in the quickness and wit of the dialogue mixing familiar African inflections with a uniquely Ivorian sense of humour that can make light of most serious matters.

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Inside: Issue 2, The Vault

A Fashion Story That Needs to Be Told

As season five of the Untold Collective reaches its climax at London Fashion Week 2009, Catch a Vibe explores a story steeped in diversity.

‘Untold gives up and coming designers and creatives an opportunity to be visible in the fashion arena,’ claims founder and designer Maame Baryeh. It offers them a platform with which to step their fashion-savvy feet through the door – onto the other side.

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