RFI English

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Canal • 8 programas

Noticias

Noticias

Cada dos semanas
Sociedad y cultura

Sociedad y cultura

Cada dos semanas
Sociedad y cultura

Sociedad y cultura

Cada semana
Música

Música

Cada semana
Arte

Arte

24/01/2019
Sociedad y cultura

Sociedad y cultura

Cada mes
Educación

Educación

13/02/2021

19/09/2018

Paris museum's fresh look at the legacy of performer-rights campaigner Paul Robeson

Culture in France this week climbs to a niche in the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris, for a small but powerful exhibition about the life and times of Afro-American international actor, singer, rights campaigner, Paul Robeson. "Paul's influence, along with others, was massive, even if he's not talked about so much these days," remarks Paris-based US Opera Singer Howard Haskin. Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Goode, a scientist and rights campaigner, were part of a generation of Black, or African, Americans who were trail blazers in the 20th century. Robeson. They fought for equal rights, at home and abroad, and beyond skin colour or race. The exhibition at the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum shows him as a multi-faceted man of the world, cosmopolitan and outreaching, a sort of "man for everyman and everywoman". He was part of a pan-Africanist movement which stretched from the US and Caribbean to England, Africa and the Soviet Union, and as well as being a gifted man, he was an advocate of humanity. The objects, photos and information panels explain his political and social interests. Archival sound recordings are marked with age, and are valuable witnesses to his courage and openness as well as too his talent. The exhibition curated by Sarah Frioux-Salgas runs till 14 October 2018.

19/09/2018

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10 min
21/10/2020

Les voisins du 12 bis, Episode 3/13: Looking for Awa

A police check for Zirek, and news from Awa: Rosa and Billie make a bold decision. In a block of flats in Paris a small group of neighbours enjoy friendly relations. Billie, a young foreign student is welcomed by Rosa, the doyenne of the group. She gets to grips with life in Paris with Zirek, a private car hire driver, Amir, a young florist from Afghanistan, Diane, Pierre and their three children. Les voisins du 12 bis, a bilingual radio story in 13 episodes for immersive listening to learn French in everyday situations. Scenario: Alexandra Lazarescou Dialogues: Anne Claude Romarie et Mariannick Bellot Original sound tracks: Ommm A Radio France Internationale programme co-produced with France Éducation international, with the support of the French culture ministry. Every week, you will find bilingual podcasts, exercises and educational sheets on RFI Savoirs and a comic on Instagram to learn French with Billie.

21/10/2020

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7 min
07/12/2019

Sona Jobarteh: Changing the tradition of kora playing to ensure its survival

Sona Jobarteh comes from a long West African tradition of Griots and kora players from Mali and The Gambia. She's become one of the rare women in the world to master the 21-string instrument which is traditionally reserved to men. She talks to RFI about working within the tradition to be better able to expand it. Sona Jobarteh's grandfather was Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, an oral historian and hereditary praise singer from the Mandinka people of The Gambia. Her cousin is Mali's Toumani Diabaté. Her brother began teaching her to play the kora when she was just three, but when she decided she wanted to make a career out of it, she turned to her father Sanjally Jobarteh. "I always had a very natural connection with the older repertoire," Jobarteh explains as we sit at her hotel before a concert in Paris's New Morning early November. "That's why I really wanted to study with my father because he is very much an expert in that style of playing." Her father was a demanding task-master. "He told me that he will teach me as his child, not as his daughter, not as his son but as his child which is no gender. And also he told me that the one thing he wanted in return for teaching me is that I aim to be just a good kora player not a good female kora player." "He said if someone listens to you they shouldn’t be able to say it’s a girl or it’s a boy it’s just a good kora player." Jobarteh has gone on to become a very successful and respected kora player, vocalist and instrumentalist, demonstrating to her own and future generations that "you don't have to conform to outside influence to be successful in the music industry." "You can actually represent your tradition, you can even sing in your own language without having to bend to pressure not to do so." She did just that in 2011, singing in Mandekan on her album Fasiya. "Fasiya was all about my heritage and I saw it as a risk or a challenge because I’m no longer singing in English, I’m no longer playing any European instruments, and it’s traditional. "I was not sure if I would get any audience, but I made the conscious decision to prefer to do what means something to me and have very few people follow than try to conform to something that is not true to me and be popular." Her gamble paid off. But she hasn't released another album since, putting all her energies, and finances, into the Gambia Academy of Music and Culture she returned to The Gambia to open in 2015. The school educates children in their cultural traditions and heritage alongside the mainstream curriculum. She says it's important to "demonstrate the worth of what they have rather than what they don't have," so that they remain in the country rather than believing that "hope, the future and everything lies outside their country". "The academy is actually everything I do," she continues, "and in many ways the music increasingly is now just a means for me to be able to support and to spread awareness about what I’m trying to do in The Gambia." Music in this week's programme is from Jobarteh's 2011 album Fasiya. Her upcoming album will focus on the future: social activism, education, women and raising awareness of the challenges her country is facing. Follow Sona Jobarteh on facebook

07/12/2019

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17 min
04/10/2025

The EU, France, and pesticides

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the Duplomb law. There’s “On This Day”, “The Listener’s Corner” with Paul Myers, Ollia Horton’s “Happy Moment”, and a lovely musical dessert to finish it all off. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy! Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all! Facebook: Be sure to send your photos for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos. Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you! Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard. Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score. Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it! Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts! In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more. There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with! To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone. To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload! This week’s quiz: On 26 July, I asked you a question about Paul Myers' article “Petition seeking repeal of new French farming law passes one million signatures”. It was about the Duplomb law, which was passed by the French parliament on 8 July. The law would allow the pesticide acetamiprid to be used, after a ban since 2018. French farmers protested the ban because it is allowed at the European level; they say it puts them at a disadvantage with their European counterparts. But two weeks after the bill passed, Eléonore Pattery, a young student from Bordeaux, launched a petition calling for a recall. And that was your question: you were to write in with the number of signatures on that petition as of 20 July, and also how many signatures French law requires before the lower house of Parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, has the right to hold a public debate on the contents of the petition. The answer is, to quote Paul's article: “Late on Sunday, the 20th of July, the number of signatures had risen to 1,159,000. Under French rules, once a petition crosses that threshold and has verified signatures from throughout the country, the Assemblée Nationale has the right to hold a public debate on the contents of the petition. The regulations also state that even if a petition gathers 500,000 names, it does not mean that the legislation will be reviewed or repealed.” In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jocelyne D'Errico from New Zealand. She wanted to know how you feel and what you think about soulmates. Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: RFI English listener Kalyani Basak from West Bengal, India. Kalyani is also the winner of this week’s bonus quiz. Congratulations, Kalyani, on your double win. Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Akbar Waseem, a member of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member Rasel Sikder from Madaripur, Bangladesh, and RFI English listeners Sadman Shihab Khondaker from Naogaon and Momo Jahan Moumita, the co-secretary of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, both in Bangladesh. Congratulations winners! Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: España by Emmanuel Chabrier, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ataúlfo Argenta; “Hoe-Down” from the ballet Rodeo by Aaron Copland, performed by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Mama Used to Say” by Junior Giscomb and Bob Carter, sung by Junior Giscomb. Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr This week’s question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article "Moldova’s pro-EU ruling party wins majority in parliamentary elections", which will help you with the answer. You have until 27 October to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 4 November podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number. Send your answers to: english.service@rfi.fr or Susan Owensby RFI – The Sound Kitchen 80, rue Camille Desmoulins 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux France Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize. Click here to find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club.

04/10/2025

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35 min
18/10/2025

France and the EU deficit limit

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about France’s budget deficit. There’s a lovely French poem, your answers to the bonus question on “The Listener’s Corner” with Paul Myers, and a perfect musical dessert from Erwan Rome on “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy! Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all! Facebook: Be sure to send your photos for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos. Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you! Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard. Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score. Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it! Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts! In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more. There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with! To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone. To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload! This week’s quiz: On 30 August, I asked you a question about France’s budget problems … since I asked that question, two governments have been dissolved: that of François Bayrou, and that of the next in line, Sébastien Lecornu, who quit after just a few days, but now he’s back. It’s a high-level game of musical chairs, and we still are not anywhere near coming up with a budget. You were to read our article “French PM puts government on line with call for confidence vote” and send in the answers to these two questions: What is France’s budget deficit, and what is the official European Union limit for a country’s budget deficit? The answer is, to quote our article: “After years of overspending, France is on notice to tame a budget deficit that hit 5.8 percent of gross domestic product last year, nearly double the official EU limit of 3 percent.” In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What is your favorite memory of your mother?” The question was suggested by Liton Rahaman Mia from Naogaon, Bangladesh. Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: RFI English listener Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India. Debashis is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Debashis. Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Paresh Hazarika, a member of the United RFI Listeners Club in Assam, India, and RFI Listeners Club members Shadman Hosen Ayon from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, as well as Arne Timm from Harjumaa in Estonia. Last but certainly not least, RFI English listener Rowshan Ara Labone from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Congratulations winners! Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Les Feuilles Mortes” by Jacques Prévert, set to music by Joseph Kosma and sung by Yves Montand; “Twelfth Street Rag” by Euday L. Bowman; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Serenade to a Cuckoo” by Roland Kirk, performed by Kirk and the Roland Kirk Quartet. Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr This week’s question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Morocco Gen Z protesters call for 'peaceful sit-ins' to demand reforms”, which will help you with the answer. You have until 10 November to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 15 November podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number. Send your answers to: english.service@rfi.fr or Susan Owensby RFI – The Sound Kitchen 80, rue Camille Desmoulins 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux France Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize. Click here to find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club.

18/10/2025

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33 min
08/09/2020

Cult 1984 album 'Sons of Ethiopia' enchants new audiences in 2020

Admas, a quartet of young Ethiopian musicians living in exile in Washington DC, had a ball recording an album of synth-heavy, funked up versions of Ethiopian classics. 'Sons of Ethiopia ' was soon forgotten but became cult among fans of ethiojazz. Now reissued by Frederiksberg Records, it reflects happier times from a generation that "just escaped" the worst of the Derg. Some records are far more than the sum of their parts, and Sons of Ethiopia is one such. The seven tracks were recorded in 1984 by the band Admas: Henock Temesgen, Abegasu Shiota, Tewodros “Teddy” Aklilu and Yousef Tesfaye. Like so many Ethiopian expats in the U.S. at the time, the four young men had fled the Derg: the military junta that deposed Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. As the White Terror gave way to the Red Terror, over a million people died in the violence. Aklilu, the band’s keyboard player, left Addis in 1977, aged 15, just before the worst of the Red Terror began. “It was so sad, kids killed each other,” he told RFI on the line from Addis. “I went to the U.S. and basically closed my ears for the next two or three years.” Aklilu closed his ears to the horror, but opened them to exciting new music. When bass player Henock Temesgen, an old school friend, arrived in Washington DC in 1980 they began playing together. “It was a very dark time but we found our cocoon, our own friends, playing in each other’s houses. We tried to create our own group, our own happy times,” said Temesgen. The need to experimentThe two friends played in a band called Gasha and took up residency at the Red Sea, a lively Ethiopian restaurant in Washington. They would open for big Ethiopian names like Aster Aweke, playing instrumentals to audiences of expats, many of whom had lost friends and family in the civil war. While they enjoyed traditional Ethiopian music, they immersed themselves in the sounds of their new home with its go go funk, jazz, highlife, samba and roots reggae. Brazilian jazz fusion band Azymuth, The Crusaders and Spyro Gyra were big influences, they said. “In DC you got to hear a lot more of what the world has to offer, than in Ethiopia, and it’s very natural that when you hear something you want to experiment with it,” Aklilu explained. What’s more, there were new tools like Moog keyboards, synthesisers and electric guitars to play with. Joined by drummer Yousef Tesfaye and multi-instrumentalist Abegasu Shiota, the musicians expressed their more experimental side under the new name of Admas. “Abagasu liked to work with computers, he had a four track very basic recorder and started playing with it, said it would be nice to record something,” Temesgen said. They scraped the funds together to record seven tracks and had 1,000 copies pressed. They sold a few, paid off their debts, but didn’t make any money. “We didn’t have any business sense,” Aklilu laughed. “We still don’t!” Re-shaping songs from happier timesThey recorded instrumental, high-tech versions of songs largely from “the golden era, the good old days, Ethiopian music from happier times” Temesgen explained. “The experimentation was not in the melody but in the harmonisation and rhythm,” said Aklilu. They did “a reggae-ish version” of Wed Enate, put samba rhythms into Samba Shegitu and paid tribute to Ghanaian highlife on Bahta’s Highlife although, as Aklilu admitted, it owes more to Congolese soukous. On Tez Alegn Yetintu, the band drew out its melancholic blues feeling. “It’s a popular song and we played it in half time, so for a lot of people the melody would be very slow. But we played it like a really melancholic blues song.” The age group that just escapedSpurred on by the optimism of their youth, Admas bent some of these melancholic old melodies into new shapes. “I think the music you can hear on the album is our experience of America basically, it was more hopeful than sad,” said Aklilu. “And also our personalities come through the music,” Temesgen continued. “During that time our personalities were optimistic and hopeful.” “We were not damaged by the revolution, we escaped, we were lucky. And I think the album might reflect that age group that just escaped.” Still fresh todayThe men moved on, went their separate ways and forgot about the album. Then decades later, Aklilu was contacted by Andreas Vingaard, founder of NY-based Frederiksberg Records. A big fan of Francis Falceto’s Ethiopiques compilations, Vingaard had stumbled on Sons of Ethiopia and wanted to reissue the record. “When I heard Admas for the first time, it sounded very different from any other Ethiopian music I had heard,” he told RFI. “It's clearly Ethiopian, but it's different and familiar at the same time. It's incredible to me that so many years later it still has a real freshness to it.” The men were surprised the album had generated new interest. “We didn’t know but a lot of people have been collecting it and liked it; it was being sold for a lot of money on eBay. Somebody said the album had a cult following,” Aklilu recalled. “It is great music,” Temesgen admitted, but “I didn’t think people outside the Ethiopian community would know about the way I felt.” “It will be a surprise for this generation I think,” said Aklilu. The beat goes on in Addis Three of the band members have made successful careers in music. Aklilu now works on music research projects and sometimes tours with Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro, Temesgen has become a prominent music educator and Shiota is one of the country’s top recording engineers. They’ve played together and don’t rule out releasing another Admas album one day. The music scene in Ethiopia is “very vibrant” the Admas duo said, with lots of young bands playing in a range of genres: ethio-jazz, pop music and traditional. But this promising scene is hamstrung by heavy import taxes of up to 300 percent on musical instruments, which are deemed luxury items. “It’s killing the music here, it’s really damaging us,” regretted Aklilu. “Musicians can’t afford instruments; it’s one thing the government needs to change so music can grow in this country.” Sons of Ethiopia, on vinyl and cd, complete with detailed liner notes, is available here.

08/09/2020

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16 min
13/09/2025

There’s Music in the Kitchen, No 41

This week on The Sound Kitchen, a special treat: RFI English listener’s musical requests. Just click on the “Play” button above and enjoy! Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Ali Shahzad, Jocelyne D’Errico, and a composition by B. Trappy. Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Love is Stronger”, written and performed by B. Trappy; “Coups et Blessures” written by Adrien Gallo and performed by BB Brunes, and “Misty”, by Erroll Garner and Johnny Burke, performed by Sarah Vaughan with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra. The ePOP video competition is open! The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard. How do you do it? With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens. From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create a unique bridge between a person and the world. Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate! Click here for all the information you need. We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers!

13/09/2025

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15 min
05/04/2018

France May 68: the art of revolution

Political posters with slogans like "It's forbidden to forbid" or "Under the paving stones, the beach" were a driving force in the May 68 Paris uprisings. The vast majority were designed and printed at Paris's Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts school) by the Atelier Populaire collective. Fifty years on, the school is showing that art work at the Images en Lutte exhibition. This exhibition on the visual culture of the far left from 1968 to 1974 includes posters, painting, sculptures, films, photos, tracts. It begins with the major demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and ends in 1974 following the coup d'Etat in Chile and the dissolution of the Maoist Proletarian Left party in France. But, while it is still unclear whether there will be any official recognition of the 50th anniversary of massive protests and strikes that nearly brought down President Charles de Gaulle and his government, it's the political art work done by the Atelier populaire that's grabbing headlines. From 5 May to 28 June, students and teachers from l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts worked day and night producing posters to further the cause of seven million striking workers. Posters with slogans like "Your boss needs you, you don't need him", "Run comrade, the old world is behind you" and "Barricades close the street but open the way" were plastered on university walls, factories and shops. The art work is "the product of a political struggle but it's also participating in the struggle itself", says art historian and curator Eric de Chessay. "They used the studios to produce posters for the revolution. People actually thought that revolution was not for tomorrow, that it was immediate and that the whole power would be completely defeated." Many posters protested against General Charles de Gaulle "showing him as a dictator, aligning him with [Francisco] Franco or [Antonio de Oliveira] Salazar or Petros Markaris, the dictators of Spain, Portugal and Greece," de Chessay explains. "His hand raised as if he were a fascist leader." Public broadcasting (ORTF) was banned from filming the Paris protests for fear they would encourage others, so many posters denounced the state of the press as a mouthpiece for the government. And, because the strike action was not being relayed by the official press, factory workers relied on the Atelier populaire to fill in the gap. One recurring image is of the factory shed, with its chimney transformed into a clenched fist. De Chessay says it's far more complex that it looks. "The shed factory with the fist is combining diverse sources so you have the typical factory of early 20th century with the sheds which is coming from the Front Populaire [Popular Front] 1936 imagery and you have the clenched fist which is a typical image of the Communist Party. But the way it’s drawn here is more reminiscent of what’s happening in the image of the Maoist movement." Anonymous, collective artwork While some famous young artists living in Paris at the time (Eduardo Arroyo, Julio Le Parc...) contributed to the Atelier and French artists like Martial Raysse returned from abroad to paint, the artwork was not signed. "The whole production is both anonymous and collective," says de Chessay. "It’s a collective creation in the sense that someone would draw an image, sometimes would devise a slogan to go with it and sometimes the slogan was provided by someone else." The final result was presented to a committee for validation each evening. The most famous and telling example of this collaboration, according to de Chessay, is the poster showing anarchist Daniel Cohn-Bendit who led the student movement in Nanterre in March 68. It was submitted by Bernard Rancillac and shows Cohn-Bendit as shot by photographer Gilles Caron. Cohn-Bendit was German-born and Jewish, which led the far right and Communist Party leader Georges Marchais to use his origins to attack him, which in turn inspired demonstrators to reply with chants of "We're all Jewish and German". But after the interior ministry declared Cohn-Bendit "undesirable in France", the committee subsituted "We're all undesirables" for the original slogan. Not all images made the final cut and the exhibition shows of those the committee turned down. "Some of those rejected are visually very satisfying," says de Chessay, "but all of those [dealing with the art world] were rejected because the strikes were not primarily for the artists. The artists were at the service of the revolution." Home-made art The 600 or so political posters on show were all produced on site so you won't find the infamous "Beauty is in the street" poster. It wasn't the work of the Atelier populaire. But that pales into insignificance given this rare opportunity to look at art created on the premises. "The exhibition is 20 metres from where these posters were produced," says de Chessay. "It’s a place where general meetings of the strikers were taking place in the exhibition rooms." And the link between l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts and leftist protest goes further. In 1974 feminist and gay rights movements held their weekly meetings there, and like the Atelier populaire in June 68 "were also expelled by the police". The exhibition includes photographs by and of gay and women's rights activists such as transvestite performance artist Michael Journiac. One photo, from his series 24 Hours in the life of an ordinary woman shows him in drag, his thumb transformed into a penis. "It's been forgotten that this art was made in a very politicised environment," says de Chessay. "Journiac was also a Maoist militant at one point, he wrote several articles about Maoist thought. So there’s a deep connection in France between these movements." The MLF (women's liberation movement) founded in 1970 also had its weekly meetings at the Beaux-Arts. And the Aids activist group Act Up still meets there. "A lot of people have not realised that when they look at Robert Campillo's movie about Act Up in Paris 120 Beats per Minute that the meetings are actually taking place at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts." The clash of images The exhibition also highlights the very different ideological positions within the far left at the time, depending on whether you leaned toward the anarchist, Maoist or Situationist camp. The slogan "I have something to say, but I don't know what" gives a good sense of the diversity - or confusion - that reigned at the time. Images en lutte, la culture visuelle de l'extrême gauche en France (1968-74), Palais des Beaux-Arts, 13 quai Malaquais, Paris 6e, runs through to 20 May 2018.

05/04/2018

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10 min
08/11/2025

Nobel committee honors right-leaning Venezuelan politician

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” with Paul Myers, and a tasty musical dessert from Erwan Rome on “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy! Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week. It sounds early, but it’s not. 2026 is right around the corner, and I know you want to be a part of our annual New Year celebration, where, with special guests, we read your New Year’s resolutions. So start thinking now, and get your resolutions to me by 15 December. You don’t want to miss out! Send your New Year’s resolutions to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all! Facebook: Be sure to send your photos for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos. Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you! Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard. Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score. Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it! Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts! In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more. There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series - an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with! To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone. To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload! This week’s quiz: On 11 October, I asked you to send in the answer to these two questions: Who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, and why was she chosen? The answers are: The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, because she is, as Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said, “One of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times." In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jocelyne D’Errico, who lives in New Zealand. Her question was: “What is the hardest problem you had to resolve in your work or school life?” Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! The winners are: RFI English listener Shahanoaz Parvin Ripa, the chairwoman of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh. Shahanoaz is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Shahanoaz. Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania. There’s Rubi Saikia, a member of the United RFI Listeners Club in Assam, India; RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany, and last but not least, RFI English listener H. M. Tarek from Narayanganj, Bangladesh. Congratulations winners! Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Le matin d´un jour de féte” from Claude Debussy’s Iberia, performed by the Czech Philhamonic conducted by Jean Fournet; “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon, performed by John Lennon & Friends; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Nine Over Reggae” by Jack DeJohnette, performed by DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock. Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr This week’s question ... you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Michael Sarpong Mfum’s article “Invasive water hyacinths choke wildlife and livelihoods in southern Ghana”, which will help you with the answer. You have until 1 December to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 6 December podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number. Send your answers to: english.service@rfi.fr or Susan Owensby RFI – The Sound Kitchen 80, rue Camille Desmoulins 92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux France Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize. Click here to find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club.

08/11/2025

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33 min
13/03/2018

Exploring South African photography at the Paris Pompidou Centre

The Georges Pompidou Centre this spring is hosting three photographers from South Africa. David Goldblatt's critical work during apartheid and emigré South African photographers Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg, in their conceptual work. RFI's Rosslyn Hyams has this report.

13/03/2018

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10 min

Discover the wide range and variety of RFI (Radio France Internationale) podcasts. Through them, we offer a way to understand, and see the world in a different way. Listen to news, culture, lifestyle and ongoing social debates in France and from around the world. You can also learn French and explore new ideas through our original podcasts.