Posts in Art and Music
Inside The $100 Million Russian Church Meant To Honor Putin, Stalin And War

(REVIEW) The church was planned to open May 9 on the 75th anniversary of Russia’s “Victory Day” celebrating the Nazi surrender and end of WWII but postponed during the coronavirus pandemic. The church’s architecture resembles military missiles, iron steps are forged from melted German weapons, and figures like Stalin, responsible for murders of thousands of faithful and clergy, were originally planned to feature inside the sanctuary alongside saints.

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Buddhist Influencer Tyler Knott Gregson offers spiritual tools to cope during COVID-19

Combining Buddhism, Haiku poetry and meditative photography, Tyler Knott Gregson offers insight into coping with chaos, loss and isolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic through his experiences struggling with autism. He shares his artwork and his journey with more than 350,000 Instagram followers, self-identified “Chasers of the Light.”

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Sounds of the Old City: Behind the Scenes of 'O Jerusalem'

“Apollo’s Fire: O Jerusalem!” a Grammy Award-winning ensemble, brings to the stage the musical roots of each of Jerusalem’s four quarters with poetry and sacred songs from the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Arab sections of Jerusalem’s Old City from the 13th to the 17th centuries.

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Rome in the Time of Coronavirus

Italy’s lockdown to contain the coronavirus interrupted a Raphael show of more than 100 of the artist’s paintings and drawings. The exhibit ironically marks the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance artist’s death by fever at the age of 37. A private tour of the Vatican Museum last week gave one of the last peeks into the now-closed Rafael show, among other treasures of the art world in Vatican City.

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Politics may stop Catholics in South India from building Asia's tallest Jesus statue

Hindu nationalists are trying to stop a Catholic parish’s proposed 114-feet-high granite Jesus statue atop a hill in rural South India, sparked by a large Christmas land donation from a Hindu politician. The archbishop of Bangalore sought the state chief minister’s intervention this week to continue the $1.5 million project.

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The story behind the Nativity creche at New York’s Met Museum

The museum’s famed nativity creche, currently on display through January 6, features the baby Jesus with a radiant halo surrounded by figures that range in size from 12 to 15 inches in height.

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Singer Jaci Velasquez Talks About Her New Book 'When God Rescripts Your Life'

Multi Platinum Christian artist and actress Jaci Velasquez talked to Religion Unplugged about her struggles of family and faith in her new book, “When God Rescripts Your Life,” released Oct. 8.

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Songwriter and producer Rudy Perez talks about faith and his memoir 'The Latin Hit Maker'

The Grammy-winning Cuban-born American artist says that a persistent voice always guided him to music. His memoir hit shelves this week.

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South Asia's cradle of Sufism is losing its traditional music

Kashmiri classical music, which blends Sufi traditions from Persia with Indian classical music, is facing threat of extinction as fewer students have leisure or funds to study the art form and fewer maestros exist to teach them. Its musicians believe the genre could bring peace to the army-occupied region, following the ways of Sufi mystics who preached peace, tolerance, pluralism and universalism.

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Can French politicians make Notre Dame great again?

Rebuilding Notre Dame will be a painstaking task. Estimated to cost in the billions, the cathedral has also become a political pawn in a broader fight between traditionalists and secularists. In a country divided politically — the recent European election was another reminder of this — the fate of Notre Dame very much rests in the hands of the country’s warring lawmakers.

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Inside the 17th century paintings that show sexuality and purity of Hindu gods

(ART REVIEW) The exhibition shows the interactions of humans with Hindu gods like Shiva and the mischievous side of Krishna, with his lover Radha and stealing butter and the clothes of women bathing outside.

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Lag b'Omer: the Jewish holiday of faith and folklore

The annual pilgrimage is the 33rd day of Judaism's somber seven-week "counting" between Passover and Pentecost and marks the ceasing of a plague that killed 24,000 disciples of Rabbi Akiva ( c. 50–135 CE), a sage martyred by the Romans during the genocidal persecution of the Emperor Hadrian. 

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Is faith hip now? 'Devotion' photo exhibit shows religion's rosy side

(REVIEW) Christopher Roche’s photography exhibition in London is a collection on religious devotion around the world.

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'Lords of Chaos' film tells origins of Norwegian black metal

(NEWS ANALYSIS) The genre became infamous in the early 90s for suicide, arson, murder and more. Were those metal heads and their successors devil worshippers? Or just creative, dark rock musicians?

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