Europe

Culture

Open Houses: Monacensia Hildebrandhaus, Munich

Monacensia Hildebrand’s house in Munich was a place for intellectuals, later swept out by the Nazis — it rebounded as the literary memory of the city and a refuge for writers

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

Coffee With a Jew

While anti-Semitism permeates social networks, Munich Jews “ask people to talk to us, not about us” at daylight to dispel prejudice about Jewish life

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

The Good Landlord

There’s a personal dimension to Munich’s property ownership transformation that is crucial to providing affordable housing — yet mostly hidden behind the public anger

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

The Barcelona Way to Longevity

People living longer is a success of humanity, and as such, society should recognize the unique and significant value of old age

BARCELONA, SPAIN

Culture

German Jews Return to Their Berliner Homes

Claudia Saam and Wolf-Rüdiger Baumann extensively researched their building’s former residents, most of them German Jews, and found their descendants abroad.

BERLIN, GERMANY

Culture

The Universal Language of Chess

Chess activist Kineke Mulder shows us in Vienna how playing chess could help stem the tide of individualism and polarization in other cities too

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

Culture

The Gift of Cultural Participation

The nonprofit KulturRaum München enables access to culture for low income residents in Munich – but cultural participation often requires more than a free ticket

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

The Therapeutic Potential of Libraries

Storytelling has the ability to change our emotional and social behavior; the project “Libraries on Prescription” in Greece explores its healing power

ATHENS, GREECE

Culture

The Knife Grinders of Madrid and Barcelona

Knife grinders withstand the disappearance of traditional workshops in Madrid and Barcelona — but craftsmanship could benefit cities and the planet.

BARCELONA, SPAIN

Culture

A Museum’s Stance on the Nazi Legacy of Its Grounds

The Museum of Egyptian Art was built where a monumental building for the Nazi Party was supposed to stand in Munich. Dealing with the past in public spaces is controversial in this city, but the museum hewed to its principles

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

A Healthy Barter in Cities: Affordable Good Food for Time

Three hours of our time a month in a grocery store would reduce labour costs to charge lower prices. Food cooperatives called it a ‘virtuous cycle’. This is not volunteering, pure noble business, the in-kind pay is health.

MADRID, SPAIN

Culture

Reinventing Affordable Housing in Cities

Creative non-profit housing projects, which focus on cohesive societies, benefit the long-term health of neighbourhoods while offering affordable housing for future generations.

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

‘So Lonely’: Opening Up Eases Loneliness in Cities

‘So lonely’ is a compendium of artistic interventions in public spaces, which intends to listen to how citizens go about loneliness in Munich. All leads to a closing participatory theater to advance action against social isolation.

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

Bookstore’s Business Is Culture Towards a More Democratic City

The Tucholsky bookstore in Berlin sells more than just books. Over the years, its owner, Jörg Braunsdorf, has created a community around culture for neighbours and regular customers who meet at the bookstore periodically. Culture has energized a collective force with the civil courage to face up to the far right in their neighbourhood towards ...

BERLIN, GERMANY

Culture

A Diverse Local Community Finds a Consensus to Assert Power

The K-Buurt or K-neighbourhood is located around Amsterdam-Zuidoost’s Kraaiennest subway station. This community in the suburbs of Amsterdam has demanded recognition from the city since they founded Hart voor de K-Buurt (Heart for the K-Neighbourhood), a local multicultural community network of neighbours who are finding consensus language to assert power over the future of its ...

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

Culture

Ask a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian: Answers at Public Space

A group of students with different faiths have come together on the streets of Munich. They have seduced passersby with free hummus ice cream to start an open conversation and answer questions about their faiths at public space. There are three tables with signs, which read: ask a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian. The ...

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

Taiji at the Opera House Roof Projects Peace Into the City

It is 7:30 in the morning in Oslo. A strong wind and an intensive sun reflected on the white granite and Italian Carrara marble walls invade the roof of the Opera House. Energy concentrates in one space where a group of people practises Taijiquan thanks to Pamela Hiley. During the spring and summer months she ...

OSLO, NORWAY

Culture

Female Street Art Praises Women’s Achievements at Public Space

The street art world is dominated by men. ‘Hands Off The Wall’ endeavours to change that, at least in Vienna. Female street artists have gathered around a street art festival to show their work, praise other women’s achievements and inspire girls to succeed. ‘Hands Off The Wall’ is Austria’s first street art and graffiti festival ...

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

Culture

Hip Hop Culture Fights Hate With Graffiti in Berlin – #Paintback

Hip Hop is not just a musical genre, but a cultural movement which originated in the Bronx district of the city of New York in the 1970s and came with the Americans to Berlin. Ibo Omari, a citizen of Berlin, is a firm advocator of the Hip Hop culture, which he embraces in all social ...

BERLIN, GERMANY

Culture

Refugees Home in the City Centre to Address Urban Migration

What started as saving a sports ground, became one of the most inspiring projects to welcome refugees in the city centre of Munich. It is a great example of how to address the challenge of urban migration and how integration can actually work. Munich has been welcoming a significant number of refugees since the Syria ...

MUNICH, GERMANY

Culture

Neighbours Keep Jewish History Alive in Berlin – Denk Mal Am Ort

Marie Rolshoven, a cultural scientist, lives in Berlin in Schöneberg neighbourhood, which was once home to Jewish artists and intellectuals such as Albert Einstein. Moved by the fact that, twenty three former Jewish residents of her whole building were deported during the Nazi era, she wanted to keep the history of her neighbours alive. Inspired by the ...

BERLIN, GERMANY

US

Culture

LA’s Next Urban Revolution: A Public Bank

As Los Angeles confronts inequality, extreme weather, and a housing crisis, activist Trinity Tran leads Public Bank LA to replace Wall Street finance and transform the city’s future

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA

Culture

An Artist’s Antidote to Gentrification

Artist Tonika Johnson’s work about racist housing practices in South Side Chicago has bridged the intellectual divide between art and urban policy – and found that home repairs can offset gentrification

CHICAGO, IL, USA

Culture

A House in Philadelphia and the Truth About US History

Without having to step foot inside, award-winning artist Sonya Clark’s new exhibit at Declaration House in Philadelphia engages passers-by with the entangled legacies of the United States’ founding

PHILADELPHIA, PA, USA

Culture

Poetry Finds A Home in South Los Angeles

Award-winning poet Chisara Asomugha on the creation of the first library of poetry in Los Angeles and how poetry spaces humanize us

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA

Culture

A Running Club Fights Addiction in Boston

No longer feeling lost for being sober. Why joining the Boston Bulldogs Running Club can be a lifesaving decision in the drug addiction crisis.

BOSTON, MA, USA

Culture

Artist Lee Mingwei Creates Moments of Change in Cities

Lee Mingwei has transgressed the walls of museums. His participatory art provokes human connectedness among strangers. These moments of change are evidence of how museums could embrace new approaches to advance social value.

NEW YORK, NY, USA

Culture

It’s Deeper Than Tomatoes: Peacemaking in New York’s Urban Gardens

Peacebuilders Skye Roper-Moses and Michelle V. Jackson recognized the unique position that community gardens have to flourish deeply rooted urban conflicts in neighbourhoods. They support community gardener efforts by using their training in conflict resolution.

NEW YORK, NY, USA

Culture

Housing Los Angelenos Is a Human Right and Can Fight Climate Change

Decades of housing shortage has submerged Los Angeles in a humanitarian and sustainability crisis in the midst of extreme weather. But a growing group of volunteer Angelenos are building the movement to house LA and reverse climate change.

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA

Culture

Racial Trauma: Unchaining Ancestors’ Stories to Heal Cities

The struggle of Afro-Americans venting their stories in the white context of cities keeps feeding their trauma. The initiative “Witness to History” restores untold stories of slavery in its town as a precondition for healing.

GUILFORD, CT, USA

Culture

Saving Jazz to Save the City. From New York to the World

Mitchell Borden, founder of legendary Smalls and Fat Cat clubs, and his wife, jazz musician Rie Yamaguchi-Borden, hold on to the unifying power of music to revive the jazz community and local businesses of New York.

NEW YORK, NY, USA

Culture

Monumental Women in Cities. Untapped Women’s History

The first statue of real women at Central Park has been installed after 167 years of the park's history thanks to female activists. Another historical moment into untapped women’s history.

NEW YORK, NY, USA

The Thrilling Rest of the World

Culture

The Monument Men of Nablus, in the West Bank

Restorers and volunteers have united forces to rescue the An-Nasr Mosque in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, where the destruction of cultural heritage goes with impunity

NABLUS

Culture

The Survival of the City of the Dead in Cairo

Volunteers in Cairo are racing against time to preserve the city's historical memory while bulldozers demolish parts of the City of the Dead to construct new highways

CAIRO, EGYPT

Culture

How Ramallah Cares for Its Elderly Citizens

Ramallah, under occupation in the West Bank, faces the same challenges of an aging population as other cities – but has a different solution that transcends generations

RAMALLAH

Culture

The Freerunners of Khan Yunis

This is a story of how two young men, born into occupation and poverty, were able to use their own bodies as tools of liberation – and how, through my work, I was privileged to help them speak to the world.

KHAN YOUNIS

Culture

“Virgin Whores” Voices Domestic Violence

The misuse of religion is central to the practice of Claudia Barbera that is both artwork and a ritual against domestic violence in her city and beyond

VALPARAíSO, CHILE

Culture

Super Chefs Step in for Working Women in Cairo

Super Chefs are a group of women in Cairo, whose passion for cooking has found a way to stay employed while saving time for other working mothers. The idea is here to stay.

CAIRO, EGYPT

Culture

A Jazz Corner to Find the Beat in Havana

Over the years the jazz dancers of Santa Amalia have forged a dancing community in their neighbourhood that has become a philosophy of life in Havana.

HAVANA, CUBA

Culture

Yallah Cairo Girls! A Women’s Empowerment Cycle Is Set in Motion

A group of bold and strong women called the Cycling Geckos are on their bikes through Cairo to break social barriers, which prevent other women from achieving their full potential. They fight for a cultural change to redesign Cairo’s human landscape towards women.

CAIRO, EGYPT

Culture

Street Artists Spearhead a Cultural Transition in Muscat

Abdulmalik Sultan Al Maskari, one of Oman’s most recognisable graffiti artist, has been finding legal ways to pursue his passion for street art, which has always been prohibited in public spaces in Muscat. By painting in legal spaces like old busses and old houses he and other street artists are slowly unleashing the street art ...

MUSCAT, OMAN

Culture

Alserkal Avenue: Art and Culture Inspire Future Citizens of Dubai

‘Not all who wander are lost’, reads the display with the maps of the Alserkal Avenue located in Al Quoz neighbourhood in Dubai. Alserkal Avenue was an industrial area that has been converted in 2007 into a cultural district of contemporary art galleries, creative businesses and non-profit organizations spread across 500,000 square feet. Here you ...

DUBAI - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Culture

Punk and Fresh Cooking for a Resilient City: Food not Bombs

‘The Rebel Riot’ is not just a local punk band with politically charged songs, dealing with human right violations. Expressing themselves through music is not enough. This band mobilizes a whole punk community to cook fresh food and distribute it to homeless people every week in Yangon (Myanmar), a movement called ‘Food Not Bombs’. They ...

YANGON, MYANMAR (BURMA)

Culture

A Library on Wheels to Encourage the Culture of Reading in the City

Ali Al-Moussawi’s passion for books goes beyond reading. He has developed the first city library on wheels in Baghdad. His main goal is to revive a love for books and to encourage the culture of reading in the city. Baghdad, once the literary and cultural capital of the Muslim world, is now better known for bombs than poems: “With ...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ