Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Setapa is a celebratory style of dance and music born of the Ngwaketse tribe of Botswana, and characterised by rhythmic stomping, joyful singing, the sporadic sounds of whistles and horns, and garments fashioned from animal skin. The style was originally performed to entertain guests at weddings and other large gatherings. In this video from 2013, Umkhathi Theatre Works – a troupe based in Njube, Zimbabwe, and dedicated to preserving and celebrating African culture – performs a vibrant Setapa as part of the DanceAfrica programme at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. More than just a fascinating slice of southern African culture, the performance is an almost instantly absorbing and uplifting spectacle to behold.
video
Art
A mindbending trip that summons the forgotten women of surrealism
17 minutes
video
Animals and humans
What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs
9 minutes
video
Making
Ceramic designs spin to life in a tactile meditation on the art of pottery
9 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
For Ruskin, words couldn’t capture nature’s palette. So here it is in black and white
6 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Does the artist’s intention matter, or is it indeed all in the eye of the beholder?
4 minutes
video
Subcultures
Bad puns, regrettable costumes, and other joys of collecting kitschy album art
13 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
In a Mongolian wind burial, a body falls on land before getting swept up to the heavens
6 minutes
video
Physics
This is not an animation: the spectacular sight of magnets meeting a metallic liquid
5 minutes
video
Stories and literature
A musician and a storyteller collaborate in a daily duet of words and music
5 minutes