Tips for books, podcasts, music playlists, movies, shows, and events that will broaden your horizons and bring more diversity to your daily life.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah
In the U.S., she was called a “black woman”, and when she returned home to Nigeria, she was named “American”. Who is she, then? And where's her place to be?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: We Should All Be Feminists
Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie comes up with an extraordinary insight into what it means to be a woman today, while encouraging us not to be afraid to be feminists.
Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano: Illegal
A graphic novel, a story about the hope and survival of one boy who travels across Africa to Europe.
Gaël Faye: Small Country
A story about memories of a happy childhood, a lost home and the brutalities of war. Across a land full of mango and lemongrass scent, hatred is spreading gradually and subtly. No one had any idea that over the time it would grow into a beastly killing. Belonging to the Tutsi or Hutu people alone meant a death sentence in Burundi and Rwanda.
Khaled Hosseini: Sea Prayer
A short illustrated story about people who had to leave their homes. A prayer that hits the reader.
Khaled Hosseini: The Kite Runner
The story of two boys, friends from Afghanistan. Their unusually strong relationship is broken after one of them cowardly betrays the other after winning the kite race. However, there is always a way to correct the mistake.
Khaled Hosseini: A Thousand Splendid Suns
A story about the suffering of two Afghan women during the war. A story about the importance of forgiveness and service to those in need.
Khaled Hosseini: And the Mountains Echoed
A book that makes a person realize what he possesses and be grateful for it.
Ryszard Kapuściński: Eben
Thanks to Kapuściński's book Eben, we will understand the value of a handful of rice, a swallow of water, breeze and a small shade in the place where one has to fight for his very own life on a daily basis. Eben is not a narrative about an unknown Africa. On the contrary – Africa in Kapuściński's submission is something familiar. Kapuściński actually lived in Africa for many years, penetrated its essence, lived with people, lived Africa. And so he can talk about Africa.
Hisham Matar: The Return
An autobiography of a Lybian-British writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Return. The Gaddafi regime stole his father and made him an exile. Twenty-five years, he hasn't seen a town, streets, or his family house. After the fall of the dictatorship, he decided to go back and find his father. Is he still alive? And if he died – how and when?
Imbolo Mbue: Behold the Dreamers
The story of a Cameroonian family who went to the United States for a better life.
Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
An autobiography of a well-known stand-up comedian and presenter who writes in a funny way, touchingly and engagingly about his childhood and adolescence in South Africa during apartheid. Trevor is the son of a South African mother from the Xhosa tribe and a Swiss citizen. Nothing out of the ordinary? At the time of apartheid, relations between partners of different skin colours were unacceptable and were considered a criminal offence. In the book you will read stories about a difficult childhood, when his diet consisted purely of caterpillars, when he was kidnapped and thrown out of a moving minibus, and stories of the misery caused to him by high school loves.
Martin Pollack: The Emperor of America
The refugee crisis is not solely relevant today. Our ancestors from the east of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were also part of an exodus of enormous proportions at the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time, they were a convenient business item for speculators, smugglers, agents and fraudsters of all kinds.
Dominika Sakmarová: Cat Fur and Camel by the Chinese Wall
A collection of funny stories from ordinary people's lives that can only be experienced in the Far East.
Riad Sattouf: The Arab of the Future 1-5
The comic book story captures the childhood and adolescence of Riad, a little boy whose mother is from France and a father from Syria. During his life, the family lived in different countries – Syria, France, Libya. The story sometimes wittily, at other times dramatically and cruelly points to cultural differences and various ways of life in different countries.
Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis I, II
A comic autobiographical story about the childhood, adolescence and life of an Iranian girl who grew up during the Islamic Revolution. Marjane goes to France to study, where she experiences cultural differences and has to deal with previously unknown freedom.
Marjane Satrapi: Embroideries
A graphic novel that uncovers intimate conversations of Iranian women without the presence of men.
Kamila Shamsie: Home Fire
A thrilling story of a Muslim family living in London. The story of three children whose father was a jihadist. A story about prejudice, racism and radicalization.
Zadie Smith: White Teeth
What is it like to live in a multicultural country and find its place in it? This optimistic novel tells the stories of three generations of people who live in London, where they face different challenges.
Zadie Smith: Swing Time
How do we become who we are? Swing Time is a story about friendships that give us direction, define us and change us forever.
Larry Tremblay: The Orange Grove
Fate of the two boys is suddenly changed when a bomb shell kills their grandparents. Men come to the citrus orchard and demand revenge for the spilled blood. How to distinguish honor from bigotry?
When they see us
series / drama (from 18 years of age)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
Five Harlem teenagers were wrongly convicted of an attack in Central Park. A story about prejudice, racism and imperfection of the system that is originally made to protect minors. Inspired by real events.
Coco
animated story
Directed by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina
A story of a Mexican boy, Miguel, who wants to become a musician at all costs. Despite the ban of his loved ones. Story describes the celebration of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Remembrance of the Deceased), its meaning, traditions and the importance of the family and its cohesion.
Human flow
documentary film
Directed by Ai Weiwei
Beast of no nation
movie (from 18 years of age)
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
First They Killed My Father
movie
Directed by Angelina Jolie
The Kite Runner
movie
Directed by Marc Forster
Filmed according to the book. The story of two boys, friends from Afghanistan. Their unusually strong relationship is broken after one of them cowardly betrays the other after winning the kite race. However, there is always a way to correct the mistake.
Caliphate
series / drama (from 18 years of age)
Directed by Goran Kapetanovic
A story about the radicalisation of young people living in Sweden. It shows prejudice, racism, extremism and its consequences. It is also about how the second generation of migrants in Sweden is looking for their place, and what difficulties they might face.
Mo Amer: The Vagabond
standup
Performed by Mohammed Amer
The Breadwinner
animated story
Directed by Nora Twomey
According to the book of the same name written by Deborah Ellis - Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. An 11-year-old Parvaneh girl cuts her hair after her father is wrongfully arrested and she starts to pretend to be a boy so she can walk the streets and help out her family.
Mareena festival
Bratislava
Multi-genre festival with the subtitle “World in One Place”, where you can taste the dishes and drinks of the world cuisines, concerts, discussions, creative workshops.
Bratislava, Nitra, Košice
Language café, Iranian evening, African brunch, Día de los Muertos, Diwali and various other events and themed evenings can be experienced in Mareena.
Festival: Fjúžn (Fusion)
Bratislava
Multi-genre festival of new minorities – music, discussions, exhibitions, fusion walks.
Music playlist: Salsa Colombiana with Diego
This playlist was prepared for us by Diego from Colombia.
Music playlist: Christmas with Mareena
Christmas songs from all over the world. Here you will find Arabic, Indian, Mexican, Kenyan, Filipino, Brazilian and other Christmas songs.
Music playlist: Día de los Muertos with Oscar
Playlist created on the occasion of the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Remembrance of the Deceased).
Hudba_sveta_FM (World music)
View of non-traditional musical instruments, WorldMusicChart, musical guests and music of the world. Every Wednesday from 22:00 to 24:00.
Trenčín
The largest multi-genre festival in Slovakia. You can find diversity all around you – in music, program, people, discussions.
A photographer and visual artist who has themes inspired by identity, stereotypes and prejudices. Born in Slovakia, but with Vietnamese roots. Her identity consists of two contrasting worlds, and she tries to capture this in her works.
Do you know a book, a movie or an artist who shouldn't be missed here? Let us know.
