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Hadani Ditmars

Author, Multi-platform Journalist, Editor

Hadani Ditmars is the author of Dancing in the No Fly Zone: a Woman’s Journey Through Iraq and the Vancouver Wallpaper City Guide.

A former editor at New Internationalist, her cultural and political commentaries have been published in the Guardian, the New York Times and Vogue and broadcast on the CBC and BBC.

Hadani’s next book Ancient Heart is a political travelogue of ancient sites in Iraq.

www.hadaniditmars.com
Music Soothes The Savage Sound

Music Soothes The Savage Sound Bite

Can music still soothe the savage sound bite? That was my quest this last fortnight, as I sought solace from non-stop Trumpapocalypse
02/07/2017 07:57 EST
Singing Leonard Cohen Songs Keeps The Darkness At

Singing Leonard Cohen Songs Keeps The Darkness At Bay

It was Ramadan, May 1988, and I was even more spaced out than usual, subsisting on a strange student diet of fig cakes and arroz y garbanzo. After an afternoon at the Prado, I found myself wandering one evening near the palacio de deportes and magically happened upon a <em>Leonard Cohen en concierto esta noche</em> sign. But what would I do? How would I ever afford a ticket?
11/17/2016 08:11 EST
Cultural Remedies For Vancouver: A City Without

Cultural Remedies For Vancouver: A City Without Duende

Is Vancouver a city without <em>duende</em>? For those unfamiliar with the term, a creative force evoked in the art of flamenco, I defer to Garcia Lorca -- the poet killed by right-wing Spanish civil war era assassins whose work seems ever more resonant in our time of vulgar demagogues and neo-liberal pretenders.
10/26/2016 09:59 EDT
Love In A Time Of

Love In A Time Of Terror

The Western world was not a safe place recently. At least not on most major news channels. The familiar became menacing: dancing
06/24/2016 04:45 EDT
Stephen Harper and the Death of Canadian

Stephen Harper and the Death of Canadian Culture

In light of recent announcements that the current government plans to sell off the CBC buildings across this land -- the very art of cultural commentary might not be long for this nation. As Harper slowly dismantles every political and cultural institution intrinsic to the Canadian way of life I wonder -- will the future Joni Mitchells, Leonard Cohens and Neil Youngs be left to fend for themselves?
10/09/2015 05:27 EDT
We are All Albert

We are All Albert Herring

In this centenary year of composer Benjamin Britten, I recall my first exposure to his complex, beautiful and technically
12/06/2013 04:33 EST
Will Millennials Ever Love the

Will Millennials Ever Love the Waltz?

Since the world didn't end on Dec. 21, I found myself once again taking in the annual Salute to Vienna New Year's concert at Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre. While there weren't so many people under 80 at the concert I attended, how long can it be before the young generation of hyper stimulated texting 20-somethings decide to give it all up for the lure of the waltz?
01/04/2013 05:25 EST
Singing for Syria and

Singing for Syria and Gaza

The other day I found myself in a 100-year-old Anglican Church in Vancouver, in a place called rather fittingly, the Sanctuary. I was there to rehearse for a benefit happening the evening of Friday December 7th for Syrian refugee relief and emergency aid to Gaza, with funds directed to Doctors Without Borders and the ICRC's Middle East fund.
12/06/2012 05:08 EST