Graffiti works to be erased

In the past one year, the alley at 15B Le Thanh Ton Street in HCMC’s District 1 has been a popular venue for graffiti artists to come to show their creativity. However, the people living in this alley last week decided not to allow new drawings and to erase all the current artworks.

The news was posted by a graffiti artist named Ben on his Facebook page to announce the decision of local citizens as they complained that many people had made too much noise and a messy environment when visiting the place for photography and filming.

Locals are collecting money to erase all the graffiti works on a 100-meter-long wall of the alley.

Many young people and art lovers feel sorry when they had heard the information.

The people living in the alley of 15B Le Thanh Ton had allowed graffiti artists to paint their works on the wall since late last year with an aim to beautify the location and to encourage artists to show their creativity.

Graffiti was introduced to Saigon about 10 years ago but attracted much public attention only four years ago when some local and foreign artists practiced and exhibited graffiti in the city. Paint and marker pens have been used as the most common materials to make graffiti works.

However, graffiti has not widely accepted by the public and this is one of the challenges for young people to find a place to paint and show their creativity.

Veteran author publishes works

HCM City-based Tre Publishing House has signed a lifetime copyright deal with veteran writer Trang The Hy, one of Viet Nam's most venerated contemporary literature writers.

The deal grants exclusive rights to the writer's 65 short stories and two novels written before 1983 to the publishing house.

The publishing house printed Hy's Vet Thuong Thu 13 (The 13th Injury) in 2011 and plans to publish all of his pieces by October to mark the writer's 90th birthday.

The publishing house will soon launch e-book versions of six titles already printed by rival publishing houses, including short story collection Mua Am (Warm Rain) and English-Vietnamese poetry collection Dang va Ngot (Bitter and Sweet).

Writer Trang The Hy was born as Vo Ngoc Canh in 1924 in the southern province of Ben Tre. He was a participant in both wars against the French and Americans. After 1975, he worked in HCM City and has resided in Ben Tre since 1992.

"I'm so happy to have people read and love my pieces," he said.

Vietnam, Norway promote musical exchange

Young opera Vietnamese virtuoso and prodigy Dao To Loan recently completed a Lidal Johnson Summer Music Camp in the Norwegian capital city of Oslo from July 4-19 as part of a Vietnam-Norway musical exchange.

During the summer camp, Loan participated along with 40 other young opera talents from 19 countries in varied and rich opera performances in several cities in the Northern European country, including two French operettas in Oslo  on July 17-18.

Her stunning performance of the Vietnamese song Me Yeu Con (Mother loves child) and a Norwegian song at a night outdoor concert, brought an audience of more than 5,000 to their feet with thunderous applause.

At the Lidal North Opera Workshop concert in the Norwegian Opera House on July 14, Loan’s brilliant performance won over judges and audiences alike, garnering the jury’s prize and audience’s favourite prize.

Loan’s participation in the summer camp came as part of a Vietnamese-Norwegian cultural cooperation project – Transposition– funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.

The main goals of the project are to promote artistic excellence, build capacity and transfer knowledge among the partner institutions in Norway and Vietnam, helping Vietnamese artists access international music and art.

Since its inception in 2007, the project has supported more than 250 cooperation and exchanges of knowledge activities.

Transposition artistic director Geir Johnson recently announced that the first summer training course for 20 Vietnamese youth artists will be launched in Ho Chi Minh City this August.

He added that due to the tremendous success of the project and active interest in it throughout the country,  there are continuing plans to expand the project to implement a the third phase in the 2012-2015 period.

Active participants in the Transposition  project include the Vietnam National Academy of Music, Vietnam Institute of Musicology, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music, Ho Chi Minh City Ballet and Symphony Orchestra and Opera, Barratt Due Institute of Music. the Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, Norwegian Society of Composers, the Trondheim Soloists and SISU Percussion Ensemble.

Event for Vietnam’s LGBT community to take place in August

A series of events dedicated to the local LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community will be held in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi over three days next month, expecting to lure hundreds of participants.

Viet Pride 2014 is themed “Tay trong tay” (Together) and will take place from August 1 to 3 at the American Club and Goethe Institute.

It aims to raise awareness of sexual diversity with the hope that homosexual, bisexual and transsexual people will be given the right to love and be loved like everyone else.

Besides numerous activities such as film screenings, musical performances, talk shows and a bike rally, Viet Pride 2014 is also a chance for LGBT people to raise their concerns about several issues including sexual health and legal rights.

First held in 2012, the 2014 event is organized by the Hanoi-based Viet Pride organization, with the support of UNDP, the Dutch Embassy and U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Walking programme offers chance to discover Hanoi history through street sound

The 2014 Hanoi Sound Walk programme is scheduled to begin in early October, promising to provide attendees with a chance to discover the typical sounds of the capital in the past.

Under the programme, the participants will join a short walk, and with the support of GPRS enabled smart phones, they will put on their headphones and enjoy the historical sounds of each destination they reach.

The walkers can choose which parts of the city to linger in, discover more, or move on to the next place. The sound will change according to where they are standing.

The programme was first held in Hanoi in 2013, attracting the participation of around 100 Vietnamese and foreign walkers. The idea is to find and use recordings that explain and evoke the unseen aspects of places in Hanoi.

The event is staged by artists Dinh Le Van from Vietnam, Joshua Kopeoek from the UK, and Mathias Rossignol from France under the consultancy of historian Duong Trung Quoc.

The artists used historical documents and interviews from senior Hanoians to truthfully recreate typical sounds in the daily life of each location.

Josh Kopecek has lived in Hanoi for three years and has a passion for the sounds of the city. According to him, this year’s event will not only revive the sounds of Hanoi’s Old Quarter streets but also the small alleys of the capital.