This week we hear from some of the international artists who’ve been taking part at this year’s Edinburgh Festivals. It’s the world’s biggest arts festival, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary.Aboriginal Australian William Barton is an award winning composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and one of the country’s leading didgeridoo players. His music has been performed from the Beijing Olympics to Westminster Abbey in London and he tells Tina Daheley about the language of this ancient traditional instrument and how he blends it with European classical music.Scottish writer Uma Nada-Rajah’s play Exodus is set against the backdrop of a UK Conservative party leadership contest. In Uma’s all female version, we met a would be Prime Minister who’s staging a photo opportunity under the white cliffs of Dover to launch her anti-immigration policy, when a body washes up. Uma Nada-Rajah told Kate Molleson about the inspiration behind her topical satire. In the 1994 Rwandan genocide, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by dominant Hutu forces in 100 days. For her piece, The Book of Life, Rwandan playwright and director Odile Gakire Katese, known as Kiki Katese, tells the story of that conflict through the letters of ordinary Rwandans. She tells us why she feels that the arts can help to bring reconciliation to the country. Circus Abyssinia is the first all Ethiopian Circus troupe. Created by two brothers, Bibi and Bichu, their latest show, called Tulu, is inspired by the Ethiopian runner Derartu Tulu. She won the 10,000 meters in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the first black African woman to win Olympic gold. Bibi and Bichu spoke to The Cultural Frontline’s Andrea Kidd and explained why they wanted to portray her story through circus skills.(Photo: An aerial silk performer from Circus Abyssinia. Credit: David Rubene Photography)

This week, as the world has been reacting to the shocking news of the attack on the author Sir Salman Rushdie at a book event in New York State, The Cultural Frontline asks what this attack means for the world of writers and publishing and what it says about freedom of expression in literature today.Tina Daheley is joined by the Kurdish author and former human rights lawyer Burhan Sönmez, the Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija and the US Irish writer and literary translator Maureen Freely.Sir Salman is one of the most celebrated writers in the English language. His second novel, Midnight's Children, won the Booker Prize for fiction, one of literature's top awards. It was Rushdie's fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, which became his most controversial book, and he was forced to go into hiding as a result of the backlash after it was published in 1988. Many Muslims reacted with fury to it, arguing that the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad was a grave insult to their faith. He faced death threats and the then-Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa - or decree - calling for Rushdie's assassination. In recent years the author seemed to enjoy a new level of freedom.Please be warned that there are descriptions of torture in this programme which some listeners may find distressing.Producer: Simon Richardson(Main Image: Sir Salman Rushdie onstage at the Guild Hall Academy Of The Arts Achievement Awards 2020, March 03, 2020, New York City. Credit: Sean Zanni / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.)

On this week’s programme Anu Anand speaks to the theatre makers giving unheard and censored stories top billing. Ron Simons is a multi-award winning theatre producer, as well as an actor and film producer. He’s won four Tony awards, the most of any Black Broadway producer. He explains why his mission is to put the stories and experiences of under-represented communities on stage, and make sure representation happens behind the scenes as well. The Irish actor, director, producer and Hollywood star Gabriel Byrne is performing his own story. He’s created a solo show of his best-selling memoir, Walking With Ghosts, sharing moments from his childhood in Ireland, including how he turned to amateur dramatics after failing to become a priest or a plumber, right through to his major Hollywood career. Gabriel also tells reporter Paul Waters about the production that first enthralled him to the theatre.Ming-wai Lit is the founder of Hong Kong theatre company Stage 64. It was created in 2009, and for a decade, put on plays to mark the anniversary of the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests which took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on the 4th June 1989. Mention of Tiananmen Square protests is censored in China, and in Hong Kong activists have been sentenced to prison for taking part in banned vigils. Ming-wai explains why she set up Stage 64 and the importance of theatre to tell these stories.(Photo: Ron Simons. Credit: Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty)

This week, to mark 60 years of Jamaican independence, Josie d’Arby meets the artists shaping the culture of the country today. Sharma Taylor is an award-winning writer from the island, who has been short-listed no fewer than four times for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Last month, she released her debut novel, What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You. Set in 1980s Jamaica, it’s a story told by a multitude of unreliable narrators and with a mystery about parentage at its heart. Photographer David I Muir looks through his archive to share the story of one photograph that he feels tells a distinctive story of Jamaica: a scene celebrating Jamaica’s bounteous seafood. Film makers Storm Saulter, whose movies include Sprint and Better Mus’ Come, and Gabrielle Blackwood, who works across fiction and documentary, discuss capturing Jamaica’s history on film. And founder of Dubwise Jamaica, the Reggae selector, Yaadcore, shares the philosophy behind his music. Producer: Simon Richardson(Photo: A still from Better Mus’ Come. Credit: Storm Saulter)

How is the art musicians create affected by war or displacement from their homelands for other reasons? We hear from classical musicians performing while their home is under fire, or whose whole approach to their art is changing because of their exile - including the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which was created in response to the war in Ukraine.Venezuelan choir director Ana Vanessa Marvez talks about passing on her country’s musical skills to fellow migrants in Chile We also hear from Syrian viola player Raghad Haddad who has discovered artistic liberation alongside the loss and pain of exile.Presenter: Tina Daheley Producers: Paul Waters & Kevin Satizabal Carrascal Reporter: Anna Bailey(Photo: The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra)

We meet artists of the queer diaspora: LGBTQ+ creatives living abroad, away from the cultures that raised them, to discuss ideas of personal and artistic freedom, exile and home and the meaning of the word ‘queer’ in 2022. Arab film makers Sarah Kaskas, co-founder of Karaaj Films, and Mohammad Shawky Hassan discuss their new films, The Window, and Shall I Compare You to a Summer’s Day? with Tina Daheley. Mohammad Shawky Hassan recently appeared in London as part of the The SAFAR Film Festival of cinema from the Arab world.British transgender writer Juno Roche discusses their candid memoir A Working Class Family Ages Badly and the idea of creativity in exile with Simon Richardson.Nhojj, a singer and songwriter raised in Guyana and Trinidad and living in New York, explains how his sexuality informs his art. And Hong Kong Chinese poet Mary Jean Chan explains the thinking behind the word ‘queer,’ used in the title of their latest co-edited poetry anthology 100 Queer Poems., as well as reading exclusive new work.Produced by Simon Richardson(Photo: Sophia Moussa Fitch and Tamara Saade in a still from The Window. Credit: Karaaj Films)

According to the United Nations, optimistic estimates suggest that at least half of today’s over 7,000 spoken languages will be extinct or seriously endangered by the end of this century. 2022 sees the start of the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages, drawing global attention to the critical situation faced by many languages and advocating for their preservation and promotion. One of the people championing first nation languages is Clint Bracknell. He’s a musician, singer and songmaker, and releases his music under his Noongar name, Maatakitj. Clint is also a Professor of Indigenous Languages in Australia. Clint has teamed up with multi–ARIA Award winning dance producer Paul Mac to release an album sung in Noongar, called Noongar Wonderland’.Renata Flores has been described as “Peru’s queen of Quechua rap,” combining trap, hip-hop, and electronic influences with Andean instruments. When she was only 14 her Quechua cover of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel”, got over one million views. Now writing her own songs in Quechua, she uses this urban music to teach young people this ancient language. Renata told our reporter Constanza Hola about her passion for her language.Singer-songwriter Cina Soul is from Accra, Ghana and performs in Ga. Her songs are infused with Highlife, Soul and R&B. Although Ga was originally spoken in the Ghanaian capital, now languages such as Twi have taken over the cultural scene. Cina tells Tina Daheley how she’s been bringing the Ga language and culture back to the mainstream.Julie Fowlis is an award winning folk singer who grew up on the Scottish outer Hebridean island of North Uist. She’s a leading exponent for the Scots Gaelic language and traditions, thanks to performances around the world, and even on the soundtrack of Disney Pixar’s film, Brave. Producers: Andrea Kidd and Kevin Satizabal Carrascal(Photo: Clint Bracknel. Credit: Jayga Ringrose)

In Nordmarka forest just outside of Oslo, one thousand trees have been planted to supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in one hundred years' time. Every year over the next century, a leading writer is selected to contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until the year 2114. Writers so far have included Margaret Atwood, Han Kang and David Mitchell. Catharina Moh speaks to two of the creative forces behind the project, the artist Katie Paterson and the urban planner Anne Beate Hovind.It's often advised that you should talk to your plants, but what about playing them music? We revisit Barcelona's Liceu Opera House where, in 2020 following lockdown, Spanish conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia created a very unusual new performance: a special concert for an audience of 2,292 plants. The award-winning Australian writer Robbie Arnott discusses his novel The Rain Heron and reflects on how the forests in his home state of Tasmania have shaped his outlook as a writer. Producer: Sofie Vilcins and Simon Richardson(Photo: Future Library, Oslo. Photo Credits: Rio Gandara / Helsingin Sanomat)

Twenty-five years since the handover of Hong Kong from the British back to China, journalist and former BBC Hong Kong correspondent Juliana Liu explores the cultural impact in Hong Kong itself and in the diaspora.Billy Tang is the new Executive Director and curator of Para Site, one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. He tells us about the appeal of working in and shaping the culture of Hong Kong.Arts and culture journalist Vivienne Chow explores what’s happening in the Hong Kong cultural scene, from the revival of Cantopop, to the decision of some artists to leave the city. Samson Young is a Hong Kong based artist and composer with a fascination for sound and experimentation. He represented Hong Kong in the 2017 Venice Biennale and the energy, intensity and history of the city has influenced him and his work. He describes his latest project and what it’s like to make art in Hong Kong today. With the introduction of the National Security law and last year, the film censorship law, many artists have chosen to leave Hong Kong. Filmmakers Ka Leung Ng and Ching Wong first met making the dystopian speculative fiction film Ten Years, which won Best Film at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2016.They’ve now come together again, and earlier this year created the first Hong Kong Film Festival UK. They explained why they felt it was important to show films that are no longer able to screen in their native Hong Kong.(Photo: A poster celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover. Credit: China News Service/Getty Images)

With scores of superhero films due for release, from Spiderman, to Batgirl, Thor and Black Panther, and a global comic book market predicted to grow to $12 billion a year by 2028, we go behind the mask of these larger than life characters, to look at the role Superheroes play in different societies and cultures around the world, and ask, do we need them more than ever today?Canadian Chinese actor Simu Liu discusses becoming the first Asian superhero in a Marvel Universe film, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. He tells reporter Anna Bailey how his path to acting wasn’t always easy or a career his parents originally approved of, as penned in his new memoir We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story. Pakistani illustrator, comic artist and writer Umair Najeeb Khan discusses his new comic book generation of heroes, the Paak Legion, with Tina Daheley. It includes Samaa, born with the ability to manipulate the wind, Afsoon, the Protector of the Mountains and Haajar, a mother of three, fighting crime on the streets of Lahore. Growing up in Pakistan, he couldn’t see himself represented in this world, so he designed a set of Pakistani superheroes of his own.And reporter Paul Waters visits the Superheroes, Orphans & Origins exhibition of comic art at London’s Foundling Museum and talks to comic artists Woodrow Phoenix and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom about their work exploring the psyche of superheroes. Producers: Andrea Kidd and Simon Richardson(Photo: Simu Liu in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. Credit: Marvel Studios)