The Arts — Stories

The Tune of Soviet Tuesdays

He pulled out an old—but new for me—dusty book from his briefcase. Books belonging to the Soviet orchestra library...

Music, The ArtsBy Alexa Shearer (From the US, France, Germany, Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria & Italy. Living in Florida)11 April 2020music, Tck, TCK, TCK TOWN, tck, third culture kid, Soviet, metro, violin, orchestra, cathedral, crowds, station, train Comment

Driss and Philippe—a Friendship Beyond Their Borders

Latin American films (‘Amores Perros’ starring Gabriel Garcia Bernal), Israeli films (‘Waltz with Bashir’ by Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman), and Asian films (‘Yi Yi’ a film set in Taiwan following the lives of the Jian family from their alternating perspectives) — I revelled in them…

Larry Gatlin and the Longing for Home

The song Piel Canela conjures images of my sister in traditional Costa Rican dress, dancing while it plays…

The ArtsBy Molly Kaitlin (From Peru, Costa Rica, Minnesota & Florida. Living in Tennessee)4 April 2020TCK, TCK TOWN, familiy, music, the arts, peace, home, Third Culture Adult, third culture kid, dancing, homesickComment

Life’s A Whirling Dervish: Bahrain Story #61

As an architect and an interior designer, I have a belief that space has an inherent cadence, much like an individual with their own story waiting to be discovered…

Flyway, My Friend

A collaborative project between 20 artists across nine countries came close to that gossamer spirit that has guided me through my travels. That project was The Flyway Print Exchange, coordinated by the Melbourne-based printmaker and artist Kate Gorringe-Smith…

Can Literature Trump Culture?

One day my mother passed me a book. It was called ‘The Harafish’ and written by the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988). I picked up the book and only put it down once I completed it....

The ArtsBy Danish Khan (From Melbourne, Perth, Karachi & Islamabad. Living in Karachi)29 November 2017TCK, TCK TOWN, Tck, literature, emigrant, Australia, Naguib Mahfouz, books, international students, Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Muhammad Hanif, Aravinda Adiga, Karachi, Mexico CityComment

Dancing Feels Like Home

Dancing is everywhere in Peru; it’s a way to share history and tell stories. The country is rich in traditional dances, and I grew to love this part of Peruvian culture. It didn't matter that I was never very good at it...

The Untouchable Ones

I would be there, waiting, percolating in the heady cultural mix of art and artist; a moth ever drawn to their bright blooming flames. Each masterpiece was a welcome segue from the mundaneness of everyday public service life; a provocative play on social boundaries that relentlessly questioned the conservative mores of the Saudi Arabia of my teens, and revealed just how far removed I had become from the Lebanese traditions of my youth...

The ArtsBy Farah Beaini (Living in the land of the Kulin nation)15 November 2017TCK TOWN, TCK, Tck, art, artist, Saudi Arabia, Lebanese, art gallery, painting, painted woman, painted man, untouchableComment

The Intellectual Applications of Chai

Established in 1940 by two Sikh brothers as the India Tea House, it was renamed Pak Tea House after the partition. What was more significant than the small cups of sugary tea that were served, was that Pak Tea House signified freedom of thought and expression...

Cultural R-evolution

You tell me, eyes clouded by the heaviness, of a culture that has long moved away from your history, yet you cling to so stubbornly...

Us, The ArtsBy Farah Beaini (Living in the land of the Kulin nation)8 November 2017tck, TCK TOWN, third culture kid, culture, gender, woman, women, women's rights, Arab, feminism, freedom, beliefs, multicultural, cultural Comments

Stories in the Sand–an Alaskan Tradition

“There, far away in the mountains of the Chugak, where birds fly over on their way north to the land of white night, there was a couple walking below.” You see the knife draw two stick figures below with dots to show foot prints. “They will hunt and gather.” You see a river and flecks that look like fish in the water.

The ArtsBy Paul Kennedy (From The Western Pacific, South East Asia, Europe & Alaska. Living in Tokyo)4 November 2017tck, third culture kid, TCK TOWN, Tck, culture, story, the arts, Alaska, native, museum, story knife, storyteller, Chugak, Americans, RussiansComment

CDs to MP3s; Turkish Pop to Tinnitus

I find the Turkish language so beautiful, and when it is sung it becomes even more so. It didn’t hurt that I had crushes on most of the popular female Turkish pop singers back in the 1980s either...