Culture: Forthcoming events

Please go to language courses page for more information.

Please go to language courses page for more information.

Talk based on a new book by Chris Moss, published by Signal Books

Patagonia is the ultimate landscape of the mind. Like Siberia and the Sahara, it has become a metaphor for nothingness and extremity. A vast triangle at the southern tip of the New World, this region of barren steppes, soaring peaks and fierce winds was populated by small tribes of hunter-gatherers and roaming nomads when Ferdinand Magellan made landfall in 1520, and since then it has captivated the imagination of explorers, sailors and traders in the endless search for Eldorado.

Chris Moss is a travel writer and a former journalist at The Buenos Aires Herald. He lives in the UK.

Talk followed by glass of wine.

Please go to language courses page for more information.

Please go to language courses page for more information.

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Coffee is not just a drink.

It's a global commodity. While Americans and Europeans continue to pay for luxury lattes and cappuccinos, the prices paid to coffee farmers remain so low that many have been forced to abandon their fields. BLACK GOLD tells the complex story behind an attempt to make globalization work for the producers of the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil. Nowhere is the disparity of the coffee industry more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, where the film follows one producer and campaigner from the field to the international negotiating arena to London and Seattle.

Q&A - After the screening we will discuss the relevance of this film to Latin American coffee production and trade, with speaker TBC.

Directed by Marc Francis & Nick Francis
2006, UK, 77 mins
www.blackgoldmovie.com

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Based on a huge variety of diary material and personal letters from principally British and American, but also Russian and French sources, We Saw Spain Die is a study of how the war correspondent came of age in this devastating conflict. It highlights the difficult circumstances - political, professional and personal, faced by some of the century's greatest correspondents both within Spain and in America, Britain, France and Russia.

Paul Preston is regarded as the leading historian of twentieth-century Spain. He is Principe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish History and Director of the Canada Blanch Centre of Contemporary Spanish Studies at the London School of Economics.

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PRIVATE VIEW

Cocos is a speck in the Eastern Pacific, a dynamic focus for the area's ocean currents, weather and spectacular sealife. Its sheer cliffs contain unique, exuberant forests and the traces of many a buccaneer. British artist Deirdre Hyde first went there thirty years ago has returned many times. This exhibition shows her recent figurative paintings of Cocos Island and its botanical treasures.

Exhibition runs until 17 October. Opening Times Mon - Fri, 2pm-6pm.

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Cocos Island, Costa Rica, may seem isolated, but in fact it helps to regulate the temperature of the entire Earth via a tangled web of relationships between its rainwater, rocks and teeming biodiversity. In this talk we will discover how the story of these interactions helps us to recover a deep sense of connection to the extraordinary life of our planet, which is so sorely needed at this time of ecological meltdown.

Stephan Harding gained his doctorate in ecology from the University of Oxford in 1986, and then taught for several years at the National University in Costa Rica, where he became a good friend of Deirdre Hyde. He is currently the Coordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College in Devon, and is author of 'Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia', published by Green Books.

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This remarkable duo will perform an exciting repertoire of music by Manuel de Falla, Luis de Freitas Branco, Enrique Granadas and others.

Laura Isaacson studied at the Guildhall School of Music and has performed in festivals and concerts in Portugal, England and the United States. She played with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and in 2004 was co-principal of the Orquestra do Algarve. Recently she performed in Lisbon at the Aula Magna and in the Ciclo Manuelino de Musica in Belem.

Masa Tayama gained honours from both the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. In 2002 he made his London debut at the Purcell Room. He has performed with the Sevenoaks Symphony Orchestra, the Guildford Symphony Orchestra, the Croydon Symphony Orchestra, and the Bacao Symphony Orchestra in Italy, and across Europe and Japan.

This is a fund-raising event to support cultural activities at Canning House.

The aim of this talk is to present an overview of the role that gold played in Aztec society. Contrary to popular belief that gold came second after jade and turquoise, we shall see that gold was very important to the Aztecs in the fields of politics, economy and religion. Furthermore gold conveyed a message of power and wealth and Aztec rulers used it lavishly to distance themselves from the rest of the people both in life and in the afterlife. The most important Aztec gods were also clad in gold or often displaying the symbol of gold. History, archaeology and the painted books (codices) will testify to the importance of gold among the Aztecs.

Elizabeth Baquedano is a Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London and at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London.

Presentations given by experts on Latin American food and agriculture:

EXTRA SPECIAL BEANS FROM PERU AND OTHER AMERICAN PACIFIC AREAS WITH COLIN LEAKEY

Colin first encountered yellow coloured beans in Chile in 1979. These beans were special because they were known as "non-windy" beans. Since then he has bred his own kinds of yellow beans, seen the recent attempts of others to patent similar Mayocaba Mexican beans squashed by US courts, and been involved in NASA research to feed astronauts with these unusual legumes. The story of the yellow bean is certain to enlighten and amuse anyone who has a taste for frijoles.

Dr Colin Leakey Ph.D (Cantab) is an economic botanist and plant breeder with a huge diversity of interests and experiences, including a major study of Breadfruits since Bligh, which he is currently writing up. He is also an informal consultant to The Eden Project.

QUEST FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUES - A JOURNEY THROUGH LATIN AMERICA WITH ANDREW ORMEROD

Andrew recently travelled through Peru, Columbia, Costa Rica and Mexico to learn more about their local agriculture, and food cultures. These ranged from traditional Andean potato production, through popping beans to naturally coloured cotton production in Peru; to farmers doing research for their communities in Columbia; the quest for traditional tortilla making in Mexico and the development of "closed loop" farming systems in Costa Rica.

Andrew Ormerod is the economic botany researcher at the Eden Project involved with exhibit research and working with local farmers in Cornwall.

The Interoceanic highway crosses the Amazon Basin and Peruvian Andes linking the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of South America.

British photographer Quintin Lake joined an Oxford University Expedition which included Peruvian botanists to locate and identify orchids along two sections of the Interoceanic highway. The exhibition features a selection of the 98 orchid species recorded in flower, the construction of the highway and the lives of those for whom the road is their porch.

quintinlake.com orchidexpedition.com

Private View 12 November 6:30pm
Exhibition runs from 13- 21 November. Opening times: 2pm-6pm

Many Amazonian peoples ingest hallucinogenic plants in one form or another for a variety of reasons connected to healing, self-improvement, apprenticeship and visioning. This talk explores plants such as Ayahuasca, Datura and Tobacco and their uses. As well as descriptions and explanations of these plants' uses, the talk will cover their cultural context and connections with modern tourism.

Sally Evans has recently completed a PhD in Indigenous medicinal knowledge and intellectual property rights in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

3rd Canning House Ethical Christmas Fair

A special evening of Last Minute Ethical Christmas Shopping!

18 December, 4pm - 8:30pm

Ethical, fair trade and organic products from Latin America and around the world!

Christmas gifts ▪ Quality Arts & Crafts • Stylish Ethical Fashion ▪ Fine Jewellery ▪ Live Music • Raffle • Global food • Mulled wine

Come and support independent producers by shopping for your Christmas gifts at Canning House; enjoy food & drink & live music from Latin America all on the same night!

FREE ENTRANCE!

NO NEED TO BOOK - JUST TURN UP