Culture: Past events

The lines between food, medicine and poison are fine ones, yet their boundaries sometimes appear confusingly blurred. For Amazonian peoples, finding the right balance means the difference between life and death. William Milliken explores the apparently contradictory properties of the plants and animals of the Amazon forest, and how the region's inhabitants have learned to harness them in order to survive. Dr Milliken is currently employed at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, where he is responsible for the development of botanical research in Latin America.

Since the discovery of the American Continent until the mid-nineteenth century, dyestuffs from the New World were for Europeans a luxury trade. Two thousand years earlier in pre-Columbian times, rulers of the Middle American and Andean empires, fond of wearing colorful costumes, had propitiated a complex organization for the production, trade, and storing of dyestuffs, as well as the development of dyeing techniques. Although the conquest of their territories put an end to the existent social system, the skillful workers, especially women, who had for centuries created the magnificent paraphernalia for the high classes, kept all their skills and continued to dye and weave for their own domestic use. This is the story of the miraculous survival of technical and ethno-botanical knowledge among indigenous crafts people.

Speaker | Ana Roquero, curator and writer, has specialised in the study of ancient dyes since 1975. Her last publication "Tintes y tintoreros de America" (American Dyes & Dyers), Instituto del Patrimonio Historico Espanol, Madrid 2006, is a catalogue of more than 200 American dye plants and an ethnographic and historical register of traditional dyeing procedures of the continent. She lives in Madrid.

Latin America has more plant diversity than any other continent. This talk will show both some of the beauty of the flowers of the Amazon region and show how many crops of worldwide importance have come from Latin America. Professor Prance was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1988 to 1999. He is author of nineteen books and has published over 510 scientific and general papers in taxonomy, ethnobotany, economic botany, conservation and ecology. He was knighted in July 1995 and received the Victoria Medal of Honour in 1999.

Book Launch | The Lecture will be followed by the Launch of Mist of the Earth by Ruth Geni Donario and Denise Milan. This is an intimate account of caicara life in southern Amazonia, recently translated into English by Anne Prance.

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

Music, food and Ethnobotany in the Americas

Canning House and Trinity College, in collaboration with Helen Glaisher-Hernandez bring you another enchanting evening of classical and contemporary Latin American music. A range of pieces influenced by, and exploring, food and plants of the region, including work by Ginastera, Ricardo Lorenz, Leo Brouwer and many others. The programme also features the British Premier of Mexican Enrique Gonzalez Medina.

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

John Hemming, historian and former director of the Royal Geographical Society, tells the story of the Cinchona tree - from the medicinal uses of its bark to cure malaria by Ecuadorian Indians - to becoming the essential ingredient in gin-and-tonic. Rubber, though used by Amazonian Indians, became the durable product we know only in the 19th century. It produced flamboyant wealth for Manaus and its rubber barons, but hardship for the seringueiros and Indians forced to collect it. John Hemming gives new interpretations to the removal of rubber from the Amazon in the 1870s and the subsequent collapse of the rubber boom.

His new book "Tree of Rivers. The Story of the Amazon" describes the passionate struggles that have taken place in order to utilise, protect and understand the world's greatest expanse of tropical rainforest. Published by Thames & Hudson 2008.

A mid-life crisis prompted writer Simon Prichard to try and rekindle his love affair with Spain. For six months he wandered from fiesta to fiesta to get a concentrated dose of the Spanish genius for celebration. Among other oddities, he took part in a smoke procession, witnessed a drunken pole climbing contest, saw young men whip themselves with medieval scourges and was beaten with burning torches by an entire village. A talk based on the book that Simon really should get around to publishing.

Thank you to Camino Restaurant and Wines from Spain.

A series of black and white photographs by Italian photographer, Luca Rinaldini, who visited cacao plantations in northeast of Brazil in 2004. Texts from Jorge Amado's novels set around the cocoa farming accompany the images. Through the poetic language of Amado and that of photography, the exhibition entices us to discover the fruit, the harvest, the rituals, the workers and the physical and cultural environment of cocoa production.
Rinaldini specialises in monographic photo essays both in colour and black and white, principally on his trips across Asia, Central and South America.
The exhibition runs until 6 June. Opening Times: Mon-Fri 2-6pm.

Poor Little Rich Girl is a charming new production of the classic Brazilian play Pobre Menina Rica, with Gui Tavares, Rogerio Correa and Maria O'Connell. Featuring twelve songs composed by two of the founders of the Bossa Nova movement, Carlos Lyra and Vinicius de Moraes, this evening takes us back to the Golden Years of the 60s. After a successful run across London in December 2007, we offer an exclusive performance with Carlos Lyra here at Canning House as part of the celebrations of 50 years of Bossa Nova in 2008. Performed in English and Portuguese.

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

Directed by Alfonso Arau.

Tita and Pedro fall in love, but are forbidden to marry. Mama Elena sees Tita's role as her caretaker for life - no youngest daughter has ever married and her daughter will not be the first to break tradition. Tita's heart breaks when her mother instead offers to Pedro her other daughter, and he accepts. Now they live in the same house, and Mama Elena cannot forbid their love as she did their marriage.
Mexico, 1992, 105 mins (Spanish with English subtitles).

Pre-screening talk with Ignacio Duran, Minister of Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Mexico in London.

An exclusive performance with two bossa nova greats, Carlos Lyra and Marcos Valle in the intimate setting of Canning House. Carlos Lyra is one of the creators of the Bossa Nova movement and composer of many classics of Brazilian Popular Music. Marcos Valle is an internationally acclaimed composer from the "second wave" of bossa nova musicians. His swingy, dance-driven style created a new bossa: the drum'n'boss, popular with the next generation. Through voice, piano, guitar and a little conversation, we retrace Bossa Nova from its emerging years in the late 50s to its present fusion of the 21st century.

Sponsored by the Melia White House Hotel, Regent's Park. Part of Sol Melia international group.

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

For the Maya and the Aztecs of Meso-America chocolate was not simply a tasty drink. It was a mind-altering, ritual substance that could be substituted for blood in religious ceremonies. Women in colonial Spanish America found it was hard to get through an entire church service without a chocolate break half-way through. The seventeenth-century French aristocrat the Marquise de Sevigne regarded chocolate as a health-food. Britons now consume on average 18 pounds of chocolate per year. This talk surveys the routes by which chocolate travelled from the forests of Central America to the confectionary shelf of your petrol station

Dr Rebecca Earle is a Reader in History at the University of Warwick, where she teaches on The Cultural History of Food in Latin America, among other subjects.

A second chance to hear two prominent authors speak on this remarkable plant. Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, former director of Kew Gardens and Britain's foremost botanist on South America, will describe the astonishing coca plant, whose many beneficial properties make it a staple of Andean Indians, but whose leaf can be transformed into the powerful cocaine. Historian Dr. John Hemming, one of the world's experts on the Incas and Peruvian archaeology, will tell how coca was an important element among the Incas and their predecessors.

2008 is the UN International Year of the Potato. To celebrate this remarkable tuber, two specialists come together for an invaluable discussion on the botany, history and role of the potato in helping to alleviate poverty, improve food security and promote economic development. Dr. Sandy Knapp is a botanist at the Natural History Museum and specializes in the Solanaceae (nightshade) family; and Jim Godfrey is Chairman of Centro Internacional de Papas in Lima.
The seminar will be preceded by a screening of the award-winning short Sawasiray-Pitusiray directed by Mariana Herrera, and followed by Peruvian potato feast.

Thank you to Orient Express and the Embassy of Peru.

Most of us are at home in a world where the emphasis is on beef, milk products, wine and beer. Of the best-selling drinks, only Coca-Cola originally had a New World product - coca. None of these foods was utilized by the ancient Maya. What did the ancient Maya urban landscape look like? How did Maya men, women and children think about food? What sustained Maya cities? Dr. Graham is Senior Lecturer in Mesoamerican Archaeology at UCL.

Ruth Stiff presents an illustrated lecture portraying the life, work, and legacy of the British artist Margaret Mee. The artist's development within the historic context of Amazonian exploration and botanical illustration is portrayed. She establishes her as an artist internationally acclaimed by botanists and art critics alike. Mee's amazing journeys along the Amazon are highlighted, including her long-time and ultimately successful attempt to illustrate the "moonflower," a night-blooming cactus. Ruth Stiff is the Curator of North American Exhibitions, Kew Gardens. She has lectured throughout North America and Europe on botanical art. She has written various books including Margaret Mee, Return to the Amazon, 1996; and The Flowering Amazon, 2004. She is a Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London.

The Brunelleschi String Quartet was formed in 2004 by its leader and founder Orpheus Papafilippou. It is a young, energetic, vibrant and artistically forward thinking ensemble. Under the guidance of Michael Bochmann and George Hajinikos the ensemble has developed and nurtured its sound and interpretation. This evening's repertoire includes Spanish and Argentine music among other European pieces.

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

An exploration of edible Mexican plants and the tastes of indigenous Mexican cooking and their interaction with other ingredients through history and throughout the world. Sofia will touch on the subject of Nationality (nationalism) in Mexican gastronomy to how something that is inherently 'Mexican' can be adopted and adapted by others. Sofia has a degree in Chemistry and Food Science from Mexico City University, has written cookery books, appeared on Radio 4 programmes on cooking and runs her own catering/teaching company: Fiesta Sofia.

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

For those completly new to the language, this course will give you the basics; how to introduce yourself, numbers, the alphabet, pronunciation, directions, ordering, shopping, and verbs in the present and past tenses.

This course will condense into 15 hours our normal beginners course, and will allow students to move to the elementary level in our autumn term (starting in September 2008).

Monday 14 July to Friday 18 July (5 days)
6pm to 9pm (3 hours daily)

After children's theatre shows, book presentations and workshops at the Edinburgh International Book Festival which constitute the project MEXART for 2008, The Anglo Mexican Foundation, in collaboration with Canning House, the Mexican Embassy in London and Developing Artists, is pleased to invite you to an informal evening of readings and music from Mexico. It is an opportunity to meet the famous actor of film and theatre, Mario Ivan Martinez, to enjoy two readings from Mexican contemporary authors and to enjoy a recital of nostalgic music from Mexico's past interpreted by the internationally popular flautist Elena Duran, accompanied by pianist Betty Woo. Cutting edge literature with nostalgic music - a Mexican evening to remember.

A fund-raising event to support Canning House cultural activities.