Interviews & Profiles

Christopher Vena is a former art teacher turned full-time artist. He and his wife, Jeannie, are a genuinely fantastic duo and resident veterans on expat life...

As soon as I sit down at an outside table of a café in uber-trendy Cihangir, I am spied by a rather dusty looking...

Just behind Kadar Has University stands a dream house. A creative place where only positive energy is welcome and ideas about how to reuse...

Falling Notes is one of Istanbul's newest up-and-coming bands. The five-piece features Alican Tokdemir on drums, Umutcan Karamahmutoğlu on guitar, Sinan Çalışkan on bass, Yusuf Karaoğlu on both guitar...

Four years of living in Istanbul will lead you to stumble upon a significant number of blogs about life in the city. The variety...

Tanaë is the stage name of up-and-coming Belgian singer-songwriter, Shana Seminara, who has been building the case for herself as a rising star with...

I plodded down the hill to Olivia Cummings’s Tophane studio on a rare snowy day in Istanbul, and was happy to shake the snow...

I first met Teymour during last Ramazan, when some mutual friends were celebrating the holy month by feeding local children after sunset, a bit...

Some people have an air that reserves them from the rest of us. When I first met performance artist Ayça Ceylan, she instantly gave...

Disclaimer: This interview is a work of fiction. Several months ago I had the idea to try and contact the legendary John Freely, about...

Kate Clow, a long-time resident of Turkey, is a renowned sage of hiking in the region. She is best known for heading efforts to build,...

The expat scene in Istanbul, as it is in many places, is one rather preoccupied with the preservation of the cultural habits of home,...

For the second half of our interview, I asked Doug about his "Summer in Turkey" class.  Not only did this course have a tremendous influence...

Meet Patrick Bosteels, a chief connector-mentor for entrepreneurs as he calls himself. Originally from Belgium he and his Turkish wife Nesen founded Stage-Co, a...

It's no secret that football banter is frequently relied on to help expats and locals bridge the gap. The real struggle lies in creating the...

I met Ege Çubukçu way back in April, on a day that felt like one of the first definitive spring days of the year....

On Thursday, 17 April, three bands will take to the stage at Roxy in Cihangir. Amongst them are two yabangee-populated groups, Rubber Walrus and...

Let’s be honest, us Yabangees know all too well that the online resources available for learning Turkish are far from enjoyable and rarely interactive....

If you've been in Kadiköy Merkez, trying to push through the crowds, then it's very possible you've missed this gem of a coffee shop....

In a continuation of my conversation with Matt Loftin, Utku Öğüt, Alper Erkut, Gabriel Clark and Paul Osterlund of Sonikraf, we discuss the history of the independent music scene in...

Ah, spring in the countryside... the chirping birds, the gentle rustling of the foliage in the welcome breeze, the warm shimmer of guitar reverb......

It is well known that the Ottoman Empire was a place of incredible cosmopolitanism. What is often overlooked is the existence of “syncretic” peoples,...

Arthere is a gallery and artists’ workspace in the Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood of Kadıköy. After nine months of preparation, it opened in December of last...

Announcing the newest force in reggae, dancehall and urban sounds! Get acquainted with Taxim Sound, a group of four music buffs with a love...