Columns & Conversation

Yabangee has had a number of columns through the years…

Retrospective – Open Call – Creative Catalyst Conference: A Role for...

Connect for Creativity’s second networking conference will take place in Kayseri, Turkey between 5 to 6 December 2019 at Abdullah Gül University. The conference will...

Büyükada’s Greek Orphanage: A Photoessay

One of the best parts of visiting Büyükada, the largest and most populated of the Prince Islands, is witnessing the sharp contrast it provides to the...

Walk Across Turkey: Menderes River Valley

Saturday, 8 September About 3 hours out of Horsunlu, I started the climb out of the Menderes River valley. The predictable pattern of the farm...

Behind the Scenes at the IKSV 38th Istanbul Film Festival: Daily...

24 hours of a married couple Monsters. follows a married couple over a 24-hour period and it’s the first feature-length of photographer and award-winning short-filmmaker...

Yabangee Travel Blog: A Week In Georgia (The One Near Russia)

Article and photos by Louis Herman My trip to Georgia (known locally as Sakartvelo) this January started with a quick flight to Trabzon from Istanbul,...

8000 Years of Istanbul: Review of ‘Again, and New: World City...

Artifacts have been found in Istanbul (previously home to some of the world's largest empires, the city has also been known as Byzantion, Nea...

Review: Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists @ IKSV Music Festival

Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists: For the past several years, I have been coming across this ensemble again and again. They've become regulars...

A Mid-Gezi Night’s Dream with the Baltic Dance Theater

The Muhsin Ertuğrul Theater Hall is a ten-minute walk from my place. So, a venture there is normally no big deal, but a nice...

“Girls of Hope”: Education and Gender in Rural Turkey

You might have already noticed that Istanbul is a place that can be hard to comprehend. Thousands of years of history, millions of inhabitants,...

Persian Tunes in an Old Schoolyard: A Summer’s Night with Mahsa...

It is a perfect Istanbul summer night after a hot July day. The Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat enters the stage and tells the audience...

Review: Gaye Su Akyol @ Babylon Bomonti

A snowy Saturday night in Istanbul couldn't be spent any better than with 200-something fellow music lovers at a Gaye Su Akyol concert, courtesy of Babylon Bomonti....

The Last Round: Boxing, Martial Arts, and a Social Conscience

In the dead of this past winter, I ran into a friend in Cihangir who seemed uncharacteristically ecstatic. I told him as much and...

Open Studio Days: A Non-Profit Art Organization

Open Studio Days is a yearly art event and the most comprehensive open studio activity in Turkey where artists open their studios for three...

RX: Istanbul’s Central, Electric Nightclub for ‘Rhythm Xposure’

In a city buzzing with nightlife, the electronic music scene is a changing tapestry as the nightclubs of Istanbul past ebb and evolve into...

In Conversation with Andrea Gabba, Coach of the Turkish Triathlon Federation...

Gökay Ürk recently got in touch with Andrea Gabba, coach of the Turkish Triathlon Federation National Team, to discuss his new role. Andrea, who...