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We’re back from our winter break, and we’re starting the 2026 season with a very special guest. Nando Cruz has been a music journalist since the late 1980s. He has contributed to everything from specialty music magazines (Popular 1, Rockdelux), to mainstream newspapers (El Diaro, El Periodico) and from regional television programs to local radio broadcasts. In recent years, he has become infamous for his passion for shining the light on musical realities marginalized by mainstream culture and media, through his feature section, Otros Escenarios Posibles (or “Other Possible Stages”) in El Periódico de Catalunya, and his radio program, 10,000 Fogueres (or “10,000 Bonfires”) through Betevé. He is also the author of half a dozen books, the most recent of which is titled Microfestivales, Y Otros Escenarios Posibles. His work explores how culture unites a community, and why there’s no substitute for homegrown art, and how it can function almost as medicine for society.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we go behind the scenes with Chris White. Born in Canton, Mississippi, and now based in Barcelona, Chris is an artist, poet, writer, and immigration attorney. She takes her artistic inspiration from the rhythms of blues, gospel, and jazz, and her work in painting, poetry, and textiles weaves together personal experiences with collective narrative. At the heart of her artistic practice lies what she calls a dialogue with the soul — a reclamation of memory, voice, and presence, opening up a space for transformation and healing. Her latest exhibition was here Barcelona, and was titled The Body Keeps the Score. It showcased her mixed-media practice combining African wax textiles, poetic inscriptions, and ancestral symbols. In her own words, “each piece is an act of memory that explores trauma and healing from a psychological and somatic perspective, creating bridges between the individual and the collective.” Chris has also had residencies and solo shows in Mexico, Italy, and Costa Rica, as well as here in her adopted home city of Barcelona.

For our last interview of 2025, we go behind the scenes with third-generation art dealer Alex Yamet. Alex's grandfather, Irving "Sonny" Yamet, was one of the first American art dealers to introduce European prints to the United States after World War II, many of which were acquired from legendary workshops in Paris and beyond, such as Mourlot and Maeght, where artists like Picasso, Chagall, Miró, Dalí and Matisse worked. Alex has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, and has recently inaugurated a new art gallery in Barcelona to showcase these works. BF4gallery does more than just exhibit art: according to their mission statement, it preserves it, contextualizes it, and connects it with a contemporary perspective. Its permanent collection, comprised of original lithographs and prints by the great masters of the 20th century, coexists with the work of contemporary artists who are expanding the visual language toward new forms of expression.

We interview researcher and professor Francisco José Eiroa-Orosa. He completed a European doctorate in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Hamburg and the Universitat de Barcelona. After stays in Dresden and Montevideo, he held teaching positions at the universities of Edinburgh and East London, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at Yale University and a Ramón y Cajal fellowship at the Universitat de Barcelona. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Psychological Treatment and also collaborates with the Spanish Association of Mental Health Professionals, the European Network for (ex)-Users, and the Survivors of Psychiatry and the Global Anti-Stigma Alliance. His research is focused on the analysis of strategies for the awareness of mental health service users and professionals, with the aim to improve communication between them.

This month, we interview journalist and world traveler Alicia Escribano. Immersed in the world of radio and television since she was 17, she has since developed an extensive career in various media outlets. She is known for hosting television and radio cultural programs, such as her long-running interview program Barcelonautes on 25TV, reporting on everything from political debates to cultural showcases and more. And Alicia is known not only for her reporting on the local scene, but also for bringing stories from around the world to Barcelona through Barcelonautes. As the tagline goes on her travel blog: You think you're going to make a journey. But the journey makes you. She’s an example of how where we go in life shapes who we are, and how opening yourself up to new experiences makes life that much richer.

This month we speak with bluesman, painter and sculptor Richard White. Born in Philadelphia, Richard has performed concerts all over the U.S. and Europe before finally making Tarragona his home. He has become a fixture in the Catalan blues scene, from organizing independent blues festivals to recording and releasing his own work. He is also a painter and sculptor with international exhibitions to his credit, and his work—both visual and musical—is known for combining satire, social commentary and a deep love of storytelling.

In this episode of the Metropolitan Culture Corner we go behind the scenes with Lulú Txispún: burlesque dancer, teacher and festival organizer extraordinaire. She has traveled the world performing, and even serving as a judge at international burlesque events. She has also taught burlesque since 2013, and is the co-founder of the Barcelona Burlesque Meeting and Festival. Joining her in this interview is Yiste, one of her artistic collaborators in the festival, an acclaimed photographer, and graphic and performing artist originally from Caracas, Venezuela, who now makes his home in Barcelona. He is known for producing transgressive, often political neoburlesque, and is currently the producer of monthly burlesque show Foxy Cabaret.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we interview Chris Reilly, former chair of the Barcelona chapter of Democrats Abroad. If you’ve seen previous installments of this monthly interview series, then you know that we usually go behind the scenes with someone from the world of the arts. However, culture is multifaceted, and we wanted to speak with someone who is deeply involved in a different facet of local culture: social and political activism. Born in the UK, Chris Reilly’s professional life has taken him all over the world, working in business development and senior sales roles, specifically in the fields of new technologies and media. Chris became a green card holder while working in the United States, and became a naturalized American citizen in 2001. While living in New York he worked on the presidential campaigns for John Kerry and Barack Obama. Later, his love of his adopted country led him to want to continue to stay involved even from afar. In 2009, his work brought him and his family to Barcelona, where he became heavily involved in non-profit organization Democrats Abroad, which—among other things—works to encourage American citizens living abroad to register to vote.

We interview Esther Gimeno Miró. She is a computational linguist, conversational AI specialist, technology project manager and educator who has worked for multinational tech companies on the development of projects such as conversational assistants like Siri and Alexa, and large language models, or the AI programming that makes programs like ChatGPT possible. Esther is also an independent musician, and the co-founder and President of CABE, a non-profit organization that works to support emerging artists all across Spain. The non-profit organization is run by musicians, for musicians, with the goal of creating a space where artists can support one another and share their musical and management skills.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we go behind the scenes with Yodé Olubajo. Born in London, raised in Lagos, he later lived in Venice, where he was known for his cabaret performances and parties. He speaks four languages—English, Yoruba, Italian and Spanish—and is known for his fun, flamboyant personality and style. He later moved to Barcelona, and in 2022, he created the jazz club and piano bar, Velvet Room born out of a sense of nostalgia for the sophistication and glamour of the 1940s and 1950s.

In our first interview of 2025, we go behind the scenes with Laura Avery, events organizer and co-founder of local non-profit organization Fashion Cares. Laura was born in the UK, but has made Barcelona her home for the past ten years. She was an English teacher in London, Lisbon, and Santander, until she made a career change and decided to spend the next fifteen years in fashion print media in London and Mumbai. She later went on to become a fashion lecturer at the London College of Fashion at the University of the Arts in London. After that, Laura moved to Barcelona, where she co-founded the nonprofit organization Fashion Cares in 2021. It organizes primarily fashion-related events in support of charitable foundations in and around the city of Barcelona, and holding a big annual fundraising event.

We go behind the scenes with director, screenwriter and editor Àlex Lora. His short films, documentaries and feature-length fiction works often address social issues related to identity, immigration, disability and youth, never shying away from tough or controversial subject matter. Lora’s works have been screened multiple times at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as many of the most prestigious festivals around the world. He was listed as one of the “Top 10 Spanish directors to watch” by Variety magazine’s Cannes Edition, and is known for his unique narrative and visual style.

This month we speak with Tarek Fresno, a Barcelona native, music aficionado, world traveler, and bartender at the historic Bar Marsella in the neighborhood of El Raval for seventeen years. Founded in 1820, Marsella is the oldest bar in the entire city; generations ago, it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite hangout, and a hot spot for artists and intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Dalí, Gaudí, Picasso and many more were known to stop by for a drink or three. The bar’s signature cocktail — absinthe, the star drink of 19th-century Parisian bohemians — has remained the same despite the passing of the years.

Welcome back to the Metropolitan Culture Corner after our summer break! We start off the 2024 fall season with an interview with film producer and visual artist Mara Adina. Born in Transylvanian, Romania, she now splits her time between London and Barcelona. Together with her sister, director Ilinca Calugareanu, she started the film and documentary production company Vernon Films in 2012. Their film projects have been screened at major film festivals such as Sundance and the Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival, and on platforms like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, among others. Aside from her success in the world of cinema, Mara is also an accomplished abstract painter. Her work is characterized by intense colors, layered textures and broad brush strokes. Mara’s first solo exhibition was here in Barcelona this past spring, titled Feel with Abandon, and she has another in the works as we speak.

This month on the Metropolitan Culture Corner, we go behind the scenes with soprano and musicologist Dr. Patricia Caicedo, whose academic and creative work centers on Latin American and Iberian art song. She regularly gives lectures and master classes at music conferences and universities around the world, has released 11 albums, and has published multiple books as well as scholarly editions of scores. She is the founder of the Barcelona Festival of Song, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. Patricia is also the creator of Mundo Arts: a music publishing house, independent record label and online store which supports various projects in Spain, Latin America and the US. But her mission to get the word out about the music she’s passionate about doesn’t stop there: she hosts a podcast, Latin American and Iberian Art Song, in which she interviews composers, musicologists and other international experts, and she is the creator of EYECatalunya, an interdisciplinary platform dedicated to promoting Catalan artists internationally.