Arts & Culture

News and hard-hitting, insightful, thoughtful, provocative and progressive analysis of Canadian and world culture and the arts.

Naomi Klein and more than 300+ authors challenge powerful publishers’ lawsuit against the Internet Archive

“Libraries are a fundamental collective good,” more than 300 authors and academics argue, challenging a lawsuit being pursued by HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette and John Wiley & Sons against the nonprofit Internet Archive

Obert Madondo
October 3, 2022

Give this AI a few words of description and it produces a stunning image – but is it art?

The "art" generated using DALL·E 2 and other AI-powered text-to-image programs "comes not just from the final text prompt, but in the entire creative process that led to that prompt".

Guest Blog
September 29, 2022

How Black people in the 19th century used photography as a tool for social change

As photography technologies became widely available in the 19th century, Black Americans used the art of photography to empower themselves, facilitate social change, counteract racist caricatures, and "demonstrate dignity in the Black experience."

Guest Blog
March 2, 2021

Why Black Panther’s Wakanda Is the Black Utopia We’ve Been Waiting For

Wakanda, the advanced fictional East African nation in Marvel Studios' Black Panther film, is the the Black utopia imagined by the African diaspora and its allies since the trans-Atlantic slave trade. And Black Panther is the powerful, intelligent and compassionate Black superhero whose time has arrived.

The Canadian Progressive
February 21, 2018

Oscars Best Picture blunder drowned out an overwhelmingly political ceremony – how apt

What was supposed to be the most political Academy Awards in history ended up in racial controversy as La La Land was initially awarded the Oscars Best Picture crown, which rightly belonged to Moonlight, a film tackling an African-American gay male's vulnerable masculinity.

The Canadian Progressive
February 27, 2017

Art for innovation’s sake? Lessons from our Canadian cousin

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is making significant investments in the Canadian public broadcasting, the arts and creative industries. A lesson for other countries on "how to tap into the creative capital of a society."

The Canadian Progressive
October 4, 2016

Obert Madondo is an Ottawa-based digital artist, blogger, photographer, graphic designer, web designer, digital rights enthusiast, digital storytelling enthusiast, aspiring filmmaker, and online publisher.

Obert is a former political aide to a prominent former Zimbabwean lawmaker, human rights defender and former freedom fighter. Obert has previously worked as an international development administrator in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, and Canada.

Obert is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Canadian Progressive, an independent political blog dedicated to producing fearless, evidence-based, adversarial, unapologetic, progressive and activism-oriented journalism situated right at the intersection of politics, technology and human rights.

Follow Obert on Twitter: @Obiemad