大象传媒

The Dakota Access Pipeline has been a source of controversy with environmental and indigenous campaigners, who believe it will threaten the water source of a Sioux reservation and disturb sacred burial grounds. Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger discusses his project to distribute mirrored shields to demonstrators, in an attempt to hold a mirror to controversial police tactics at the site.

Negin Khpalwak is Afghanistan鈥檚 first female conductor and she鈥檚 still a teenager. Despite threats of violence from her family she is keen to show what women in her country are capable of. From her home in Kabul she explains how she got the musical bug and what it鈥檚 like to conduct and perform in a country where many girls are prohibited from studying music.

Members of Hong Kong鈥檚 artistic community have expressed fears that art and culture are falling victim to pressure from Beijing. President of the newly founded PEN Hong Kong writers group Jason Ng, and cultural critic Vivienne Chow discuss the situation for artists in Hong Kong.

A production of a play about the French Revolution has been playing to sell-out crowds in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Sulaymaniyah. Journalist Sarhang Hars explains why this centuries old story resonates with today鈥檚 residents.

With Tina Daheley.

(Photo: a fist held in the air at a pipeline protest Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)