"Did You Eat the WHOLE Cake?" On Learning Estonian
"Estonian is popularly known as a difficult language to learn. The only other national languages it’s related to are Finnish and Hungarian."Continue Reading →
"The Forest Is in Our DNA": Lithuania's Ancient Woods
"We can be proud that we have these in Lithuania, because in Western Europe these were already gone a hundred years ago"Continue Reading →
"Nobody, Nobody Is Alone": What Singing Means to Estonians
“Singing brings Estonians joy. Singing gives Estonians courage. Singing makes Estonians free.”Continue Reading →
Twenty Speakers, But Three Poets: Writing in Livonian
Two books of poetry originally written in the Livonian language, spoken by just twenty people, have recently appeared in English translationContinue Reading →
The Unbuilt Soviet Metro System that Haunts Latvia's Capital: Struggle
“In total, these 172 letters were signed by 1,965 people. There were 1,964 votes against the construction of the metro."Continue Reading →
Jazz, Instinct and Meaning: Tomas Kutavičius and Contemporary Lithuanian Music
Claire McGinn speaks to Lithuanian composer Tomas Kutavičius, and takes the pulse of contemporary art music in VilniusContinue Reading →
The Unbuilt Soviet Metro System that Haunts Latvia's Capital: Beginnings
Riga was down for a metro – a formally and conceptually adventurous system that would have been the most expensive ever built in the Soviet UnionContinue Reading →
The Other Estonian Language: Preserving and Promoting Võro
North Estonian came to dominate in the 19th century and became the basis for modern standard Estonian, while South Estonian declinedContinue Reading →
Sad Eyes: Earthy Psychedelia from Vilnius's Curly One
"Vilnius's music scene is a hotbed of surprising talent over which the spirit of Garbanotas soars high and mighty..."Continue Reading →
Bridges of Time: How Baltic "Poetic Documentaries" Exposed Soviet Reality
"They helped audiences to learn to see... not only to watch, but to see. To see and think and read between the lines."Continue Reading →
Revealing a City of Legends, Myths and Stories: the Book of Riga
Almost every single corner of Riga has its own story. The Book of Riga offers some of them up, and will hopefully lead you to many more.Continue Reading →
Learning Yiddish and Searching for Jewish Lithuania: Laura Esther Wolfson
Laura Esther Wolfson's collection of non-fiction covers the author’s life and travels in the United States, France and the former Soviet Union, including a couple of interludes in LithuaniaContinue Reading →