American Days will take place in Stuttgart again from May 6th to 17th. This is a colorful conglomeration of events, in which over 40 participating groups and institutions in the Stuttgart area demonstrate their cultural ties with the USA. The German-American Center (DAZ) coordinates all of the events, and the program can be viewed here on their website: http://www.daz.org/americandays.html

A special accents meet-up will take place during American Days on May 15th at 7 pm at the Rote Kapelle on Feuerseeplatz 14 in Stuttgart-West. Hope to see you there!

The current economic crisis may lead to cuts in arts funding. However, Stuart Marlow argues that certain arts projects in Stuttgart should be spared the axe.

As the curtain for Act One of the global finance fiasco closes, nobody in the arts is really looking forward to Act Two. Theatres in Baden Württemberg, along with many other subsidised arts centres, face 2009 with a certain degree of trepidation. The sixty four billion dollar question is “where and when will the big cuts fall?” Not only that, most of the main private sponsors of the arts are cutting their expenditure. In addition, with unemployment and short-term work on the increase, a visit to the theatre is becoming a more expensive luxury.

Botswana is one of Africa’s safest and most politically stable countries – but it does have its criminals. And that’s why Precious Ramotswe has work. She is Botswana’s only female private detective. Well, she is in fiction.

Precious Ramotswe is the main character in Zimbabwean-born author Alexander McCall Smith’s detective fiction series known as The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Smith has written nine books in the series and now Precious is a television star: recently the BBC made a television drama series about Botswana’s most famous (fictional) detective.