United News of Bangladesh

Cultural organisation Chhayanaut is set to organise its annual Autumn programme jointly with St Joseph Higher Secondary School on Friday, bringing together students from several educational institutions through music, dance and other cultural performances. Titled 'Jog De Re Aj Saman Tane', the programme will begin at 7:30 am at the St Joseph Higher Secondary School premises at 97 Asad Avenue in Mohammadpur. A second joint programme, also titled “Jog De Re Aj Saman Tane,” is scheduled for Saturday at St Gregory’s High School and College, with participation from St Gregory’s, Nalanda High School and Chhayanaut.  Students and performers from St Joseph Higher Secondary School, St Joseph International School, Excel Academy, Nalanda High School and Chhayanaut will take part in the programme, which will remain open to all.

Dolly Parton's diverse legacy is being celebrated at a new museum and themed hotel in Nashville, showcasing different chapters of the late singer and entertainer's life and career. Parton's longtime creative director, Steve Summers, designed hundreds of dresses and outfits for the singer each year, giving him a close view of the many stages of her career. "Every person in here has a different Dolly Parton that they are in love with," Summers told fans gathered Tuesday for the opening of the museum dedicated to Parton, who died in August at age 80. The 20,000-square-foot Dolly's Life of Many Colors Museum features exhibits highlighting various parts of Parton's life and legacy, including her Smoky Mountain roots, Dollywood, movie career, fashion, faith, family and the Imagination Library. "You've got to find her and find out where you fell in love with her and then follow the path from there. So I think the journey is what most people are going to enjoy the most," Summers said. The museum is housed inside the 240-room Dolly Parton's SongTeller, a themed hotel whose lobby and open spaces are decorated with glitter, rhinestones, guitars, butterflies, portraits of Parton and an abundance of pink. The building also features two performance venues, a cafe and hotel rooms equipped with musical instruments to encourage guests to write songs. Among the museum's key attractions is Parton's original wedding dress, which she wore when she married her husband, Carl Dean. The dress was thought to have been lost until Parton's niece Rebecca Seaver, who is curating the museum, discovered it about a year ago wrapped in a paper bag and tucked inside a trunk, Summers said. For many people who worked closely with Parton, the opening of the museum and hotel is a bittersweet occasion because she is not there to see the project inspired by her. "We were as surprised as anybody that she's not here to see it," Summers said. "It's beautiful to get to see all of her work come to life, and it's hard to know that she won't ever have seen it."

Dr Saimum Parvez, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Environment, Forest and Climate Change, visited the July Uprising Memorial Museum on Tuesday afternoon and reviewed a collection of documents, artifacts and other materials preserved to record political repression, killings, enforced disappearances and the July Uprising. The visit offered Dr Parvez an opportunity to examine firsthand a range of historical records, including official documents retrieved from Ganabhaban and evidentiary materials documenting what the museum described as state-sponsored repression of political parties during the previous authoritarian regime. Upon his arrival, he was received by Ehasan Mahamud, Director General of the museum.  

The Photoseum Foundation, a government-registered foundation seeking to establish a photography-centred museum in Dhaka, has formally begun its activities with the first meeting of its nine-member Trustee Board on Saturday. Ekushey Padak-winning photographer and writer Nasir Ali Mamun, founder of the foundation, will serve as the president of the Trustee Board. Mamun is widely regarded as a pioneer of portrait photography in Bangladesh. The board comprises Mir Moinul Omar as general secretary and KM Haris Adil as treasurer, while Anisul Hoque, Dr Bimal Guha, Dr Mohammad Abdul Hai Siddiqui, Dr Saymon Zakaria, Dr Kudrat-E-Huda and Fakir Mohammad Abdul Mannan are members. The foundation said its core concept is to establish a photography-centred museum through crowdfunding and called on interested individuals and institutions at home and abroad to extend financial support to the initiative. According to the foundation, Photoseum is envisioned as possibly the first photography-centred museum in South Asia. The museum will be established in Dhaka as a public-interest cultural institution dedicated to preserving and permanently displaying people, time and history through photography. Its planned permanent collection will include selected portraits of prominent personalities from Bangladesh and around the world, along with their handwritten autographs, manuscripts, diaries, letters and other unique personal belongings. The museum will also feature artworks and self-portraits created by notable personalities, as well as previously unpublished audio-visual materials from Mamun’s collection spanning nearly six decades. Rare negatives and gelatin silver prints will also be preserved and displayed through modern curatorial methods, the foundation said. Photoseum considers photographs not merely images but important visual records that can preserve individual lives, the social and political realities of particular periods, historical events and memories of a disappearing world. Preserving such photographs as historical documents for future generations is one of the foundation’s key objectives, it said. The first Trustee Board meeting brought the long-standing initiative under a formal legal and institutional framework, marking a new phase in the establishment of the proposed museum.

The man who was taken from a Dhaka home at dawn on August 30, 1971, is the man whose tune we sing as we walk barefoot every February 21 in the dawn procession. What happened after he was taken has no grave and no record. All that remains are the memories of a few people who came back from the very edge of death. Some of those memories made it onto the stage at Chhayanaut auditorium on Saturday evening. Smriti 71 organized a program on the liberation war of Shaheed Altaf Mahmud, composer of "Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushey February," and the astonishing survival stories of his comrades. The biggest news of the evening came right at the start. On behalf of Smriti 71, it was announced that a research grant will be offered to recover Altaf Mahmud's lost songs. Making the announcement in his welcome address, Faruk H Khan said: "Altaf Mahmud left behind not one song but many. A large part of them is lost today. Some exist in no recording, some are fading in people's memories. The tune that gave us Ekushey, we will bring back the rest of it." He called on researchers, music lovers and young people to come forward. That dawn In late August 1971, Dhaka's guerrillas had been robbing the Pakistani army of sleep with one strike after another. On August 29, Badi, Rumi, Jewel and Azad were captured. A lead from one of the detainees brought soldiers to Altaf Mahmud's door. At dawn they found a trunk in his home filled with weapons and ammunition. A singer, a composer, a figure everyone knew as an artist, had been quietly keeping the weapons of the liberation war under his own roof. No one saw him again after that day. It is believed that he was killed in the first week of September, after torture at the army camp in Nakhalpara. The others who were arrested are believed to have met the same fate. Those who came back Taking the stage to speak of those days were comrade and painter Abul Barq Alvi, banker Nasser Bakhtiar, and singers Linu Billah and Khanu Billah. One spent his life in banking, others in music. But in 1971 they were all inside a war where being captured usually meant never returning.

Bangladeshi artist Dr Abu Kalam Shamsuddin is set to present his solo exhibition ‘The Song of Agony: Arishadvarga’ at La Galerie of Alliance Française de Dhaka (AFD) from Friday. The exhibition, opening at 6 pm on Oct 2, draws on the Indian philosophical concept of Arishadvarga, or Shadripu, referring to six inner enemies of human nature: Kama (desire), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (delusion or attachment), Mada (pride) and Matsarya (jealousy). Through a series of paintings, Shamsuddin explores how these impulses influence human behaviour and relationships while affecting the balance between humans and nature. The exhibition also encourages viewers to reflect on their own desires, actions and responsibilities. “I feel that, as an artist, I also have a responsibility towards the environment and the world,” the artist said. Beyond individual introspection, the works address the environmental consequences of unchecked desires and self-centred behaviour, highlighting issues including deforestation, ecological imbalance, wildlife protection and the preservation of natural habitats. Shamsuddin has drawn inspiration from the techniques of Ajanta cave paintings and Thangka art, combining them with contemporary materials and textured surfaces. Sand, mud, zinc oxide and acrylic paint are used to create tactile surfaces and asymmetrical compositions. Earthy browns, muted blues, yellow-greens and shades of gold dominate the palette, while the interplay of colour, texture and form explores consciousness, conflict, transformation and spiritual awakening. Gold, in particular, represents the possibility of inner transformation and greater self-awareness. “The exhibition seeks to reveal the hidden connections between human desires, our behaviour, and the natural world, encouraging us to recognise and reconsider the consequences of our actions,” Shamsuddin said. Open to all, the exhibition will remain open to visitors from Oct 3 to 13, daily from 3 pm to 9 pm at La Galerie, Alliance Française de Dhaka, 26 Mirpur Road, Dhanmondi.

Gourd cultivation and handicraft production are thriving in Tangyi Town of Liaocheng City in east China’s Shandong Province, where the traditional industry is supporting rural development. The local government has been promoting the gourd industry as part of its rural revitalization efforts, helping expand cultivation and develop a wider range of gourd-based products. The area under gourd cultivation in Tangyi has now exceeded 10,000 mu, or about 667 hectares. Local artisans have also developed more than 10 categories of gourd-processing crafts, turning the traditional crop into a variety of cultural and creative products. Visitors to the town can see and purchase gourd artworks and other handmade products, while workers continue processing the gourds into decorative and artistic items.

Bangladeshi adventurer Najmun Nahar has been honoured with the “Bangladesh Flag Voyager Gold Medal” in recognition of her global journey carrying Bangladesh’s national flag and her humanitarian initiatives. The award was presented by Multi Talent World at the Bangla Talent Global Summit 2026, held on September 19 at Nya Rågsved Folkets Hus in Stockholm, Sweden. Nahar is the first Bangladeshi and the first woman in the world to travel to 185 countries carrying her national flag. The award recognises Nahar’s extraordinary global journey and her commitment to promoting peace, humanity, environmental protection, women’s empowerment and children’s rights. The citation accompanying the medal highlights her courage, perseverance and patriotism in carrying Bangladesh’s red-and-green flag across continents and cultures. Nahar’s humanitarian initiatives, including her advocacy for peace, environmental responsibility and the rights of disadvantaged and war-affected children, were also recognised. She has received more than 70 national and international awards and honours, including the Peace Torch Bearer Award in the United States. The Gold Medal was presented by Salahuddin Zico, managing director of Multi Talent World, in the presence of Swedish parliamentarians Stefan Nelson and Farzana Khan, academics, media professionals and Bangladeshi community leaders from across Europe. Nahar also served as the keynote speaker at the summit, where she shared experiences from her 26-year global journey, the challenges of travelling with Bangladesh’s national flag, and her message of peace, solidarity and humanity. Her latest honour adds another significant chapter to a remarkable journey defined by one flag, one global expedition and one message for humanity.

Popular singer-songwriter Miftah Zaman returned to the solo stage after nearly two years on Friday with his concert ‘Otopor Odhora’, taking the audience through a three-hour musical journey featuring his popular originals, Bengali classics and songs from dramas. The concert began at 6:30 pm at the National Art Gallery Auditorium of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and continued until around 9:30 pm, with Miftah frequently interacting with the audience, sharing stories behind his songs and inviting fans to join him in familiar numbers. The singer opened the evening with ‘Borsha Raatey’ and went on to perform ‘Tomar Akash Dekhbo Bole’, ‘Tumi Ar Nei Shei Tumi’, ‘Koshtoguloke Shukote De Na’ and ‘Shihoron’. His fan-favourite track ‘Shihoron’ was performed in two versions, including its rock arrangement and a slower rendition with audience participation.

An exhibition bringing together nine Bangladeshi painter-printmakers is currently underway at Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi, exploring the creative dialogue between printmaking and painting across generations. Titled ‘Second Impression’, the exhibition features works by nine Bangladeshi artists: Monirul Islam, Abul Barq Alvi, Shahid Kabir, Rokeya Sultana, Anisuzzaman Anis, Abdullah Al Bashir, Farzana Ahmed Urmi, and the late Mahmudul Haque and Kalidas Karmakar. The exhibition presents works by artists from different generations, ranging from pioneers who emerged in the 1970s to artists who came to prominence in the 2000s. Taking its title from the idea that while a first impression is immediate and instinctive, the exhibition defined by the organisers as a second impression emerges through reflection after an image has settled, revealing details or meanings that may not be apparent at first glance.