William Alfred Ismay

William Alfred Ismay MBE (1910 –2001) was a librarian, writer and collector in Wakefield, West Yorkshire known for his significant collection of post-war studio pottery.

The collection called the W.A. Ismay Collection was bequeathed to the Yorkshire Museum and is one of the world's largest collections of 20th-century studio pottery. It includes work by Bernard Leach, Hans Coper, Shoji Hamada, Takeshi Yasuda, David Leach Dan Arbeid and Lucie Rie.

Born in Wakefield, an only child, his father was a trouser presser and his mother a schoolteacher. He attended Wakefield Grammar School and studied classics at Leeds University. Ismay was stationed in India during the Second World War as a signalman in the Royal Signals Corps.

From 1955 Ismay collected 3,600 pots from 500 makers. By the time of his retirement in 1975 he was head librarian at Hemsworth Library. In 2014 a blue plaque was unveiled in his honour.

Juozas Grušas

Juozas Grušas (1901–1986) was a Lithuanian writer, editor, dramatist and playwright.

Grušas' first inspirational teacher was the Lithuanian poet Jovaras, who taught him writing and spurred his interest in literature.

From 1924 to 1931 he was a student at the University of Lithuania (1930 renamed to Vytautas Magnus University), in the Theology-philosophy faculty. In 1935 he published a satirical novel, Karjeristai (The Careerists), which has been described as "one of the key works in the history of the Lithuanian novel".

He was interested in Lithuanian and Baltic history and several of his drama plays are about historic characters of the past.

His works have been translated into English, Polish, Latvian, and Estonian.

John "Beau" Billingslea

John "Beau" Billingslea (1944) is an American actor, known as the voice of Jet Black in the critically acclaimed anime Cowboy Bebop.

In addition to voice acting, he appeared in many television shows and some films including North and South Book II: Love and War, Just Jordan, The Hannah Montana Movie and Star Trek Into Darkness.

He was an officer in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps and had tours in Germany and Europe, working on a number of cases. In Germany, he also taught criminal law for the University of Maryland's extension program.

Aloyzas Stasiulevičius

Aloyzas Stasiulevičius (1931) is a Lithuanian modern painter, art teacher and critic. He lives and works in Vilnius. His works are held by various museums and galleries.

From 1950 to 1956, Stasiulevičius studied painting at the Vilnius Academy of Art. After the graduation he worked as an art teacher. Since 1957, he held more than 50 personal exhibitions and represented Lithuania in numerous international exhibitions.

During the times of Lithuanian SSR Stasiulevičius challenged the norms of socialist realism and was the first in Lithuania to create collages. His works are often monochromatic, but Stasiulevičius mixes colors to obtain subtle shades and variations. 

For several years he created works only in white. He frequently depicts abstract urban landscape of Vilnius and its Old Town; only a few of his works feature people. 

Since early 2000s, Stasiulevičius also creates Christianity-inspired works, often depicting crucified Jesus.

Dalilla Hermans

Dalilla Hermans (1986) is Belgian author and theatre maker. In 2014, she wrote a text about her experiences with racism in Flanders. Since then she has been delving into the theme. Dalilla, born in Rwanda, has made it her mission to transcend polarisation and go back to seeking dialogue between people, regardless of their origin.

Dalilla wrote a book about her life path that came out in May 2017: Letter to Cooper and the World  (Manteau). In 2018, she contributed to the anthology Black and her children's book Brown Girl Magic  with illustrations by Fatinha Ramos came out, which received awards worldwide. This was followed in May 2019 by a psychological thriller Black Out. Dalilla also is a regular columnist at De Standaard daily newspaper.

In February 2020, Dalilla Hermans made her debut as a theatre maker with Her(e). For this, she spent a weekend in seclusion with about thirty black women. On the basis of their conversations, she wrote a text about their lives in Belgium.

In the 2021-2022 season, she returns to the theatres with  Us,(k)now.  A powerful, hopeful performance about black consciousness and the empowerment of the current generation of teenagers.

Erikas Varnas

Erikas Varnas (1924 – 2011) was a Ukraine born Lithuanian artist; a sculptor, medalist, portraitist, who devoted his whole life to the idea of ​​peace, to conveying pacifist views in sheets of paper, canvas, bronze, marble, granite.

Inculcating the ideas of peace, the artist communicated by letters and met the like-minded world-renowned Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, later created his portrait and medal, which now belong to the collections of the Lithuanian Art Museum.

Rimantas Marčėnas

Rimantas Marčėnas (1937 - 2019) was a Lithuanian historian, writer, pedagogue and doctor of humanitarian sciences.

Since 1967 Marčėnas published short stories and reviews about new books by Lithuanian prose writers in cultural magazines and newspapers.  In 1992 he became a Member of the Union of Lithuanian Writers.

He was buried in the Writers' hill of the Petrašiūnai cemetery in Kaunas.

Meer Menschen / People of the Sea

Ingo Gebhard grew up on the German North Sea Island of Wangerooge.

As a photographer, Ingo Gebhard specialized in portrait, fashion, beauty, editorial and advertising photography since 1997. But ultimately his childhood and youth as an islander shaped him and the longing for the tides, sea and wind is deeply rooted. His interest in photography came from a young age. After initial commercial and socio-educational training, he has been intensively involved with photography since the mid-1990s, which was ultimately to become his profession.

Jurgis Gimberis

Jurgis Gimberis (1938 - 2018) was a Lithuanian satirist, prose writer and translator.

He published humorous collections, some of which he illustrated himself. He wrote plays for children ("The Turtle's House", "The Witch and the Worm", "One Cold Winter Night"), the radio play "The Worm's Head".

He translated the novels of Aleksandra Marinina, Viktor Pelevin, Lyudmila Ulickaya, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ilf and Petrov from Russian .

Humoresques are characterized by the poetics of paradox. The comic effect is achieved by contrasting reality with fantasy, the content of the story with the form, the character of the character with the semantics of his name. In terms of genre, humoresques are close to jokes. Stereotypes of thinking, bureaucratic relations, unnatural alienation of the Soviet man from Western culture are ridiculed.

The Night Portrait

Munich, World War II: After a modest conservator unwittingly places a priceless Italian Renaissance portrait into the hands of a high-ranking Nazi leader, she risks her life to recover it, working with an American soldier, part of the famed Monuments Men team, to get it back. 

Lydia Martinez

Following the hype of the film Oppenheimer: here is boinera Lydia Martinez (1926), from El Rancho, who worked at Los Alamos in various jobs during and after the Manhattan Project.

Martinez started work at Los Alamos in 1943. She was a baby-sitter and housekeeper for families such as the Fermis, Tellers, Gordons, and Critchfields. She also worked as a junior technician in the X-7 group at South Mesa.

After the war, she remained at Los Alamos National Laboratory, working for Supply and Property and various other divisions, including the Theoretical Division and Weapon Systems Engineering Division. In 1983, she received the Laboratory’s Distinguished Performance Award. She retired as a property administrative specialist in 1989.

Dilraba Dilmurat

Dilraba Dilmurat (1992) is a Chinese actress, host, dancer, singer and model of Uyghur ethnicity.

Dilraba is considered one of the most in-demand brand ambassadors in China ranging from food and beverages, basic commodities, beauty and retail products, to mobile applications and technological products.

She also endorses several international brands like L'oreal and Mikimoto. P&G's Whisper saw a rise in sales after engaging Dilraba as their spokesperson.

In 2018, Dilraba ended her contract with Dolce & Gabbana after a racist ad incident in China.

In 2021, as a Uyghur from Xinjiang, Dilraba publicly voiced her support for cotton produced in Xinjiang after several international companies announced they will not purchase cotton from the region due to concerns of forced labor of Uyghurs. Her actions were echoed by most other Chinese celebrities cutting ties with those brands.

Vladislav Krapivin

Vladislav Petrovich Krapivin (1938 –2020) was a Soviet and Russian children's books writer.

Krapivin has been a full-time writer since 1965. His first book, The Voyage of Orion, was printed by the Sverdlovsk Publishing House in 1962. Over the course of his literary career, Krapivin became the author of more than 200 publications, many of which have been translated.

In 1961 Vladislav Krapivin founded a youth group called "Caravel" with the main activities for the kids that of journalism, fencing, sailing and all things maritime.

"Caravel" exists to this day, led by its former graduates, wearing berets.

Uladzimir Karatkievich

Uladzimir Karatkievich (1930 –1984) was a Belarusian romantic writer.

Vladimir learned to read at the age of 3 1/2. As a child, he not only liked to listen to fairy tales and stories that were read to him by his elders, but tried to think of plot development. From the earliest childhood he was interested in history, especially the history of Belarus. The diversity of his talents was manifested in a penchant for drawing, which lasted a lifetime. Also, he had perfect pitch, while engaged in a music school.

His first published poem was in 1951, which was followed by three collections of verses. Later, he turned to prose and subsequently published many short stories in collections entitled Chazenia, The Eye of the Typhoon, From Past Ages, and others. He also wrote the novels Unforgettable and The Dark Castle Olshansky. The novel King Stakh's Wild Hunt (1964) is probably his most popular work.

Éric Zemmour

Éric Justin Léon Zemmour (1958) is a French far-right politician, essayist, writer and former political journalist and pundit. He unsuccessfully ran in the 2022 French presidential election, in which he placed fourth in the first round.

Zemmour is well known for his controversial views regarding immigration and Islam in France. He has extensively supported the idea of the "great replacement", a conspiracy theory contending that France's native population will be replaced by non-European people.

He self-identifies as Gaullist and Bonapartist.

Yuri Dimitrin

Yuri Georgievich Dimitrin (real name Michelson1934 - 2020) was a Russian playwright, librettist and writer.

Together with the composer A. Zhurbin, Dimitrin became the creator of the first Russian rock opera "Orpheus and Eurydice ". Staged in 1975, the rock opera has been performed more than two and a half thousand times.

Dimitrin is the author of a textbook on the theory and practice of libretto (2012), a number of books and articles on the problems of musical dramaturgy.

Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky

Alexander Moiseyevich Piatigorsky (1929 –2009) was a Soviet dissident, Russian philosopher, scholar of Indian philosophy and culture, historian, philologist, semiotician and a writer.

Well-versed in the study of language, he knew Sanskrit, Tamil, Pali, Tibetan, German, Russian, French, Italian and English. In an obituary appearing in the English-language newspaper The Guardian, he was cited as "a man who was widely considered to be one of the more significant thinkers of the age and Russia's greatest philosopher."

Departing the Soviet Union in 1974 for Israel, Piatigorsky made his way to Oxford University where he had been invited to give some lectures. Early times in London were severe for his family, earning only 6.5 pounds a day. He accepted some invitations to lecture but decided to stay in London. At Oxford he quickly became acquainted with Isaiah Berlin and Leszek Kołakowski. He joined the staff of the School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London, as lecturer in 1975 with the commendation of Berlin who at one point is reported to have said: "Piatigorsky is quite simply a genius! It is remarkable that Piatigorski didn't consider himself a dissident, he left Soviet Union just because he was bored, he felt that something was missing there.