As in: ’Cool’, a blanket term covering all sensory interpretations, each, ultimately, justifying the other. A look, a sensation, a mood – as one. A man enters a crammed subway carriage in midsummer wearing in a wool, $900 Tom Ford suit. He looks cool, initially, but as beads of sweat pool on his brow, patches appear under his pits, and a screaming baby sicks on his lapel, his coolness ebbs away in a flash. Casa Cook el Gouna on the other hand…

_{Casa Cook El Gouna}

For one there are no babies – this is an adults only resort. Visually Casa Cook straddles that odd intersection of ancient and space age – linear, minimalist, earthy – drawn up, the design team explains, with “the post-modern traveller in mind”.

Think if Frank Herbert’s Dune featured an Aristocratic, gridded suburb – each private terrace boxed off by hedges every bit as angular as the structures they surround. Muted, heat proof, stone has been carved into benches, and formed into hotel room floors and walls, all delightfully cool to the touch – necessary when summer temperatures reach up to 50 degrees.

Plunge pools are plentiful. Grilled jumbo prawns are piled high. Signature cocktails (the Watermelon Negroni and the African G&T – hibiscus leaves for regional specificity) hit the spot. All in all, cool.

_{Outdoor seating at Casa Cook El Gouna}

_{Southern pool area at Casa Cook El Gouna}

If you can peel yourself away from one of the southern pools innumerable loungers, Casa Cook offers Kite Surfing lessons on their private stretch of beach. For those seeking a change of scene, the town of El Gouna is a 10 minute drive away. El Gouna’s a New Town, and, having been raised on a less than appealing English New Town diet of Welwyn Garden City and Milton Keynes, I had my reservations.

But having been told, then sworn to secrecy, then told another seven or eight times, that Angelina Jolie and Mohammed Salah own holiday homes in El Gouna, I thought, ‘if it’s good enough for them, it’s probably good enough for me.’

_Kiteboarding

So, the raw statistics: Age? 35 years. Tuktuks? £1 per trip. Dominant architectural style? Nubian traditional (traditional for locals, practically Tattoine to an ignorant westerner like myself). Lagoons? Well of course! 27, soon to be 28. Perhaps not all New Towns are created equal.

_{Desert tour with Orascom}

It was on my lagoon boat tour that my guide pointed me in the direction of lagoon number 28, mid construction and surrounded by tractors. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I felt, pretty steadfastly, that ‘Lagoon’ and ‘Tractor’ should not share space. Physical space, page space, any kind of space, so antithetical are they in all they stand for.

_{Patio area at Casa Cook El Gouna}

After all is there any word so evocative of natural wonder, of organically occurring, god bestowed heaven on earth as, ‘lagoon’? With that in mind, the invitation to observe lagoon 28 felt akin to a Vegas magician un-vivisecting his long legged assistant in plain view, proclaiming “and THIS is how we did it.”

I averted my eyes. Then remembered I am a 31 year old man. Maturing, after all, is realising that true delusion is believing in the make believe of Hollywood fantasy. Mermaid princesses with Jamaican fish companions? Webbed, damsel snatching, bi-pedal creatures? Not in El Gouna. And frankly, when the illusion of the artificial lagoon is this good, who cares it’s an illusion at all?

_{Plunge pool at Casa Cook El Gouna}

_{Room at Casa Cook El Gouna}

A brief off road drive takes you to a vast stretch of desert, once underwater, that now ranks as the world’s third longest natural valley. It’s traversable by quad bike, with tours culminating with tea in a Bedouin settlement at sunset. Equally accessible from Casa Cook is a yacht dotted bay leading into the Red Sea, home to an abundance of dolphin pods and coral reefs. Boats leave daily.

by Charlie Holder

_{Lagoon tour and desert tour organised by Orascom Development Egypt.}

_{Rooms at Casa Cook El Gouna start from EUR 300 per night including breakfast. For more information, please visit https://casacook.com/casa-cook-el-gouna}

The post Casa Cook el Gouna – An Egyptian desert mirage built of stone first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

In an apt nod to B&O’s enduring prominence, the H100 prioritises durability, featuring replaceable components and serviceable hardware, a refreshing deviation from the planned obsolescence model that’s come to dominate modern tech.

The manufacture process also reflects this, utilising the Cradle-to-Cradle principal – a sustainable approach that utilises waste resources for the build of new tech, helping to make the industry at large more sustainable.

With the H100, B&O hope to prove that ethical manufacturing needn’t mean a dip in performance – delivering best-ever noise cancellation, and Hi-Res sound up to 96 kHz / 24 bits, inspired by the brand’s statement loudspeaker, the Beolab 90. 

Aside from the hardware, the software that keeps the H100 ticking has also been future-proofed – constantly evolving and upgradable – ensuring the H100 isn’t outflanked by subsequent models and releases. Featuring 34-hour full charge performance (or 5 hours from a mere 5 minute charge), these wearable headphones have been built to last in every sense. 

New features include EarSense, an adaptive noise cancellation upgrade, built to cater to a range of environments to ensure a fluid, uninterrupted listening experience. Through TrueTransparency, B&O’s new, dexterous control system, users are able to flit between absolute audio isolation, and exposure to the outside world with the flick of a dial. 

by Charlie Navin-Holder

_{Beoplay H100 (RRP: 1299 GBP / 1499 EUR / 1,549 USD / 2199 CAD / 11,598 CN) is now available in Bang & Olufsen stores and online.}

The post Bang & Olufsen launch the Beoplay H100 headphones first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

But this is Ibiza, an island at the centre of a tug of war between luxury and hedonism since time immemorial. At BLESS it’s the luxury side that wins out. Still, Balearic rhythms follow you everywhere you go and specialist cocktails rotate daily, while international footballers roast poolside before a night at Hï or Circoloco. 

_{Llum Pool Club}

I’d compare my two nights to a pre-drinks so good you end up cancelling the night out itself, even though you’ve already shelled out for tickets, booked a baby sitter and spent hours getting dolled up. Wanting the full experience, I had mentally committed to the idea of a night out in Ibiza.

A childhood friend was DJing the night I arrived, just 30 minutes away from BLESS (Ibiza now has Uber – game changer), but, as the night ran on, I just couldn’t pull myself away from my temporary home. Maybe it was the 15 course tasting menu at in house restaurant, Etxeko (“Home Made” in Basque, the region that inspires the dishes).

_{Magness Soulful Spa}

There’s not enough page space to cover every course, but memorable highlights include: black pudding fritter with yuzu and camomile; oxtail cannolloni with acorn-fed Iberian ham and boletus soup; and grilled hake, coconut, red curry and razor clams. A Michelin Star well earned, helmed by Martín Berasategui – recipient of 12 stars and counting, which is a frankly greedy amount.

_{Dining at BLESS}

_{Dining at BLESS}

The roof terrace restaurant offers a more casual alternative, but with no real drop in quality. The octopus tacos are a delight, wonderfully zesty and great with a caná, while the blue fin tuna is otherworldly. I’ve heard blue chip fish be referred to as ‘meaty’ before, but this was downright decadent on a level that only slow cooked pork belly can match – similar in texture and heft. A serious treat.

The rooftop infinity pool is suitably lux, but the main event can be found on the ground floor, with the sprawling, multi-level Llum Pool Club, punctuated with waterlilies and balinese beds. The beach is just 30 seconds away, and for those wanting a bit of seaside therapy, it can be traversed as part of a daily mindfulness walk, lead by hotel clinicians.

As if anymore evidence were needed that BLESS has all bases covered, they also employ a domesticated falcon to patrol skies above the pool area, keeping the Ibizan seagulls (big enough to scoop up a toddler/one of the smaller instagram models leafing through their salad), at a nice, safe distance.

_{Infinity Lounge}

The team at BLESS believe a stay with them should be a deeply sensual experience, typified by carefully curated scents that stay with guests long after they depart. The Magness Soul Ful Spa is distinctly Mediterranean; the gym, more “spicy”, while the corridors carry notes of moss and wood.

On Wednesdays an opera singer takes up residence in the spa, taking advantage of the world class acoustics, while private (and supposedly soundproofed) massage rooms, each named after and aesthetically inspired by summer flowers, offer treatments powered by ESPA Cosmetics.

Next door is what I can only describe as a Moorish pleasure centre, home to half a dozen waterbeds, perfect for that floaty post-massage slump. The spa prioritises sustainability, and will soon feature an on sight boutique with rentable swimwear. We were reliably informed that for families, the best time to visit is April/May, while June/July/August tends to be relatively kid-free.

by Charlie Holder

_{Bless Hotel Ibiza offers rooms from £374 per night based on two adults sharing. British Airways Holidays (www.britishairways.com ) offers three nights at BLESS Hotel Ibiza from £349 per person, inclusive of flights and checked baggage departing from London Heathrow on 27 September on a room-only basis, based on two people travelling.}

The post Too blessed to stress at BLESS Hotel Ibiza first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

It’s so Sylvanian Families that had there been a cat in a dress at front desk I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. Against the backdrop of an ancient city that’s withstood countless bloody conquerers, the illusion of daintiness that accompanies the fairytale nature of Palacio Solecio, is beguiling. 

_{Balausta Restaurant}

Setting off on a guided tour of the city, it quickly becomes apparent that modern Malaga is a city of idols, of which there are two above all others: Picasso, and Jesus, (in that order). It’s dense and refreshingly walkable; buildings are squeezed together separated by cobbled semi-streets, so naturally, these idols often intermingle.

See Inglesia de Santiago, which is less a pean to Christ than the place where, in 1881, Pablo Picasso was christened. Which isn’t to blaspheme – this is a deeply religious city after all.

It’s just the order of things here. At a time when moral reappraisals of the man follow him and his art like the spikiest of asterisks, Malaguenans are steadfast and unrepentant. “He’s not good, and he’s not bad, he’s just a genius. Living around him was like living with a god”, our guide tells us. 

_Bedroom

He has a zealous certainty when speaking of Picasso, and as we’re led from a 2000 year old Greek amphitheatre, beneath an ancient castle (a mere 1000 years old), towards the great man’s eponymous museum, it feels very much as if we’re living in Malaga’s ‘Picasso Period’.

There were the Fenicians, the Moores, latterly the Christians, but today, death be damned, Picasso rules over the city. 

_Bathroom

As with much of Spain, the religious tugs of war that dictated its architects has given Malaga a thrilling melange of moorish/classical European aesthetics. It makes the city’s past so physically traceable. The 10th century Alcazabar of Malaga is a particular gem – indescribably beautiful and rich with lore and romance. Patterned jalousie windows peer over secret gardens with outdoor tubs.

Narrow passages open up onto sprawling vistas where colourful birds sit, and rest. “If you look to the east, you can see the ocean. To the west: the mountains. They shield us, and create the micro-climate that all of Spain envies – 320 days of sun a year.”

There’s a fervour to our guides tenor that betrays both pride, and pity, in the implication that rest of Spain suffers terminal sun deprivation. 

_{Palacio Solecio}

It’s a testament to Malaga’s aforementioned density, that gallery visits, palace walks and a few hours on the beach are easily achievable in a single day. After a days exploration, Palacio Solecio provides cool sanctuary.

_{Malaga Cathedral view from the balcony at Palacio Solecio}

Cold stone mosaics cover the courtyard floor, squared off by shuttered hotel room windows, designed with late night gossip in mind. Michelin-starred chef José Carlos García curates seasonal menus, while the famed El Pimpi taverna (owned by Antonio Banderas, the city’s second son after Picasso) is minutes away by foot. 

by Charlie Holder

Palacio Solecio luxury boutique hotel is located in central Malaga, and was awarded Best Urban Hotel 2022 by Conde Nast Traveler. For bookings, go to: https://palaciosolecio.com/en/.

The Picasso Museum Malaga is currently marking 50 years since the painters death, and features one of the world’s largest Picasso collections, predominantly donated by his daughter in law. For tickets, go to: https://museopicassomalaga.org/en.

For tickets to The Alcazaba of Malaga, go to: https://www.alcazabamalaga.com/. Private tours are available from €120 per group. 

The post Glass takes in a weekend of sun, palaces, and Picasso in Málaga first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

And so, over the course of the following five days, I learnt how to play the guitar all over again.I also learnt that while Petit Saint Vincent is a perfectly pretty name, PSV is so minuscule an island that three letters are plenty. I learnt that whatever blue is widely considered the bluest, is actually not, and that the bluest ever blue is that which surrounds PSV – Vantablue, for those in the know. I learnt that a full body massage from two women and four hands is called a Hawaiian Hang.

I found that you should never read on a boat when facing starboard or port, but I have not yet learnt which side is starboard and which is port. And I realised that at a certain point, when a place is so different and so new, and there are no tangible reference points to cling to, only established fantasy can prop up one’s understanding of such real life reverie.

Atlantic Coast Petit Saint Vincent

PSV is evocative of all manner of things, and they all belong to the world of fiction. You can swim with sea turtles and underwater acolytes of Jean-Michel Cousteau. You can trek to tropical peaks guarded by oversized iguanas.

There are shades of Swiss Family Robinson in the pulley systems and colour coded flags designed to signal your wants and needs.

And there’s Bond in the hidden-away-ness of it all, not to mention the characters who line its bars at night. On my first evening I was told of the movie stars who flee here to escape the eyes of the world, and on my second about the visit of a paranoid billionaire seeking refuge from modern day pirates.

Petit Saint Vincent Restaurant

I had no such worries. By my third morning I had I’d begun to forget what worries were at all, feeling borderline infantilised by my island experience. The learning, the newness, the Indian Ocean, lukewarm like baby’s bathwater.

Spending days retracing melodic scales I’d practiced as a child, and being pampered to a degree that far outweighed anything I’d experienced in those same years, was potent. I’d been seduced by pampering – the old enemy of initiative – so I set about spending my remaining days blistering my fingers into oblivion on the guitar.

Petit Saint Vincent Bedrooms

The man tasked with turning this overgrown baby back into a man again was Justin Guitar, a touring teacher so good that some members of our group sessions were veritable disciples, following him around the world, clothed in shirts emblazoned with his doctrine: “Reading is important, but guitar … is importanter”.

Petit Saint Vincent

With his aptronymic name, his motherboard forearm tattoo, and his jukebox-like repertoire of songs, it was only the absence of a spell check function that stopped me thinking Justin Guitar was a robot from the future sent to replace literacy with guitar on the teaching syllabus.

A fantasy too far, even for PSV. Robot or not, Justin (real name Justin Sandercoe) is an incredible teacher, able to foster an environment where there’s no judgement and nothing is off the table. I left PSV with fingertips calloused and my body tanned, in the skin of a man departing a desert island but with none of his tired mind. I had been renewed.

by Charlie Navin-Holder

Open throughout the year, excluding August, September and October.

Rooms start from $1350 (one-bedroom villa) per night based on double occupancy. Book here

The post Guitar dreams on a fantasy island Petit Saint Vincent in Southern Grenadines first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Glass talks to break-out star Lashana Lynch about James Bond, Hollywood’s British takeover, and being brought up Jamaican in west London.

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

“HMM …” Lashana Lynch is pensive but surefooted – even over the phone her positivity is disarming. “I mean … hmm. Do you see how interesting that is, though?” In a discussion that has hot-stepped from English theatre to Hollywood’s Captain Marvel, we’ve ended up at Black Panther and the complex ramifications of its success. “Thing is, people outside of the black community will take something like Black Panther and find that acceptable because we are playing characters who share spaces with people similar to themselves.

But once we step outside of that and we play characters among a white world, suddenly it becomes this very confusing thing, where some people feel we’re taking something from them.” Not that she’s remotely bothered by half-baked notions of cultural theft: “I don’t entertain any of it … when it comes to anything that is invading my energy space, which I protect very well, I refuse it.”

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

Lynch knows better than most the knock-on effects of cultural infiltration, with her profile in Hollywood mushrooming off the back of playing characters whom audiences aren’t accustomed to seeing in mainstream cinema.

As Maria Rambeau she was a female African-American fighter jet pilot, and will-they-won’t-they love interest of Marvel’s first female and feminist superhero, Captain Marvel. Petitions and hysterical pre-release doomsaying was evidence enough that comic book traditionalists found all of the above “very confusing”.

Predictably, rumours that Lynch will be taking over as James Bond following Daniel Craig’s No Time to Die swansong have been met with familiar hysteria. All that’s known for sure is that, for the time being, she’s Nomi, an 00(7?) agent intent on taking off the current James Bond’s head.

I reach Lashana Lynch over the phone from New York, a day after she’s appeared on Good Morning America in the middle of Times Square, alongside Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux and director Cary Joji Fukunaga. Watching the segment back, she has the air of someone who’s chilling in her own backyard. She also possesses a smile so Hollywood that it redefines the term “megawatt”.

Are you really from Hammersmith – the London borough responsible for the befuddled charm and equally befuddled teeth of Hugh Grant? “Shepherd’s Bush, actually! People like to say Hammersmith, apparently, but I’m definitely from Bush.”

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

She may have been raised in west London, but Lynch stresses that she was brought up “in the most Jamaican of Jamaican ways, which means that I was essentially brought up by my grandmother. She is like, a proper traditional Jamaican woman who would sell in the market, stand up to men regularly; a pillar of her community. She was head of ‘pardner’ in Shepherd’s Bush, which is a Caribbean banking system; before we were able to use banks, [pardner] would enable people to buy their houses and take care of themselves among their community instead of relying on western banks.

“Our culture was everywhere – so much so that I actually didn’t feel part of the UK until I went to primary school. Everything else was very Jamaican – I went to the market, collected meat, did all the chores, did the pardner for my nan …”

There isn’t a resonant term in Britain relative to “the American Dream”, but there should be. Coming to the UK as part of the Windrush generation and watching your grand-daughter star in the most quintessentially British film franchise in existence, filming on location in Jamaica, is ridiculously romantic.

“It’s wonderful. I mean, I had to really ask myself when I got the role, what I could contribute to the franchise as a British Jamaican woman. Rather than just looking at a massive opportunity as a way to further my career, I’m thinking, ‘if you’re going to take on this black girl, know that it comes with the culture’ – and if you’re prepared to do that, then let’s collaborate.”

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

No Time to Die producer Barbara Broccoli agreed, and collaborate they did, with a few elements that they had to get right: “The food. Ha. Definitely the food. And the nightlife. There’s a club scene – people just on the streets at night – with that kind of bluey-black lighting shade, the very thick heat in the air … it’s caught wonderfully by Cary [Joji Fukunaga] who had an amazing backdrop to work with: the water, the night shade, the colour in people’s bodies; dark women, dark men on screen in brightly coloured costumes.

I felt like, ‘I’ve got to do my job, and it’s a big studio, and there’s a lot of responsibility’. But because I did get to shoot in Jamaica, it made me feel like I was at home within the production. It made me feel like they were taking care of what I brought to the production, you know what I mean?

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

“I just find it very enlightening how I was able to be myself among the Jamaican crew, and also show the British crew how we do it in Jamaica, introduce them to the ways of life there, let them really feel the heat when we’re shooting at night, and contend with the sounds of the insects and the birds and the trees. That felt really powerful to me. For something quintessentially British, it felt like a massive shift, not only in my career, but in the franchise – now you see Bond actually being a modern man in that world. It’s beautiful to watch and Daniel [Craig] does a great job.”

All of which begs the question, are we seeing the beginnings of James Bond: the 21^st century man? “Hmm … he could change, but if he doesn’t I think it would make for a great story seeing women of this time contending with someone like him – wouldn’t it be exciting to watch the empowered, opinionated, very forward woman of 2020 compete with him and stand up to him and put him in his place? I think that’s a more exciting story – he can do whatever he wants to do as long as women are being authentic to themselves.”

Authenticity in Hollywood has taken on a new meaning of late, spawning conversations of “the right” to play certain roles, contingent on an actor’s lived experience. Daniel Kaluuya and Cynthia Erivo, in particular, have recently drawn the ire of some African American actors and critics for having the temerity to cross the pond, hoover up coveted roles and do outstanding work.

It’s worth remembering that British actors have been making appearances in US movies for decades, but characters have often been limited to nationality – play an American character well and suddenly you’re freed from having to play the one-dimensional, British stereotype. It’s been a significant shift, and it’s key to the beginnings of a real golden age for black British actors. It’s a cultural movement that Lynch is proud to be a part of.

Lashana Lynch. Photograph: Ssam Kim

“Well, we can do roles like that. That’s why they’re being done. Seriously, there is just so much talent in the UK, and it’s no wonder why so many people in the UK are getting their moment now – it has been a long time coming.” If it’s even possible to hear a smile over the phone, Lynch is beaming.

“I think the idea that roles are being stolen from one person to another is … well, it’s something I find very interesting. It reminds me of the crabs in a barrel mentality that I don’t personally stand for. I saw it a lot growing up in the black community. It saddens me when I see that’s something I’m still experiencing as an adult, as a human being on this earth let alone someone who has chosen to be in an industry where I thought I’d be able to share and learn from people from different parts of the world.”

“I’m here to learn – that is all I want to do. I want to work with great artists. I’ve seen them around the world and now I’m getting to experience it. So, I just hope that the work that everyone is doing – and not necessarily just black Brits – but the work that everyone is doing together will remind people that the black experience is everywhere, not in one given place.

“Anyway, it’s not even actually about me, but about the people I’m aiming to inspire and what they are taking away from this work. I hope that when I’m a pool of dust somewhere in hundreds of years that people will remember a change was made with the choices I made in my career. That is all I can hope for – everything else is none of my business.”

by Charlie Navin-Holder

First published in the Spring 2020 issue of Glass magazine

James Bond: No Time to Die is released September 30

Photographer SSAM KIM

Stylist STACEY CUNNINGHAM

Make up NICK BAROSE at EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS using GIORGIO ARMANI BEAUTY

Hair LACY REDWAY using NEXXUS

Manicurist JINI LIM at SEE MANAGEMENT using ROSE ALL DAY by SPELA COSMETICS

Production coordinator WINDY LEE

Photography assistant JACK WOOKJIN CHOI

Clothing Credits:

Look 1:

Top DARA SENDERS
Trousers MOON CHOI
Watch OMEGA Constellation
Left ring LADY GREY
Right ring NINA BERENATO

Look 2:

Jumpsuit ZIMMERMAN
Watch OMEGA Constellation

Lashana’s right hand, RUSH JEWELRY DESIGN ring
Lashana’s left hand, left ring LADY GREY
Lashana’s left hand, right ring NINA BERENATO

Look 3:

Dress MARA HOFFMAN
Belt MOON CHOI

Watch OMEGA Constellation

Earrings MACHETE JEWELRY

Ring RUSH JEWELRY DESIGN
Bracelet LAGOS

Look 4:

Top VICTORIA HAYES
Watch OMEGA Constellation

Lashana’s right hand, RUSH JEWELRY DESIGN ring
Lashana’s left hand, left ring LADY GREY
Lashana’s left hand, right ring NINA BERENATO

Look 5:

Top GEORGINE
Trousers OSCAR DE LA RENTA
Watch OMEGA Constellation
Ring RUSH JEWELRY DESIGN
Earrings RAINBOW UNICORN BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

Look 6:

Dress MARA HOFFMAN

Watch OMEGA Constellation
Earrings MACHETE JEWELRY
Bracelet LAGOS
Left ring LADY GREY
Right ring NINA BERENATO

The post Glass talks to James Bond star – Lashana Lynch first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Glass talks to actor Michael Ward about Top Boy, future co-stars and winning that Rising Star award

MICHAEL Ward is “That Guy”. Hell, catch the right teenager on the right day and they might even say he’s ‘THE Guy’. I can imagine no higher testament to his singular Guy-ness than the wide-eyed awe Michael Ward’s name elicited from my 17-year-old cousin. This is a boy whose range of optical expression had, since the morning of his 13th birthday, been limited to side-eyes, eye-rolls and stink-eyes – the holy trinity of adolescent indifference. “Michael Ward,” he said, for once, stupefied, “… he is an absolute guy.”

The ascension to It-Guy happened fast for Ward. In 2016 he was a schoolboy modelling for JD Sports, where he drew enough admiring glances to move onto acting roles in music videos. Soon glances turned to stares, and by 2018 he’d earned a lead role in Blue Story.

If you haven’t seen it, Blue Story is essentially the 21st century answer to West Side Story, but with trigger fingers and gang signs instead of finger snaps and jazz hands. It’s also set in Peckham rather than Manhattan, but let’s not split hairs. Blue Story may not have won 10 Oscars, but the gangland musical already has the feel of a seminal teenage film.

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

Around the same time, Ward was also cast as Jamie in the long-awaited return of Top Boy. In an east London dominated by anti-heroes, Jamie emerged as classically heroic, with the most sympathetic Achilles heel – orphaned younger brothers for whom Jamie is forced to be mother, father, sketchy uncle, maths tutor, sexual health educator, and, every once in a while, big bro. It went well.

For all his flaws, everyone loved Jamie. They loved Ward. Twelve months on, the former JD model is now the face of Louis Vuitton’s AW20 campaign, and star of forthcoming Steve McQueen feature for the BBC, Lover’s Rock. “Beautiful,” he tells me, “It’s going beautiful.”

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

Ward’s just returned home from an acting class, smiling a smile of a thousand teeth – he’s a big smiler, in both size and frequency. We’re talking about Ashley Walters, one of The Guys of my generation, and Top Boy’s reigning toppest boy. “I wasn’t too familiar with So Solid [Crew, Ashley Walters’ early 2000s band] to be honest, that’s not really my era,” Ward says, as if the song 21 Seconds was the Magna Carta. “What I find most impactful about Ashley is the fact that he went to America to make Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) and is still doing something like Top Boy. For me, that’s beautiful.”

Behind Ward, hanging from the wall of his Romford home, is a picture of New York. It’s one of those images that represents the idea of a place as much as it depicts anything in particular, the kind you see on T-shirts, pencil sharpeners, or shaved into a Yankee fan’s skin fade. It’s a picture of a bridge.

“That’s what’s always touched me about Ashley. A lot of people get these opportunities and become completely immersed in the States. Good for them if that’s what they want to do, nothing wrong with it.” Except for the obvious national betrayal. But Ward’s in forgiving mood. “If I make it over there? You already know I’m going to have to show some sort of love to the UK for giving me that big break and allowing me to become whatever it is I’m going to become.”

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

Generally Zoom conference background art tells you nothing except how the owner would like to be perceived, never who they actually are. And yet in the current climate it’s become impossible to ignore, hence my inability to take my eyes off Ward’s in-other-circumstances-unspectacular picture of a bridge. It is, though, oddly comforting. There’s no cynical masquerade, just what feels like a genuine insight into one of his guiding principles – ‘You have to be the bridge’.

“For me, having done Top Boy and Blue Story, I’m OK not telling those stories for a while because I feel that those opportunities can be passed on to someone else now.” Correction: by all means cross the bridge to the other side, just don’t pull up the bridge behind you. Either that or Ward just likes bridges. Psychobabble aside, Michael Ward has thought a lot about that next step, about crossing over. He’s even compiled a modest list of potential future co-workers. “You know, Denzel [Washington], Leo [DiCaprio], Christopher Nolan […Christopher Nolan] …”

The barefaced ambition! The complete absence of self-doubt! There’s not a whiff of arrogance or even naivety, just a sense of ‘why not?’ and I feel exhilarated by association. He pauses, racking his brain for the name of another jobbing stiff you may or may not have heard of, then pivots. “To be honest, more than anyone I would love to collaborate with the British actor and writer Daniel Kaluuya.”

Among all the stardust, it’s the fourth name that matters most to Ward, the others suddenly just names on a list. “That’s one person I love – his journey, what he stands for. I’ve studied him for years, you know? So, to then meet him … the way he spoke to me … I just thought ‘this is The Guy’.”

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

Back in 2019 when he was first experiencing red carpets and tuxedos, it was Ward who wore my cousin’s expression of wide-eyed awe upon hearing the words “Michael Ward” as they came out the mouths of reporters and photographers. Remove his cuff links and roll up his sleeves, and his arms were likely puckered and pinched from disbelief. He was green: all of it felt remarkable.

Ward would smile and say, “It didn’t have to be like this”,  keen to remain humble, but also as if forgetting his past life would provoke some malevolent spectre to pull that big red rug from under him, snatch the tux off his back and laugh “you didn’t think any of that was actually real, did you?” But it was, and it is.

This year he walked down another big red rug all the way into the Royal Albert Hall, where he would eventually hear the words “Michael Ward” come out of Kaluuya’s mouth. Kaluuya was presenting the Bafta Rising Star Award, an award he himself had won two years prior. This year Ward had won. He cried. His mum wailed. He confirms: “It was beautiful.”

Ward’s ascent has been so whiplashingly swift, what happens if you skip the years of rejection (which most actors face) and go straight to the good bit? “Listen, I’m always just hopeful for a wonderful and fruitful career. And that’s the truth.”

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

And I believe him. “The thing is, like life didn’t have to be this way. We didn’t have to be speaking right now. There are so many little decisions that your parents made and that you’ve made subconsciously that have allowed you to be in this position. I know that’s definitely true for me. I was born in Jamaica and I still have family there. Sometimes I’ll speak to them and think ‘that could have been me’. That literally could be me sitting in Jamaica, talking to my cousin in England that’s doing so well. When I think about that, I think ‘yeah, I’m in a good position’ and I’m grateful for all of it.”

Michael Ward. Photograph: Nick Thompson

Next up is Steve McQueen passion project, Lover’s Rock, not a bad final stop before crossing over to the other side. It’s a shift in direction for Ward. For one, he smiles more in the 30-second trailer than in his 10 episodes of Top Boy. “It’s funny, people tend to be a bit disappointed that I’m Michael and not Jamie, that I’m not on what he’s on … that I’m so happy.”

by Charlie Navin-Holder

Photographer NICK THOMPSON

Stylist MICHAEL MILLER

Groomer NADIA ALTINBAS at THE ONLY AGENCY using SISLEY, PAT MCGRATH & KEVIN MURPHY

Producer ALEXANDRA OLEY

Styling assistant THOMAS BRACKLEY

Post production NADIA SELANDER

Location RANELAGH STUDIO

Talent MICHEAL WARD

All clothing and accessories LOUIS VUITTON Pre-Spring 2021

The post Glass speaks to British actor Michael Ward first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Between Marvel and MLK  – Glass talks to actor Anthony Mackie about the future of the Marvel Universe, America’s political landscape and his new beard

THERE was just one suggestion ahead of my interview with Anthony Mackie: Do you mind asking about his beard? I’m warned that Mackie doesn’t look the way people are used to seeing him.

The thing is, Anthony Mackie has always had a beard, meaning this beard must be significant: a statement beard. But, as we’re talking over the phone, I can only speculate as to what this beard statement may be. Getting Captain America’s shield carved into your sideburns would be an interesting way to confirm what’s already strongly suspected: that Mackie is taking over from Chris Evans as “Cap” in the next batch of Avengers movies.

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

It would make him one of the most prominent faces in one of the biggest film franchises in history, which is obviously a very big deal – if there was ever a moment worthy of stencilling stars and stripes into your beard, this would be it. Another, more likely possibility is that, in light of this apparent promotion from Falcon, the supporting hero Mackie’s played since 2014, the new facial hair could be a testament to his contentment in life.

Grown out, free from the pressure to trim and shave and grind and work, I imagine the beard of a man who’s made it to the top of the pile and intends to sit back a while and admire his efforts.

Just as 16th century prosperity was measured by paleness and obesity (gluttony was aspirational while a dreaded tan suggested you were a labourer), in 2020 nothing says mega-successful actor like a luxuriously unkempt beard. When we finally broach the topic, Mackie comes clean: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen my beard this long. I just sit around and play with it all day,” and he laughs, content. For Mackie and his beard, it seems life has never been better.

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

With 70 acting credits in 18 years, he’s earned a rest. If beard maintenance really is the metric for work ethic, his previous signature style (an almost pencil thin goatee) was the embodiment of a relentless workaholic. After debuting in 8 Mile in 2002, Mackie scored the lead in a 2004 Spike Lee’s She Hate Me, before roles in Oscar-bait dramas: Million Dollar Baby (2004), Half Nelson (2006) and The Hurt Locker (2008). Over the course of the following decade Mackie has become one of those Hollywood ever-presents; an actor that gets so much work you half expect him to pop up every time you go to the cinema, turn on the TV, or reach down the back of your sofa looking for the remote having reached Anthony Mackie overload.

Don’t bother trying to escape him – he is inevitable. Even in his modern-day beard-fiddling period, Mackie’s using time off from shooting his Marvel TV debut, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, to star in and produce the pre-OJ-era Johnny Cochran drama, Signal Hill. Set in 1981, it follows a jarringly contemporaneous police brutality case echoing, among a despairingly long list of others, the 2015 death of Sandra Bland.

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

“So,” he says, voice dropping half an octave to the baritone of a seasoned producer, “Signal Hill is the story of Johnny Cochran’s first case, representing the family of a young man who’s taken into custody by the police and found dead a day later. It’s an important story, and there are far too many important stories that just so happen to have black protagonists, which have never been told.”

It’s true. Having already portrayed MLK and Tupac Shakur, Mackie’s recently exhibited a commitment to playing African-American luminaries whose stories have been previously absent from movie theatres and school curriculums alike, appearing as activist Hakim Jamal in Seberg (2019) and real-estate trailblazer Bernard Garrett in The Banker (2020), another project he produced.

Mulling over the split in his recent work – part-superhero, part-historian – I ask Mackie if he feels a growing obligation to tell these stories given the increased visibility that comes with being part of “the Marvel Universe”.

I find his coy response odd: “No, not really. I’ve always been into historical texts. My dad always used to say, ‘if you don’t know your history, you’re going to make the same mistakes’.”

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

I resist the admittedly charming but no less blatant dodge and try again: “But you must be aware that your involvement brings a whole new audience to films depicting the black experience in America, right?”

“Yeah … I hope so,” he replies without elaboration.

Summoning my final reserves of journalistic zeal, I ask: “Don’t you think it matters that in the minds of hundreds of millions of people (over 100 million saw Avengers: Endgame on its opening weekend alone), the new Captain America, the American-est of all of Marvel’s All-American heroes, is moonlighting as a procession of African-American civil rights heroes in between films?”

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

And then that thing happens, when something you had previously taken as incontrovertible truth is met with such blank scepticism that you begin to doubt everything short of your own name. So I retrace steps hoping to find clarity: “That bit at the end of Endgame, where Captain America appears as an old man, summons you, hands you his shield … he’s electing you to take his place as the new Captain America, case closed, all sorted, right?”

“No. It’s definitely not sorted,” he laughs, no longer the content laugh, but a laugh at my expense for adding 1+1 and coming up with 2. “Look, all we know is at the end of Endgame, Cap gave me the shield. We haven’t gone into whether I’m Captain America or not, so we’ll see in the future.”

Case closed, but also left slightly ajar? All that’s for certain is we can cross the shield emblem sideburns off the beard list. The contentment beard feels wrong now, too, so I mull over another option, that perhaps he’s wearing the beard of a man humbled by the weight of a new, higher purpose than Hollywood, with no time for vanity.

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

The “Tireless Activist Beard” Mackie is very politically active. When The Banker premiered at The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Mackie introduced the movie from the same balcony where Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated in 1968. It was a revelatory experience.

“When I stood in that spot … I don’t know what happened. It was like a gut-punch. It was literally like someone had just kicked me in the gut. I always wonder: where would we be, as a culture and a civilisation, if Malcolm X, MLK, shit – if Tupac hadn’t been assassinated; if these men, who didn’t ask but demanded to be treated correctly, who gave their lives for us to thrive – where would we be now if they were alive?” He lets the thought marinate for a second or two, then answers himself: “We definitely wouldn’t be dealing with situations like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.”

He sounds awed by the prospect of this parallel present, but mainly angered by the absence of 21st century substitutes. “Nobody today is willing to get in trouble, no one in politics has the guts to be a martyr, to go against the norm,” he says. “Everybody now is just so neutral. Hell, if you’re not making people mad, then you’re not doing it right.” Finally, the beard fits. “People are supposed to be mad! But right now, nobody’s mad.”

Mackie’s response has been to set up IAmAMan.vote, an online campaign encouraging African-American men to enact change by voting in November’s presidential election. “Black Americans not only make up a large part of the population of this country, but we are a huge asset financially,” he explains.

“There are so many different aspects of our culture that America thrives off. We are, literally, the bread and butter of America. But there’s been so much disenfranchising, so many lies, and so many moves to take away the power of the people that a lot of people don’t even believe in the idea of voting. They don’t believe that their vote counts, so why waste their time?”

Anthony Mackie. Photograph: Nick Thompson

In 2016, the African-American voter turnout fell from 66.6 per cent to 59.6 per cent, with 11 per cent of Obama 2012 voters staying at home on election day. “If we can re-legitimise the idea of voting power for young black men – stand up and stand together – that’s a huge platform to stand on. People will have no choice but to listen.”

It’s a weird time for activism. It’s tough to stand together when 2020’s dominant ideology is social distancing – bane of the picket line and … the barbershop. “It’s funny, everyone in my neighbourhood now calls me Black Wolverine, but I am not letting anybody get within three feet of me or my face. This corona shit is real, deadly, and the last thing I’m going to risk my life for is a haircut.”

So there we have it, Antony Mackie as told through his beards: sometimes content but always a workaholic, and every bit the tireless activist; still the Falcon, possibly the next Captain America, but, for the time being, Black Wolverine.

by Charlie Navin-Holder

IAmAMan.vote

Taken from the summer 2020 issue of Glass Man

Make sure you never miss a copy of Glass or Glass Man, buy it here or here

Photographer NICK THOMPSON

Stylist FABIO IMMEDIATO

Talent ANTHONY MACKIE

LOOK 1,2:
All clothing – RALPH LAUREN

LOOK 3,7:
All clothing – NANUSHKA

LOOK 4, 5:
All clothing – Rag & Bone

LOOK 6:
All clothing – BOSS

The post Between Marvel and MLK – Glass interviews actor Anthony Mackie first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Back to the Future – Glass talks to Swedish actor Rebecca Ferguson about her roles in Dune, Mission: Impossible and the lessons we can learn from spaghetti

REBECCA Ferguson is on location in Budapest, possibly dressed up as a sci-fi high priestess with glowing blue eyes and a three-pronged bouffant. Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s 2020 reinterpretation of David Lynch’s 1984 Frank Herbert adaptation, needs reshoots of its own, so Ferguson is talking to me over the phone in between takes from what sounds like a galaxy far, far away …

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

In accordance with “soon-to-be-released-Sci-Fi-epic” law, Dune is shrouded in secrecy. As yet there are no behind the scenes featurettes, and no leaked stills to give an insight into Villeneuve’s vision for Ferguson’s character, Lady Jessica, the age-agnostic mother of Timothée Chalamet’s cosmic hero, Paul Atreides.

So, I do the only thing you can do when imagining the new cast of a reboot and attach Ferguson’s disembodied head to the beheaded body of her Lady Jessica predecessor. Et voilà, Rebecca Ferguson: live from Budapest, possibly looking like a futuristic, blue eyed, heavily bouffanted, Lynchian high priestess.

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

She’s called back from a location with better phone coverage and we’re discussing cities, from the “incredible” (Budapest), to the inhabitable (London, Ferguson’s second home), via LA, which, putting it mildly, fits neither criteria in the 37-year-old’s glowing blue eyes. “The idea of moving to LA has never, ever, ever been on my agenda,” she declares.

The first thing that strikes you about Ferguson is that she’s passionate talking about practically everything. “Look, there are people I love, who love it there … and I get it. When people there look at you and smile, there is a joy,” she pauses, reliving early encounters with LA, and smiles … “And a happiness which is so lovely and endearing and light – but I can’t take it too long. I just want to smoke a cigarette and kind of blow it in someone’s face.” An apology seems on the tip of her tongue, but she decides it would ruin the joke, and merely says, “I don’t actually smoke, by the way.”

She spends much of the year in a Swedish fishing village – “a different world”, she says, possessing all the things she loves: row boats, the ocean, her friends, grilling fish and just the right amount of smiling and joy. Ferguson’s open and only slightly sardonic disdain for the folly of wanton joy suggests, to me, two things. One: that while she clearly loves Sweden, the place of her birth and homeland of her father, the English side of her mother is potent.

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

And two: the ability to “get in and get out”, as she puts it, remains a priority. As a teen, Ferguson was unknown to the world but famous in Sweden as the star of soap opera Nya Tider. When the show ended and she was 15, she got out. “I studied, had a beautiful child, worked in restaurants, shops, God … in hotels – I did everything.” Everything but act, other than a couple of minor, un-recurring TV roles and student films in exchange for free lunch.

“I never wanted to go to drama school, mainly because I didn’t want to be like every other Swede in film. Not to criticise Lars Norén or … Ingrid Bergman, but all I could think was ‘I don’t want to be a drama student with a fucking purple beret on my head, I don’t want to be like them’. I think, now, looking back, I was just terrified I wasn’t going to get in.”

Eleven years after Nya Tider, Ferguson starred in Swedish language film, A One-Way Trip to Antibes. “And that was the gateway for me.” Soon after she was cast as Queen Elizabeth in BBC period drama The White Queen, which was less a conveyer belt towards ‘the big time’ as it was a treadmill cranked to 11. But playing Queen Elizabeth on the BBC isn’t without its drawbacks – play the role well enough and the whole world will think you’re English.

Being called Rebecca Ferguson probably doesn’t help, and her English is too perfect to be considered a second language. Most of all, though, it’s to do with the version of Englishness that lives so prominently in Ferguson: her mother’s version. “My mother is quintessentially English,” she says. “When she came over to Sweden, words and expressions like ‘whoops-a-daisy, ‘holy moly’ and ‘kerfuffle’ still existed – it’s how she spoke and it became the natural way of speaking for me, too.”

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

It made Ferguson a convincing Brit, laying the groundwork for the most seamless England/Sweden switcheroo since Ferguson’s own mother integrated so adeptly into her adopted home that, in 1975, she was awarded the ultimate endorsement: appearing on the sleeve of an Abba album. And yet, beyond the whimsical lingo, Ferguson is neither stiff, stoical nor repressed – three fundamentals of Britishness.

On chat-shows, she’s gregarious and tactile and warm, and this confuses people who go by the “if it looks like a Brit and sounds like a Brit …” metric. It’s a little like painting a cat with black and white stripes and saying, “what’s wrong with that zebra and why is it such an outrageous flirt?” “I’ve seen those bloody comments! It’s so weird. It makes me think I should stop touching people altogether, which is sad because, you know … we’re here, we’re together, we’re human beings.”

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

The problem is, when your wagon’s hitched to a vehicle like Mission: Impossible, where each instalment is an event, and every instalment ends with the promise of another instalment (Episodes 7 and 8 are in the works), chat show appearances are unending. Rumour is that number seven will be filmed in space, which is a worthwhile trade for the talk-show couch merry-go-round, depending on where you stand on heights. “In space? That’s news to me, but with TC nothing surprises me.”

TC is, of course, Mr Mission Impossible: Tom Cruise. “So,” I ask her, would she do it? “I would probably say ‘fuck off’ to that. Heights are my greatest fear and I’m not doing cognitive therapy acting … then again, I never thought I would jump 40 metres off that house in Vienna (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation). That was bloody terrifying. But I did it … and got to do something that I never thought I would do, so maybe it is all just therapy?”

He’s a force of nature,” Ferguson says. “I’ve never met anyone like him.” There’s a unique fascination around Cruise, due to his personal life and the idea that the line separating him from his Mission Impossible character, Ethan Hunt, has become almost non-existent; that the actor has permanently morphed into the character, who now spends his days playing the role of the actor he once was. Which is a crazy suggestion, obviously, but Cruise is so intensely fascinating that I can’t help such ideas whirl through my head whenever I see him interviewed “out of character”.

Rebecca Ferguson. Photograph: Nick Thompson

I ask Ferguson what it’s like to have a relationship with someone so divisive, who invokes such strong opinions, and whether she feels strangely protective of Cruise. “I don’t think I can. I feel there’s no need to be protective of him. He’s powerful …  just the way he is. I feel like I’m supported by him all the time.” Nor does she tire of being asked about him. “He’s an interesting person to talk about, and a very interesting person to get to know.

The boyish charm, the need to always be doing fun things for everyone while making sure everyone feels safe … Sometimes we’ll start laughing and unbuckling our seatbelts just to fuck with him,” which weirdly is the only Tom Cruise anecdote I think I’ll ever need. “We’ve had some beautiful moments filming together.”

On which note, with our allotted 30 minutes long expired, I ask Ferguson what ‘together’ means to her, but she seems to have re-entered whatever foreign galaxy she started the interview in, and the question gets chewed up on its way over. She responds, “spaghetti?” which, after some clarification and deliberation, we decide to stick with, despite the kerfuffle. “Because togetherness is the opposite of isolation and segregation,” and nothing represents the importance of togetherness like than the profoundly sad sight of a lone strand of spaghetti.

by Charlie Navin-Holder

Photographer NICK THOMPSON

Stylist FABIO IMMEDIATO

Hair JON CHAPMAN at NYLON ARTISTS

Make up MARY GREENWELL at PREMIER

Post production COLOR WORKZ

Talent REBECCA FERGUSON

All clothing and accessories from the DIOR Autumn Winter 2020-2021 Women’s Collection

The post Glass talks to Swedish actor Rebecca Ferguson first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

Glass talks to Nigel Sizer, Chief Global Alliances Officer of the Rainforest Alliance, about its work with Guatemala’s rural communities, and why this is such a pivotal time for the future of a country emerging from conflict and political instability

IT FEELS stupid to preface “civil war” with “bloody”, however involuntary the urge may be. For one: something so blatantly implicit doesn’t need spelling out. Secondly, while there may be ever-present themes (authoritarian government versus guerrilla forces, all-powerful Western nation tipping the scales of power for personal gain …) civil wars aren’t uniform events worthy of blanket adjectives. Rather, each is defined by its own brand of awfulness.

The Guatemalan civil war, for example, is distinct by virtue of providing Latin America’s first cases of state-sponsored forced-disappearances targeting the opposition, a tactic now synonymous with corrupt administrations and narco gangs throughout the region.

With as many as 50,000 Guatemalans “disappeared” between 1960 and 1996, the old regime was truly a trailblazer in the worst possible way. Another 150,000 were recorded killed – figures eventually adjudged to constitute genocide – as part of a conflict fought over land distribution and indigenous autonomy, following decades of banana republic subjugation.

Review in of concessions Map by Advisors in Washington DC

However, there’s another mark of distinction dating back to the immediate aftermath of Guatemala’s civil war that’s become a source of national pride and international admiration. Briefly bucking the trend of self-serving power vacuum opportunism, the 1997 Guatemalan government used the post-civil war period to introduce a series of positive pieces of legislation called CFCs (community forestry concessions).

In effect, CFCs – there are nine in total – are government-endorsed land leases granting rural communities self-governance over their environment (specifically, sections of the Amazon rainforest), with the aim of developing sustainable logging practices and localised jobs infrastructures.

To assist in building overseas trading relationships while providing funding, guidance and awareness of the scheme, the international NGO Rainforest Alliance was brought in. In advance of the scheme’s silver anniversary, the organisation’s chief programme officer and former president, Nigel Sizer, Chief Global Alliances Officer, discusses CFCs’ success, and why the government scheme is particularly relevant in 2020.

Ruins in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Photo Sergio Izquierdo

For those who may be unfamiliar with the CFCs, why are they so important, both locally and internationally?
In the heart of Guatemala is the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Established in 1990, it covers around two million hectares of Central America and is the continent’s largest intact area of tropical rainforest. It is within this reserve – in rural areas populated by extraordinary communities who call the forest home and play a very important part in protecting it – that community forest concessions (CFCs) have been operating for the past 25 years.

At the end of the civil war, Guatemala’s National Council of Protected Areas granted the communities, who have lived in these areas for many generations, the legal right to live on and manage the land. These areas are of enormous value to the global environment and the communities who live there. From an archaeological standpoint, CFCs cover some extremely important archaeological remains from the Mayan civilisation.

The problem we’re currently facing is that these “leases” are coming up for renewal in the next year or two. Essentially, they’re expiring. So, the Rainforest Alliance has been working on getting them extended in advance of their expiration date to ensure that the local communities are secure and safe to stay there for another 25 years. One of the community forest concessions was extended in December 2019, which was brilliant news.

Workers on the MBR. Photograph: Sergio Izquierdo

Alongside the obvious global importance of rainforest protection, the local ramifications of CFCs have been equally impressive. Young people no longer have to leave home to find work, and there’s been an increase of women in the workplace within the Maya Biosphere Reserve. How important is it for people to consider the local effects of the land lease renewals, rather than solely considering their impact on a macro level?

The way we view the role of the Rainforest Alliance is that protecting a rainforest is completely interdependent on the wellbeing of the communities who live in and around the rainforest. It’s imperative that we work together. The success of CFCs is a perfect example of that – the data tracking developments over these past 25 years has been striking. In areas where you’ve got the community concessions in place, the rate of deforestation goes down to zero.

In fact, there’s even restoration of forest taking place in some of these areas – a re-planting of trees that were cleared previously. Surrounding areas lying beyond CFC-protected land continue to suffer high rates of forest clearing and fires, such is the lack of local, interdependent communities to provide protection.

Tikal National Park. Photograph: Sergio Izquierdo

Why is it that communities outside of CFC-endorsed land aren’t offering the same level of forest protection? Is it about a lack of an incentive? It feels naïve to expect struggling communities to protect their local environments out of altruism and nothing else.

Areas outside of the Maya Biosphere carry high rates of forest loss – a lot of that illegal – while the communities inside the Maya Biosphere are demonstrably doing an extremely good job of protecting their respective localities. And yes, they’re partly doing that because they are personally benefiting from a “protected rainforest” in very a significant way, in terms of jobs, income and livelihood. This is what we’ve been working with them on for about 20 years – setting up these community-based enterprises. Incomes have gone up significantly, and around 9,000 new jobs have been created. Projects are now led by local men and, more than ever before, women.

Total sales from these enterprises stand at nearly $60 million. Remember, this is in the context of, historically, one of the worst countries in the region in terms of job creation, and some of the highest rates of out-migration – past generations of Guatemalans have been forced to illegally leave for the USA in search of a living wage to send back home. These communities where we have been working do not suffer from that; migration rates are extremely low. Instead the communities are stable, healthy and flourishing.

Xate processing plant in Uaxactun

Suffice to say, these communities have come a long way since the civil war?
Many of our Guatemalan colleagues are from these areas … they’ve seen that whole history. There have been times when we’ve sat together and a table full of macho, fully grown men in their fifties will burst into tears as they talk about their story and what they have seen. There’s a lot of violence in that history, it’s an extraordinary story.

When does a post-civil-war-period cease, and officially become peacetime? When does “the new normal”, become just “normal”? That would depend on whom you ask (Guatemala continues to be plagued by influential narco gangs, corrupt politicians, and boasts alarming wealth distribution statistics). But if it were reduced to an equation, you’d imagine it would revolve around the post-war years exceeding the wartime years.

Guatemala is 12 years shy of this landmark, meaning the CFCs’ renewal would extend into, and contribute towards a period of relative growth, compared to the struggles of the 20th century. If anything, it would ensure that these nine CFC-protected pockets of relative prosperity would continue to prosper – a considerable victory that shouldn’t be underestimated.

Rainforest. Photograph: Sergio Izquierdo

by Charlie Navin-Holder

The post Glass interviews Nigel Sizer of the Rainforest Alliance about its work with Guatemala’s rural communities first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

BORN in Germany, educated in America, professional contacts in more countries than our word count can begin to cover … and yet, Ashley Hamilton is the archetypal British basketball player. As a youth he was gifted enough to earn a university scholarship in California, but, in the eyes of those that mattered most, not American enough to make it out of the draft with an NBA contract.

And so, like many from this side of the Atlantic, Hamilton became part of a group whose main unifying trait is the utter randomness of their career paths – the Great British Basketball Diaspora. “There’s power in that existence,” Hamilton tells me over the phone. Mulling over the first-class education and a life spent travelling the world playing the game you love, he’s not wrong.

Ashley Hamilton in action for Great Britain

What was your college experience like in California?
Amazing. To this day I have lifelong friends all across LA, from Compton to the Valley and everywhere in between. Loyola Marymount University [LMU] opened my eyes to the fact that there are more ways to be successful than just being a basketball player. If you had asked me, before LMU, what my interests were, it was a short list. Now I’m fascinated by excellence in general. The way my brain works is, if I see something I truly enjoy and see someone else doing well in it, I just think to myself, why not me?

Of all the countries you’ve played basketball (Lebanon, Spain, Ukraine, Italy, Greece and England), which was your favourite and why?
Lebanon – simply because I didn’t know what to expect. I flew to Beirut from Kiev, where customs tried to shake me down for money. They put me in a room by myself, accused me of being in the Ukraine illegally and ordered me to hand over all the money I had on me: around €10,000. I always had that much on me in Ukraine – there was a civil war going on and the advice was to be ready to leave at any moment.

I guess customs had been shaking down anyone that didn’t look Ukrainian, but I was prepared – police had tried to get me a few times before on the streets of Cherkassy [Ukranian city]. I got on the phone with the president of my team in Beirut and eventually they gave me clear passage. Going through all that plus the uncertainty of even being allowed into Lebanon because I had been in Israel a few years prior, meant I breathed a major sigh of relief when the customs officer finally let me go.

The weather in Lebanon was amazing and the basketball culture is legit. People knew who I was before I arrived and I was greeted with open arms. I’m always honoured to go where I’m wanted. I think the fact that people in a different country want to fly you out to do a job that you love is a big deal. I never take it for granted.

Ashley Hamilton in action for Great Britain

Having lived and played in Beirut for a short time, can you describe your immediate reaction to the recent catastrophe?
When I saw that explosion, I couldn’t believe it. I was just shocked and heartbroken. That country has gone through so much. On the plane there, I read about gas bombs being dropped on kids at school. It’s hard to really understand what other people go through without experiencing it yourself. I always think about the aftermath, how do you recover from that?

What impact has living in so many different countries had on your national identity?
I identify as African before anything – always have and always will – even back in the day when it wasn’t cool to be African and everyone black was saying they were Jamaican. I considered it a few times to fit in but I rode the wave; now everyone is woke.

I love the fact that I grew up in London – I like who I am as a result of it, and I love playing for Team GB. It’s the best feeling being on a team with guys who you know have gone through similar ups and downs as you. If you talk to anyone on that team, they have a crazy story, too. It just comes with the territory of being a British basketball player. I love it.

Why isn’t basketball bigger in the UK?
What a question … basically there isn’t any money in the game in the UK. No money means no sponsors, no marketing, and culminates in bad business. We get no government support at the elite level and a lot of people in charge have never played at elite levels or been part of elite programmes in other countries. When you don’t know any better, you can’t do any better. The players are neglected and the communities they are from have no idea about some of the amazing accomplishments guys have had through the sport.

It’s a shame really, because in the ‘90s and early 2000s we had teams competing at the highest levels in Europe. I always say, just imagine if they were given the tools to be successful. The British league has so much potential. British players continue to leave the UK and shine in other countries. Establishing a league where the majority of the best talent can stay home is critical. I have faith though, and I want to help contribute to a better future, a lot of people do.

What have you made of the NBAs response to the Black Lives Matter movement?
I think the NBA has done an amazing job advocating for social justice ever since the Donald Sterling saga. [Sterling was part owner of the Los Angeles Clippers until 2014, when he was recorded espousing wildly racist views]. I really commend Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA on how they approach an issue the effects a sport and a league that is predominately black.

I just don’t think that sports and advocating for social change have to be separate. In fact, athletes and teams are using the opportunity to continue the fight. And yes, some pervert the cause for personal gain. Are the big brands that are donating to black causes really for change and advancement? Or is it just an opportunity to build profits by getting on the right side of history? Who knows? I try to always focus on the positive, build on that, and drown out those that continue to manipulate the system for greed.

You’re reaching the veteran stage of your career now. What’s next, post-basketball?

I’m getting ready for life after basketball as we speak. I’m building my little empire one brick at a time. I’ve always been someone that took the road less travelled and I guess that’s what I’m doing with life after basketball. I’m working on setting up a basketball business here in the UK in the short term. In the long term I hope to use my life as an example, to be able to pass down knowledge to other basketball players, especially those from the UK, on how to build your brand and create additional revenue streams. British basketball is completely overlooked, not just overseas but here in the UK as well.

Our men’s national team gets zero funding from the government, even though every single player has competed at elite levels across Europe. Our women’s team is one of the top teams in Europe and gets minimal funding. Most of the public isn’t even aware that we have professional leagues in the UK.

Players get almost zero exposure compared to our peers in other countries and as a result we have to work a lot harder to make a decent living through the sport let alone outside of it. My experiences in the sport have been a blessing – I’ve learnt a lot. So now I’m focusing on passing this knowledge on to the next generation.

I also have a foundation in Sierra Leone where my family is from. We sponsor a local football team in the village where my mum grew up. We provide scholarships for the players so long as they meet certain academic standards. I hope to build that up and provide exit pathways to the kids in Sierra Leone through sports in the future. I love helping driven people. The way I see it, the better I do, the more I can help.

by Charlie Navin-Holder

Follow Ashley Hamilton on Instagram @agphamilton

The post Glass talks to Ashley Hamilton – Team GB basketball star, entrepreneur and philanthropist first appeared on The Glass Magazine.

LILY Newmark is one of the stars of Cursed, the latest Big Budget Netflix On-Demand Fantasy Epic. She plays Pym, a fictional character from a fictional world. Newmark is from south London. Simple, right? So quite why I went into our scheduled call expecting not to talk with Newmark but with Pym – a fictional character from a Netflix adaptation of a graphic novel based on the legend of King Arthur (that’s a full three layers of fiction) – is beyond me.

I can only blame the nature of modern TV consumption, where shows are binged so intensely that, at some point, the binge-ee is prone to forgetting where the Fantasy Epic ends and south London begins.

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

Because of this, Newmark’s distinct un-Pym-ness took some adjusting to. So, in order to help me connect the dots, I asked the real-life, 26-year-old south Londoner to describe Pym.  “Well … Pym is an awkward, naïve character who becomes incredibly inarticulate and anxious when she’s put in unfamiliar situations,” she tells me. “I suppose she becomes the comic-relief in a story which, otherwise, tends to be quite dark.”

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

Without needing to vocalise it, Lily Newmark seems to be none of the above. She’s the opposite of awkward, naïve, inarticulate and anxious, and, while I have no doubt she’s splendid comic relief in the company of friends, today, on the phone with a stranger, she’s serious.

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

I think I understand why. There once was a time when signing on for a fantasy show meant there would be light-hearted media chats about “what you would name your pet dragon?” Not anymore. Cursed still has beheadings, burnings, stake-wielding zealots and showers of blood where rain should be (they worked hard for that 15 rating), but really, it’s reflective of a fantasy genre that, as it’s grown, has become oddly contemporary. Thus, it warrants serious debate, especially given that sections of fantasy fan culture remain infamously traditionalist and would rather revel in the draconian than imbue the medieval world with modern, progressive ideals.

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

For her part, Newmark describes Cursed as “a retelling of the Arthurian legend from the female perspective, with a story centred around a female-lead hierarchy.” The Lady of the Lake, Nimue (Katherine Langford), is the protagonist, King Arthur actor Devon Terrell is best known for portraying a young Barack Obama, and the wizard Merlin (Gustaf Skarsgård) enters the series a drunken, bumbling charlatan. The latter may not be pearl-clutchingly modern, but it subverts Arthurian lore all the same.

“As far as I’m aware it’s just in the TV adaption – I don’t think the graphic novel specifies the colour of anyone’s skin … [Regardless], Devon, who plays Arthur, is fantastic. He’s one of my best friends and I’m really, really glad that he’s playing Arthur.”

Still, Newmark appreciates untraditional casting choices need to be made for the right reasons. “I think, firstly, it’s important that it’s not done in any sort of token way – tokenism comes in to play a lot with casting. Although Cursed is fantasy it reflects a lot of aspects of our world: themes of obliteration of the natural world … people being segregated because of their communities and cultures … so why, given that we live in such a diverse world, wouldn’t we also have a diverse cast?”

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

And that applies to the team behind the camera, too, with Cursed pilot-directed and executive-produced by Zetna Fuentes, one of television’s most prolific female directors. “I was really excited to meet Zetna; she’s been so wonderful. I think I am drawn to working with women filmmakers, or perhaps I’m just lucky that I’ve come across so many in my short time acting.

“But, equally …,” she catches herself, “although I certainly champion female filmmakers, I don’t just work with anyone because of their gender. I think ultimately the workplace environment depends on the personality [of those in charge] more than anything else.”

Previous roles in Pin Cushion (2017), Dagenham (2018), Sex Education (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020) have all been headed by women directors, and Newmark reveals, “I’ve certainly worked on an independent film set (with male directors) where it’s felt like walking into a frat house and I haven’t been taken seriously.”

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

And isn’t that the baseline in work and in life, to be taken seriously? Yet, it’s something Newmark seems to battle with off screen, too. The pressure to prove one’s seriousness on all things serious is informed by a very actor-specific struggle to be taken seriously. “I have been going to the BLM protests and trying to stay on top of online activism in terms of signing petitions and sharing information. It’s a tricky balance … I hugely want to show my support and to learn without it being egocentric. It’s not virtue signalling. It’s not performative. All I can do is try my hardest to stay authentic.”

People are a tough crowd, but Newmark seems to have made her peace with that. “I’ve always been drawn to animals, anyway.”

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

Lily Newmark. Photograph: Rosaline Shahnavaz

by Charlie Navin-Holder

Photographer ROSALINE SHAHNAVAZ

Fashion Director KATIE FELSTEAD

Make up NANCY SUMNER at EIGHTEEN MANAGEMENT using CHANEL Le Rouge DuoTenue and CHANEL Le Lift Crème Nuit

Hair AKIKO KAWASAKI at EIGHTEEN MANAGEMENT using BUMBLE ANDBUMBLE

Manicurist JESSICA THOMPSON at EIGHTEEN MANAGEMENT using CHANEL Le Vernis inBallerina and CHANEL La Crème Main

Photography assistant TOM PORTER

Styling assistant LILY RIMMER

Talent LILY NEWMARK

Special thanks to MUSE STUDIO

Clothing Credits:

LOOK 1

Jewellery: Chanel
Dress: Simone Rocha

LOOK 2

Dress: Rejina Pyo
Shoes: Ganni

LOOK 3

Jewellery: Chanel
Clothes: 16Arlington

LOOK 4

Clothing: A.W.A.K.E Mode
Shoes: Gina

LOOK 5

Clothing: Christopher Kane
Shoes: Rejina Pyo

LOOK 6

Clothing: Emilia Wickstead

LOOK 7

Clothing: Alessandra Rich

LOOK 8

Dress: Simone Rocha
Shoes: Gina

The post Glass interviews British actor Lily Newmark first appeared on The Glass Magazine.