Banu Ozden represented the TCF Culinary Arts Center-YESAM on a speaking tour in the United States in April, organized by American Friends of Turkey. She gave her presentation titled “Exploring Turkey’s Culinary Heritage” at the North Carolina State Museum of History, to students chefs at the Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, and to members of Les Madames d’Escoffier, an organization of women chefs and culinary experts, in Washington, D.C.. Ms. Ozden was also a panelist at the Roger Smith Food Conference in New York where she presented on “Olive Oil Extraction Techniques in Western Anatolia throughout history.”

On April 16, YESAM hosted a lecture by Sommelier Murat Yanki on “The History of Wine in Anatolia.”  All YESAM lectures are periodically uploaded to the TCF Video Gallery. The latest video additions are: "Boza" by Sadik Vefa and "Paflagonya Lezzetleri" by Ibrahim Canbulat. Meanwhile, Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month, which features a recipe for Almond Stew with Lamb for April.

The 2013-2014 season of the TCF Lecture Series in Turkish Culture and Art held at the TCF Istanbul offices concluded with a lecture by  Prof.Dr.Nurhan Atasoy on “Turkish Lifestyle at the Dolmabahce Palace.” The lecture can be viewed online at the TCF Video Gallery.

Emine Torgan, an expert at the TCF Cultural Heritage Preservation and Natural Dyes Laboratory-DATU will speak on “Reviving Natural Dyes” at Arel University in Istanbul on April 24.

TCF provided a grant to Humanities West in support of a lecture and performance series on the history of Baghdad. The event will take place at the Marines’ Memorial Theater on April 25-26.

TCF awarded a grant to the Glass Furnace Foundation in Istanbul to provide scholarships to two young glass artists, Gozde Eskazan and Liliya Pangelova. The scholarships underwrite the artists’ participation in the Foundation’s ateliers which feature world renowned glass artists.

Since its inception, TCF has underwritten the Annual Turkish Music Institute Workshop organized by Makam New York. The third workshop will take place on May 2-6 at Columbia University and offer four classes taught by master teachers of Turkish music. The TCF grant also underwrites a concert on May 2 at Symphony Space in NYC.

TCF has provided a major grant to the American Turkish Society’s Moon and Stars Project, underwriting the 13th New York Turkish Film Festival. The Festival will take place on May 16-25 and feature seven Turkish films,  a Short Film Collection and Documentaries. TCF has supported the expansion of the New York Turkish Film Festival to other U.S. cities since 2007, which resulted in the launch of Turkish film festivals in Seattle, Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee.

For the first time, TCF provided a grant to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to support the 2nd Turkish Film Festival. With a sold-out opening night, the festival featured 13 Turkish films and took place on April 11-13.

The 6th Annual Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival took place on April 13 at the Page-Walker Art and History Center in Cary, North Carolina. Sponsored since its inception by TCF, the Festival is organized by the American Turkish Association of North Carolina. This year’s festival honored the Irish poet Seamus Heaney. The preceding poetry competition received submissions from 365 poets and the winners of the competition were featured at the festival, in addition to the contributors of the Turkish poetry translation initiative. The translation initiative resulted in the translation into English of poems by Melih Cevdet Anday by Sidney Wade and Efe Murad; Sami Baydar by Murat Nemet-Nejat; Behcet Necatigil by Hatice Orun and Jeffrey Kahrs and Murathan Mungan by Aron Aji and David Gramling.

Three experts of the Topkapi Palace Museum were awarded the TCF Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art in April to present their papers at the II. International Turkic Arts, History and Folklore Congress held in Sarajevo, Bosnia on April 5-10. Dr. Canan Cimilli, a curator of the Harem Section, presented a paper on “Education and life of women of the Harem and the wall writings in the Topkapi Palace Harem.” Serkan Geduk, Art Historian, restoration expert and curator of the Chinese and Japanese Porcelain section presented a paper on “Turkish Ornaments on Chinese Porcelain.”  Deniz Balkan, restoration expert participated in the Congress with his paper on “New Findings of the 2010-2013 Restoration of the Imperial Hall.” For detailed eligibility and application information for the TCF Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art, please visit the TCF website.

Alpaslan Ucar (TCF Academic Fellow-2008) gave a talk about “Roy Lichtenstein" on April 4 and “Beyond Glamour: Haute Couture" on April 18 at Abant Izzet Baysal University in Bolu. Dr. Lilyana Stankova (TCF Academic Fellow-2013) gave a lecture on "L'orfèvrerie ecclésiastique en relation avec l'esthétique ottomane: approche méthodlogique" at College de France on April 11 and Aylin de Tapia (TCF Academic Fellow-2013) presented her PhD Workshop "Christians and Muslims in nineteenth-century: approaching notions of ‘coexistence’ through written and oral sources” at IFEA-Istanbul on April 17-18.

The 13th Boston Turkish Film and Music Festival organized by the Turkish American Cultural Society of New England-TACSNE with support from a major grant from TCF is currently underway. The Festival is co-presented with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Goethe Institute, and concludes on April 26, featuring 20 films and many musical performances.