North Dakota radio personality tours Norway, brings listeners along

Scott Hennen, a popular radio personality based in North Dakota, finds himself far from home on a Juven tour of Norway. The tour takes Americans, mostly with North Dakota and Minnesota roots, on tours throughout the country and helps to connect them with family and ancestral homes. Tourists also get to explore the Norwegian countryside …

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SERVING UP YOUR BIAS AT THE BIAS BAR

An unusual bar is serving up biases and its patrons are sending their own biases right back. The bar is the Bias Bar, an interactive exhibit at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway. It shares space on the first floor with Detours, an exhibition about people who find themselves forcibly displaced from their homes. …

FORMER NAZI BUNKER NOW SERVES AS LEARNING TOOL

BY NICOLE GARDNER In the years since the end of WWII, little has ever been recognized in history books about one of the most important places in Nazi-occupied Europe: Norway. The Norwegians themselves don’t often acknowledge it, since it is collectively seen as a glaring blemish on Norwegian history, and justifiably so. What is now …

CAN JESUS COME BACK TO NORWAY?

BY ANGIE PEREZ Religious affiliation in Norway has been on a steady decline in recent decades. For the first time ever atheists slightly outnumber believers, demonstrating modern society’s move toward secularization. According to Norway’s Ipsos MMI 2016 social-cultural survey, 39 percent of Norwegians who were asked about their faith considered themselves atheist, 37 percent confirmed …

OSLO PRIDE MARCHES ON

Oslo Pride 2016 marches on in the wake of the Orlando tragedy, with a message of solidarity and a determination to celebrate acceptance and equality. “It’s been a couple of very intense days,” Petter Ruud-Johansen, information officer for Oslo Pride 2016, said about the effect the shooting has had on the festival starting this Friday. …

MURAL ARTIST CASSIUS FADLABI

BY KAITLYN HUSS Our interview started in front of a mural that filled the entire side of a building. Brilliant with an electric blue background, the piece featured a Somalian man dressed in a spacesuit. Its creator, Cassius Erixon Fadlabi, posed for a photo in front of it with his arms crossed over his chest …

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

A need has developed in the LGBT community recently, both politically and personally. They are looking for solidarity, for a symbol of togetherness and progression in the face of adversity. The Oslo Fagottkor may be the answer, whether they like it or not. Oslo Fagottkor can be simply explained as a gay men’s choir located …

PRIDE COMES TO A CLOSE

  By Amy Venn The Oslo Pride Parade broke its own record Saturday with 104 organizations, an increase of 34 from the previous record. 30,000-plus individuals participated in the march, and another 30,000-plus lined the streets of downtown Oslo, according to the newspaper Dagbladat. The 2016 Oslo Pride Festival theme was solidarity, and organizers recognized …

​ROBERT BIEDRON ON POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Within the confines of the typically left-leaning liberal European governments lies a country in a bitter battle with the ultra-conservative right. Robert Biedron, a former parliament member and current mayor of Slupsk, entered the Polish political arena in 2011 as the first openly gay elected official in all of Eastern Europe. He’s been chipping away …

​INTEGRATION ESSENTIAL: NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE SCHOOL ALFASKOLEN

BY LOGAN HARLE Alfaskolen is a private language school in the city of Oslo that is entering its tenth year this coming September. The school teaches a range of students from 18 to over 40 years of age and offers language classes as well as social studies courses. A professor at Alfaskolen, Lene Ness, said …