Oppression is not a point of view
Cultural producers who gained fame after the revolution Sunday, January 25, 2015 – 09:53 By: Rowan El Shimi; Laura Gribbon; Amany Ali Shawky We take a look at the trajectories of four cultural producers who gained fame during or after the January 25 revolution and find out what they’re doing now. Youssra El Hawary (by Rowan El Shimi) The first time I saw Youssra El Hawary
» Read moreCourageous Egyptian writer, academic and translator known for her Granada trilogy Marina Warner Monday 8 December 2014 Radwa Ashour was a powerful voice among Egyptian writers of the postwar generation and a writer of exceptional integrity and courage. Her work consistently engages with her country’s history and reflects passionately upon it. “I am an Arab woman and a citizen of
» Read moreSoraya Morayef / 18 Nov 2014 Comic magazines Samir, Lulu and Mickey Geeb (Pocket-sized Mickey) and Arabic translations of Tintin, Superman and Asterix and Obelix have been read and loved by generations of Arabs. Editorial cartoons are fundamental parts of every daily newspaper. But comic art remains an often unexamined and under-supported part of Arab artistic effort. A new initiative is intent on changing that. In September, the American
» Read moreBy: Sultan Al Qassemi 31 October 2014 Egyptian artists were deeply involved in spearheading, capturing, and influencing the January 2011 uprising. In fact, the artistic community lost one of its own when 32-year-old Ahmed Bassiouny died in the early days of the uprising while taking part in the protests. For four days, the contemporary digital artist and experimental musician documented the protests in
» Read moreMarcia Lynx Qualey Last updated: 28 September 2014 Why are gentleman-thieves and murder mysteries making a comeback in Arabic popular fiction? When Egyptian novelist and photographer Ahmed Mourad was asked earlier this year, why so few Egyptians were writing crime novels, he said that the genre was new, “and anything new is usually accompanied by a lot of attack and criticism”. Then
» Read moreThe neo-noir revolution in the Arab world might be seen as nostalgic, but it allows writers to act as ombudsmen in the current political climate Jonathan Guyer Friday 3 October 2014 From Baghdad to Cairo, a neo-noir revolution has been creeping across the Middle East. The revival of crime fiction since the upheavals started in 2011 should not come
» Read moreM. Lynx Qualey Fourteen hundred years ago and more, the poet-prince Imru’ al-Qais was banished by his father. The king exiled his son, or so the legend goes, in part because of the prince’s poetry. Thus it was that, when the king was killed by a group of his subjects, al-Qais was traveling with friends. Al-Qais returned to avenge his
» Read moreAUGUST 26, 2014 EUGENE WOLTERS In 1979, Edward Said was invited by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir to France for a conference on Middle East peace. It was in the wake of the Camp David Accords that ended the war between Egypt and Israel, that the author of “Orientalism” and ardent supporter of the Palestinian people, was invited to contribute with other
» Read moreAugust 20, 2014 | by Jonathan Guyer Cairo: the metal detector beeps. The security man wears a crisp white uniform. He nods and leans back in his chair. The lobby’s red oriental carpet, so worn it’s barely red, leads upstairs to the hotel tavern. Enter the glass doors, where a cat in a smart bow tie and vest reaches for a lonely
» Read moreGraffiti artists face threats of violence, and the potential of jail time and fines under a proposed draft law By Shahira Amin / 22 August, 2014 Before the January 2011 uprising, street art was little known in Egypt. Then came the revolution and with it, an outburst of creativity. With the fall of the authoritarian regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian artists who
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