Oppression is not a point of view
By Soraya Morayef Jadaliyya, 22 May 2012 Around the corner from Tahrir Square, the heart of Egypt’s eighteen-day uprising, Mohamed Mahmud Street bears the scars of a turbulent political year in Egypt. The once-bustling street off of Tahrir Square has seen its share of violent battlefields–beginning with 28 January 2011 and ending with the February 2012 clashes following the Port
» Read moreEgypt Independent Mohamed Mostafa Egypt’s customs services in Alexandria have seized 400 copies of “Walls of Freedom”, a book depicting Egypt’s street graffitti art in the context of the 2011 uprising, for “instigating revolt,” says the Finance Ministry. Ahmed al-Sayyad, the ministry’s undersecretary, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the book contains elements that give “advice on confronting police and army forces,”
» Read moreBy Mona Abaza, 25 January 2015 Clearly Cairene graffiti has lost momentum during this year. Having been the faithful barometer of the revolution over the past three years, graffiti has recently faced transmutations and drawbacks that run parallel with the political process of restoring “order” in the street. The heartbreaking story of the recent death of a cheerful and bright
» Read moreCultural 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 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 moreSep 05 2014 The 2011 revolutionary uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa abruptly captured global attention as the world was drawn breathlessly into the tumult with a profusion of media content, from Tweets to amateur video footage. Amidst the media blitz, analyses yielded two conflated and reactionary narratives of events. One contended that the popular protests of the
» Read moreby Hannah Elansary Sept 01 2014 The graffiti and street art of revolutionary Egypt have been researched many times over by now.Journalists and scholars have explored the phenomenon in its many aspects—as evolving visual text, as political rhetoric and as an act of protest in its own right. The claims about the protest street art and graffiti that have proliferated across public Egyptian walls since 2011 have been
» 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
» Read moreBy Omar Robert Hamilton Tuesday, December 24, 2013 – 01:14 The light is different in Zeinhom. The narrow street, arching trees and gentle slope of one of Cairo’s only hills combine to soften the bright, direct light that casts the city in her familiar monochrome. The light comes at you at an angle. Maybe it’s the hill. Or maybe it’s
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