Plays by Rama Haydar & Bashar Murkus

May 10, 2017 by Tasnim

As part of the 2017 PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, The Segal Center is showcasing play readings by nine dramatists, including the following two plays by Rama Haydar and Bashar Murkus.       Desert of Light Written by Rama Haydar (Syria) Translated by Rama Haydar & Rebekah Maggor Directed by Rebekah Maggor Discussion moderated by Frank Hentschker, Marvin Carlson As the brutal siege rages outside, two Palestinian refugees debate the best plan of escape. Set outside Damascus in […]

Categories: Art, Theatre • Tags: Bashar Murkus, Palestine, Rama Haydar, Syria

Focus Young Arab Choreographers Opens May 25

May 9, 2017 by Tasnim

Focus Young Arab Choreographers is a project is supported by the Italian culture ministry and eleven different dance festivals in Italy.  The aim is to promote cultural dialogue and exchange between Arab and Italian artists and choreographers. The programme opens May 25 and runs until September 23. Six young choreographers from the Arab world will present their work in different venues in Italy. Three of the choreographers are from Lebanon, the other three are from Tunisia, Egypt and Palestine.   […]

Categories: Dance • Tags: Bassam Abou Diab, Egypt, Guy Nader, Hamdi Dridi, Italy, Jadd Tank, Lebanon, Mounir Saeed, Palestine, Sharif Dar Zaid, Tunisia

“On Arab Geographies”: Film Screenings in Abu Dhabi, May 4-6

April 28, 2017 by Tasnim

 ‘On Arab Geographies’  brings together screenings of eight critically-acclaimed contemporary Arab films from across the region, as well as Q&A sessions and panel discussions on filmmaking in the region. The program runs from May 4-6. See the full schedule here. It is curated by Rabih El Khoury, who described it as a “travelogue”: “This program aims to be a travelogue throughout the Arab world and beyond. A journey that is not only shaped by mobility and movement within a set of geographical entities, but also […]

Categories: Documentary, Film • Tags: Armenian, Egypt, Emirates, geographies, Sudan, Syria

Readings of Plays by Yusuf Idris, Issam Mahfouz and Sa’dallah Wannous

April 27, 2017 by Tasnim

    On April 19th, The Segal Center put on evening readings of plays Arab “classic plays” by Yusuf Idris, Issam Mahfouz and Sa’dallah Wannous who are described as “some of the Arab world’s most renowned playwrights” though “relatively unknown to the Western world.” As the advertising of the event goes on to say, “Their complex and nuanced plays address the timeless issues of power and politics in ways that deeply resonate with our own situation.” The event was curated by […]

Categories: Art

Sinan Antoon in Stockholm: Translation and Literature of/on Iraq

November 11, 2016 by Tasnim

Crossposted on Arablit. On October 19th, Iraqi writer and literary translator Sinan Antoon visited Stockholm University for an afternoon lecture entitled “Living Here and There: Travel and Exile in Arabic Literature.” Antoon’s talk was attended by an interesting mix of Swedish Arabic-language teachers and students, and some Arab exiles and “in-betweeners,” those who are neither fully at home in their countries of origin (having left those countries too young) nor fully comfortable in an established diaspora community (having arrived here […]

Categories: Art

Hello Again

November 11, 2016 by Tasnim

I’m back! After having taken the last five months off to work on the final stages of my phd, I’m so happy to have successfully defended my thesis, and look forward to getting back to the blog and exporing what’s new. So stay tuned for more posts in the coming days. If you’re interested in what exactly I’ve been writing about (and the impetus for starting this blog back in 2012), here is the title and abstract of my dissertation: […]

Categories: Art

Hiatus

March 31, 2016 by Tasnim

I’m taking a short break from the blog. I will be defending my Phd dissertation in June, so the next two months are crisis time for me. Edit: postponed till September! Things will be slower than normal around here until then. The  Arab Hyphen facebook page will continue though, be sure to check it out for the latest news on art, film, literature and music from the Arab world/MENA/WANA/NAWA/whatever you want to call the region 🙂    

Categories: Art

Symbolic Cities: The Photography of Ahmed Mater

March 16, 2016 by Tasnim

Ahmed Mater’s first US exhibition, focusing on his landscape photography on the impact of urbanisation and the rapid change that Saudi Arabia has experienced, will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery from March 19–Sept. 18. The exhibition, curated by Carol Huh,  includes “Empty Land,” a series of aerial photographs, “Desert of Pharan” (2011-13) which focuses on the redevelopment around Mecca, and “Ashab Al-Lal/Fault Mirage” (2015), which examines the confluence of religion and urbanisation in recent history.   There’s a program of […]

Categories: Art, Photography • Tags: Ahmed Mater, Saudi Arabia

Remediating Fairuz

March 9, 2016 by Tasnim

The short film Alia directed by Raghed Charabaty is a “haunting and poetic glimpse into the flashpoint that started the Lebanese Civil War.” In the film, a man reminisces about Alia and “the last few moments before the death of his beloved” which are imagined as marking the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. The monologue is spoken like a poem and references the famous song, To The Hum of The Bus ع هدير البوسطة, complete with the dark eyed Alia, the lettuce and fig eating and […]

Categories: Art, Film, Music • Tags: Fairouz, Lebanon, Raghed Charabaty, Ziad Rahbani

Egyptian Arts Festival D-Caf (March 31- April 22)

March 6, 2016 by Tasnim

D-Caf (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival)  returns for its fifth edition on March 31 running until April 22. “Egypt’s only international multi-disciplinary contemporary arts festival,” D-CAF has everything from literature readings to concerts, to film and theatre, comedy stand up and a puppet show. Dina El Wedidi and Khansa Batma open the show with a concert at Horreya Garden. The music program focuses on North Africa, and features Egyptian composer Bahaa El Ansary, Arabstazyfrom Tunisia, Ahmed Elseweasy and Abdelbaset Hammouda.    In the performing arts section, Egyptian […]

Categories: Art, Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Theatre • Tags: Arabstazy, Bahaa El Ansary, Danya Hammoud, Ezzat Ezzat, Fouad Nafili, Hassan El Greatly, Laila Soliman, Shaymaa Shoukry, Tania El Khoury, Youness Khoukhou

Al Hangar and the New Generation of Saudi Artists

March 2, 2016 by Tasnim

Myrna Award writes about  Al Hangar (The Warehouse) an initiative by young Saudi artists, who describe it as a cultural movement which aims to “ignite a sense of community.” Artists are individually invited to show work at Al Hangar, similarly to a biennial. And so far, they’ve been inundated with requests to participate, an indication of both the buzz around the alternative space, and the growing energy around Saudi’s art scene. The initiative is led by Ramy Alquthamy and Nasser Al Salem who hope […]

Categories: Art, Sculptor/Installation Art • Tags: Abdulnasser Gharem, Ajlan Gharem, Nasser Al-Salem, Saudi Arabia, Shaweesh

Museum of Lost Objects

March 1, 2016 by Tasnim

BBC Radio 4 has a series called The Museum of Lost Objects presented by Kanishk Tharoor, and produced by Maryam Maruf which “traces the stories of 10 antiquities or ancient sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria.” There are currently five episodes available to listen to or download, and you can subscribe to the podcast here.  One of the episodes is on the Temple of Bel, demolished by ISIS in August 2015. In this BBC article on Palmyra’s history and what […]

Categories: Art • Tags: archeology, heritage, history, Iraq, ISIS, memory, nostalgia, Palmyra, Syria

Luxor African Film Festival

February 26, 2016 by Tasnim

The 5th edition of Luxor African Film Festival (LAFF) is scheduled to run between 17-23 March.  The festival was established to remedy the lack of attention paid to African films in Egypt, with Luxor chosen to “de-centralize cultural or artistic events always organized in Cairo and Alexandria” This year LAFF is honoring Omar Sharif, who passed away on the 10th of July 2015. Along with dedicating this year’s festival to the memory of Sharif, the organization will release Omar Sharif […]

Categories: Film • Tags: Algeria, Egypt, Ghalia Ben Ali, Hamid Benamra, Hassen Ferhani, Hicham Elladdaqi, Hicham Lasri, Islam Kamal, Luxor African Film Festival, Mahmoud Soliman, Maysoon El Massry, Mohamed Hisham, Mohamed Kamel, Mohamed Khan, Mohamed Zran, Morocco, Omar Sharif, Raja Sediki, Tunisia

The Oscars and the Berlinale

February 25, 2016 by Tasnim

With the 88th Academy Awards ceremony to take place this Sunday, Al Bawaba looks back at nine films from the region to be nominated for an Oscar, including Hany Abu Assad’s Paradise Now (2005) and Omar (2013), and Rachid Bouchareb’s Days of Glory (2006) and Outside the Law (2010), but also Incendies (2010), adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play. This year Basil Khalil’s short Ave Maria, which “takes a comedic look at an encounter between a Jewish settler family and Palestinian […]

Categories: Film • Tags: Algeria, Basil Khalil, Canada, Egypt, Hany Abu-Assad, Lebanon, Mahdi Fleifel, Maher Abi Samra, Mahmoud Sabbagh, Mohamed Ben Attia, Palestine, Rachid Bouchareb, Saudi Arabia, Tamer El Said, Tunisia, Wajdi Mouawad

Live Ideas Festival: MENA/Future – Cultural Transformations

February 24, 2016 by Tasnim

This year the Live Ideas festival in New York, running until May 26, focuses on the MENA region in a series of events including an Emel Mathlouthi Concert on March 15th, and a conversation with Aileen Agopian, Senior International Contemporary Art Specialist at Sotheby’s on March 8. The festival will bring together 45 artists from North Africa and the Middle East. The full program can be found here. Exploring cultural transformations in real time in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) […]

Categories: Art

Revolutionary Voices, Stockholm, March 2-8

February 22, 2016 by Tasnim

Re:Orient in Stockholm, which arranges cultural events focusing on the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, is celebrating Music Freedom Day as well as International Women’s Day  with their week long Revolutionary Voices program from March 2-8. The program includes documentary screenings, a couple of panels and a concert, featuring Rim Banna, Tania Saleh, Dina El Wedidi and more. The week long program begins with the documentary On The Banks Of The Tigris where Majid Shokor, an Iraqi living in […]

Categories: Documentary, Film, Music • Tags: Dina El Wedidi, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Majid Shokor, Palestine, Rim Banna, Syria, Tania Saleh, Yasmin Fedda

Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb After the BAFTA

February 22, 2016 by Tasnim

Naji Abu Nowar‘s “Bedouin spaghetti western” Theeb (2014) is in the news again, only now it is the “BAFTA-winning, and Oscar nominated, Theeb.” Theeb is  “one of only 10 films from the MENA region to have been nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film since 1947, and of the 112 films submitted for the category from MENA, only two have ever come from Jordan.” In a recent interview, Abu Nowar discusses the effect of the Oscar nomination as potentially […]

Categories: Film • Tags: Algeria, BAFTA, Hany Abu-Assad, Jordan, Naji Abu Nowar, Oscars, Palestine, Rachid Bouchareb

Saturday Night Live in Arabic

February 20, 2016 by Tasnim

Madam Mazen writes about a new Arabic version of SNL, to be broadcast by the satellite service OSN, with the first episode featuring Egyptian actress/comedian Donia Samir Ghanem. The new program comes in the wake of El Bernameg, hosted by Bassem Youssef aka “Egypt’s Jon Stewart”, taken off air for being too incisive (and red line crossing) in its satire. Apparently Bassem Youssef was asked to host the show but backed out. However two former members of El Bernameg, Khaled Mansour and Shady […]

Categories: Television

Dabke Inspired Dance: Badke in Toronto

February 20, 2016 by Tasnim

The Belgian-Palestinian dance production Badke (the title is a play on dabke) is running until Feb. 20 at the Fleck Dance Theatre in Toronto (harbourfrontcentre.com). A co-production between ballets C de la B, KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre) and the Palestinian A.M. Qattan Foundation, Badke is a 10-dancer piece inspired by dabke, an Arab folk dance from the Levant. Choreographed and directed by Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres Guerrero and Hildegard De Vuyst, the work infuses a traditional line dance with acrobatic tumbling, hip […]

Categories: Art, Dance • Tags: Badke, Dabke, Levant

Mahmoud Sabbagh’s Barakah Meets Barakah

February 18, 2016 by Tasnim

Mahmoud Sabbagh’s Barakah Meets Barakah has been described as conventional in form, unconventional in setting. Surely one of the more conventional films ever to enjoy a premiere at the Berlinale’s risk-embracing Forum parallel section, it’s of considerable interest as a very rare cinematic export from a country where nearly all manifestations of cinema have been officially banned since 1979. Like  Tunisian film Inhebbek Hedi  by Mohamed Ben Attia, which has been described as “a conventional story about a young man […]

Categories: Film • Tags: Berlinale, Egypt, Mahmoud Sabbagh, Mohamed Ben Attia, Saudi Arabia, Tamer El Said, Tunisia

Twins Cartoon at DesignIndaba 2016

February 18, 2016 by Tasnim

DesignIndaba 2016 is running from the 17th to the 19th of February in Cape Town. Among the presentations is a talk by artists Mohamed and Haitham Rafat Elseht, “the twins at the heart of comic culture in Cairo” who appear under the name Twins Cartoon. See the full progam here. The twins have been interviewed a number of times by Design Indaba, and were recently interviewed by Herman Manson (@marklives) who asked them about their style, their talk at the […]

Categories: Art, Comics • Tags: DesignIndaba, Twins Cartoon