Rest in Peace Mai Skaf: Death of Exiled Artist Mirrors Syria’s Dying Revolution

By Elie Chalala

As an editor of an arts and cultural magazine, I could not help but closely follow the views and activities of two Syrian activist artists, actress Mai Skaf and poet Fadwa Suleiman, since the onset of the Syrian revolution. Both passing away while living in exile in France, Suleiman lost her battle with cancer on August 17, 2017 at the age of 47 years, and Skaf passed away by an acute brain hemorrhage on July 23 of this year at the age of 49 years.

Essays and Features

The Western Connection: How the Romanticism of Gibran & Rihani Hooked Up With Naimy’s Critical Realism to Engender a New Arab Literature

By Michael Najjar


Gibran, Rihani and Naimy: East-West Interactions in Early Twentieth-Century Arab Literature
By Aida Imangulieva, translated by Robin Thomson
Anqa Publishing, 2009

Aida Imangulieva’s book “Gibran, Rihani & Naimy: East-West Interactions in Early Twentieth-Century Arab Literature” is a translation of the Russian version, which was published shortly before her death in 1992. It focuses on three of the most prominent members of what Imangulieva calls “the Syrio-American School,” named after the then-Syrian immigrant writers who left their homeland (now Lebanon).

Books

The Silence

By Riyadh Al-Saleh Al-Hussein

In the evening, the men came tired from the pasture;
in the evening, the women came tired from the fields.
The men’s hearts hovered on the verge of failing,
and the women’s eyes on the verge of tears. 
In the evening, they came and danced till the morning. 
The wound became a song,
and fatigue a flute. 
But a certain man remained seated in the corner, 
the rifle between his hands like a snake,
and life in his eyes a time of clay.
The man, who just looks silently,
doesn’t seem to be watching television, 
or dreaming,
or sleeping. 
The wretch…
What is he thinking of?
Poetry

Echoes

By Farag Bayrakdar

For Samira al-Khalil
 
Her voice descends lightly
Down the steps of the dungeon, and she still lies in pain
In the interrogation room.
And I descend lightly,
That blanket carried by two
Who go astray.
Am I in it, or is she?
What lies in my body revives her weary voice;
What lies in her voice revives my weary body.
What revives fire?
She was not a condition or a description,
But I call her by many names.
The echo has their wings fluttering around me:
Samira....ra….Samira…ra, Samiraaa
A name does not confine its bearer even if desired
But the place…
Confined in the torture rooms of Palestine Division,
So did it confine her.
Or those women or men, together
The plain of Duma, free, with eyelids defeated,
Her voice comes.
I see several doves
As if once upon a time.
I see several clouds.
Her voice comes,
As if, oh time, Syria, a dream and a people, will live.
Oh time, she will live.
Poetry

Jalal Khoury (1933-2017): Brechtian Realist Forged by 1967 War, and the Birth of Modern Lebanese Theater

By Elie Chalala

While the Lebanese theater traces back to the 1800s, specifically to 1848 and to Maroun Nakash, it has evolved in stages. Jalal Khoury helped to pioneer the realist, or modernist, movement from the mid-1960s until his death last December at the age of 84. 

Essays and Features

The Passing of Two Women, Very Different, But Bonded By Their Search For Peace

By 
the Editors


Two strong women’s lives never crisscrossed, coming from different worlds, politically, socially and economically, yet their missions in life were somewhat similar. Kathy Kriger and Hatidza Mehmedovic each worked towards standing up against injustice, in their own ways, regardless of their backgrounds. Kathy Kriger, born Kathleen Anne Kriger, served as the United States’ diplomat in Morocco for several years, living what many would consider a comfortable life in a prestigious position. In the wake of September 11 and the

On Hips and Heritage: Cairo Nativists Object to Invasion of Foreign Belly Dancers!

By 
Naomi Pham

The recent arrest of Russian belly dancer Ekaterina Andreeva, who goes by her stage name Johara, has sparked questions about how to view foreigners participating in this dance career. In his article for the New York Times, Declan Walsh discusses this supposed “sullying” of the Egyptian ancient art form. In Egypt’s current belly-dancing scene, foreigners -- the majority of whom come from America, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Eastern Europe – dominate the ranks and appear among the most well-known dancers in their field. According to Walsh, “The foreigners bring an athletic, high-energy sensibility to the dance, more disco than Arabian Nights. Their sweeping routines contrast with the languid, subtly suggestive style of classic Egyptian stars. Some are overtly sexual.”

‘Egyptian-American’: The Hyphenated Experience

By 
Priscilla Wathington
 
Looking Both Ways
By Pauline Kaldas
Cune Press, 2017
 
Something about Pauline Kaldas’ new memoir makes you feel both adrift and at home – sensations normally at war with each other. Yet, somehow, in her rounded phrases and softly imparted narratives, the elements of surprise and familiarity find balance in each other.
 
Composed of a string of personal essays, her history unfolds over many moments, rather than the narration of a single breath.

‘Traveling Scholar’ Ella Shohat: The Contradictions and Challenges of Being an Arab Jew

As a public intellectual, Ella Shohat has found that her personal history profoundly informs her scholarship. Born in Israel to Iraqi parents who had migrated to that country after 1948, Shohat grew up in an Israeli culture that discriminated against Mizrahi Jews. Living a life of contradictions and tension as an “Arab-Jew” – a person of the Jewish religion whose culture and primary language are Arabic, she has found herself on countless occasions having to explain an identity that seemed like an oxymoron, an impossibility, to academics and others.

Chronicling Syrians’ Personal Stories of Struggle to Reach Safe Refuge

By 
Sarah Rogers

On Friday January 27, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, for a 90-day period, suspended immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States from Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. It also, for a period of 120 days, suspended the Refugee Resettlement Program, placing an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. “Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece” makes clear the plight of Syrian refugees traces back to a much longer and tragic history.


Leaving Syria: Seeking Refuge in Greece
By Bill Dienst, MD and Madi Williamson
Cune Press, 2017

Little Time to Rest: 'Daughters' of Nomads

By 
Pamela Nice

Watching “Daughters of Anatolia,” a film documenting the nomadic lifestyle of goat herders in contemporary Turkey, makes one aware of the value of ethnographic filmography over its drier, academic prose cousin. Describing the migratory path from the Mediterranean Sea to the Taurus Mountains cannot compare with seeing the breath-taking beauty of mountains in bloom as goats scramble over them.

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