This post is a place for collecting all the interesting projects I’ve found in the UK and Europe that showcase arts and culture from the Arab world. More to follow…
London Mosaic Rooms
Algerian Coffee Stores
Arab British Centre
Nour Festival of Arts (annual)
Paris L’Institut du monde arabe
Arabic Bookstore La Librairie Avicenne (Near Metro Station Jussieu)
From Couronne Metro Station, you can see a street that goes down, and is full of bookshops.
Bonjour!
As you may know, I’m helping lead a discussion on GoodReads about The Time of White Horses by Ibrahim Nasrallah. Then my husband recently introduced me to the music of Nolwenn Leroy, a French singer inspired by Breton and Celtic culture. I enjoyed this song so much, that I ended up translating it (video also embedded below). It’s a 15th century song from Brittany, in northwest France.
The mare of Michao
Today I attended the dissertation defense of my friend Ben Koerber. His book-in-progress is titled:
The Aesthetics and Politics of Rumor in Egyptian Public Culture
Although he identifies many kinds of rumors, they are all kinds of tales that are unauthorized by authorities–they are disturbances in symbolic systems (such as a political order). Rumor is the collapse of fiction and reality. It operates as a site of culture and discourse, much like other literary genres, but it remains anonymous, its authors generally unseen.
YA Arabic Fantasy Fiction I recommend anything by Ahmed Salah Al Mahdi, a bright new talent in the Arab World. I’ve dedicated another post to his work here.
Sonia Nimr’s middle-grade novel طائر الرعد / Thunderbird – See here for Marcia Lynx Qualey’s interview with the author. Qualey’s recommendation of طائر الرعد / Thunderbird in the third Bulaq podcast won me over! Arabic review by Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi here. Available in 2022 in English (from Amazon and other booksellers).
YA Arabic Fantasy Fiction I recommend anything by Ahmed Salah Al Mahdi, a bright new talent in the Arab World. I’ve dedicated another post to his work here.
Sonia Nimr’s middle-grade novel طائر الرعد / Thunderbird – See here for Marcia Lynx Qualey’s interview with the author. Qualey’s recommendation of طائر الرعد / Thunderbird in the third Bulaq podcast won me over! Arabic review by Ahmed Salah Al-Mahdi here. Available in 2022 in English (from Amazon and other booksellers).
Paintings by English book illustrator Arthur Rackham
Films by Japanese artist Hayao Miyazaki
Fantasy novels and short stories around the world
Illustrations by American book designer Thomas Canty
Arabic folk hero Antar. Film on YouTube here (in Arabic). Margari Aziza wrote about her discovery of Antar.
Egyptian feminist working group, Women & Memory Forum, published a collection of re-tellings and re-imaginings of folktales and old Arabic stories
Statues depicting Shahrazad and other characters of الف ليلة ولية / One Thousand and One Nights by ‘Sculptor of Baghdad’ Mohammed Ghani Hikmat
