Origins

Why do brands misunderstand the Middle Eastern consumer? It’s a question we’re tackling head-on in this episode of Firsts.Deena is joined by Philippa Morgan, Executive Director of International Markets at Dazed Media and Creative Strategy Director + Lead Editor at Deenathe1st. Wi ... Show More

In this episode of Firsts, Deena delves into the impact of music videos on her life and on the broader cultural landscape. She recalls the 80s and 90s era of MTV, highlighting this new creative frontier that captivated her, particularly through the videos of Duran Duran, Don Henl ... Show More

What does the evolution of a designer look like? How do designers find their DNA? For designer Mary Katrantzou, who started off by pursuing a career in architecture and interior design and then found fashion as her medium of expression, her journey led to her breakout collection ... Show More

Fadi Bou Karam talks about the history of Levantine etymologies and their possible origins. He discusses the influence of the Ottomans on the way certain words are pronounced, notably in Lebanese Arabic. The words include fruits and vegetables, such as artichoke, orange, loquat & ... Show More

What does it mean to create art under a brutal colonial system? To make beauty in the midst of struggle? In this episode, Palestinian visual artist Nabil Anani reflects on the First Intifada and the experimental spirit it sparked. He shares why art must be rooted in its environme ... Show More

In this Matbakh event, we talked to Kamal Mouzawak about how he founded the first farmers market in Lebanon, leading a social and environmental change and transformation. Kamal, through Souk El Tayeb, had the vision of celebrating food and traditions that unite communities and pr ... Show More

In this Conversation, we talked to Linda K. Jacobs about her interest in promoting Middle Eastern culture and knowledge in the United States. Having all four of her grandparents’ members of the New York Syrian Colony, Linda is at work on a study of all the Syrian colonies in the ... Show More

The Syrian writer and political theorist, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, has lived a remarkable life. As a student activist affiliated with one of Syria's communist parties, Yassin spent 16 years in Hafez al Assad's prisons. Then, shortly after the revolution of 2011, Yassin's wife, Samira ... Show More

On this video recorded episode of Kalam, Edgar sits with the Gazan poet and very much a friend of the podcast, Mosab Abu Toha, for a discussion about, among other things, the history of Arabic poetry. Why are poets so venerated in the Arab world, and what did poetry sound like be ... Show More

In this Matbakh event, we talked to Charles Perry about his career as a translator of several medieval cookbooks from Arabic to English and published widely on the history of food. In 2005 Perry translated from Arabic A Baghdad Cookery Book, also known as Al-Baghdadi’s Kitab al-T ... Show More

Kevin Jones talked about poetry in the Middle East and his book, The Dangers of Poetry, which is the first book to narrate the social history of poetry in the region through their function as social acts that critically shaped the cultural politics of revolutionary Iraq.Kevin Jon ... Show More

This episode was recorded on July 10th, 2024.Check out Sonja's reading recommendations for Palestinian literature from the 20th Century 👉https://www.afikra.com/daftarjournal/sonja-mejcher-atassi-book-recommendationsAnd dive deeper into the history of the King David Hotel 👉https ... Show More

In this episode of Ehkili, we speak with Reem Khorshid and Faris Bseiso about their literary project Mudun, published by Kaph Books and supported by the Barjeel Art Foundation. They trace the origins of this anthology of short stories about Arab cities, which began as a pandemic ... Show More