Categories
kafala and racism

What it means to be black and African in Lebanon

Raw stories from 21 black African students at the American University of Beirut

Categories
archives

The People Without Cinema, by Abounaddara

“They can only testify to the events they experience by exhibiting the indignity inflicted upon them”

Categories
protests

Open letter to protesters in Hong Kong’s prisons

On the walls of Beirut, in solidarity with protesters in Iraq and Hong Kong. Photo by Joey Ayoub (creative commons)

We heard of efforts to send you Christmas cards and decided to take this opportunity to send you this short letter of support and solidarity.

Categories
archives

Launch of new book of Syrian citizen journalism

Enab Baladi gave a voice to Syria's voiceless during the popular uprising and beyond © Enab Baladi

“Enab Baladi is a unique record of the Syrian people speaking without fear”

Categories
protests

Tripoli, Light of the Revolution

Tripoli on the night of October 22nd, 2019.

Remember and don’t forget its new name, as its light envelops the Lebanese uprising, and it illuminates the whole coast.

Categories
protests

Elias Khoury: Letter to Samir Kassir

From the heart of the October Revolution I write to you my little brother.

Categories
cinema

Rana Eid’s Panoptic: Acoustic Echoes and Resonant Soundscapes 

“Eid’s personal plight, composed as an epistolary address to her deceased father, is entangled with more general symptoms of public paralysis,” writes Saadi Nikro

Categories
archives

Russiagate, Syria, and the Left

By Terry Burke, as part of a decentralized effort to challenge the anglophone institutional left.

Categories
archives

Enab Baladi: Citizen Chronicles of the Syrian Uprising (Free PDF)

Copies of Enab Baladi newspaper’s 45th issue among the debris of a destroyed building in the city of Daraya, rural Damascus (December 2013). Photo credit: Enab Baladi.

Hummus For Thought is pleased to announce the release of “Enab Baladi: Citizen Chronicles of the Syrian Uprising”, available as a free PDF.

Categories
feminism & masculinity

Lebanon’s militarized masculinity

Art by Dima Nachawi. Originally published on Al Jumhuriya.

“It is ‘normal’ to expect outbursts of violence in Lebanon, often coupled with grand displays of toxic masculinity and, often still, with sectarian/conservative pronouncements”

Categories
archives

From ISIS to the Abortion Wars: America We Need to Talk

“I came of age at the height and heart of the “Abortion Wars”—an all-American terrorism campaign waged in the name Christianity”

Categories
archives

An idea called Daraya

This is the story of an idea called Daraya. It is the story of a sick world.

Categories
archives

Listening: The Aural Resonance of a Formless Line

Drawing by John Berger. From his 'Notes on Song'. Source: Harpers.

Norman Saadi Nikro on John Berger’s encounter with a Yasmine Hamdan performance

Categories
cinema

Sleepless Nights: Confessing Without The Confession

Mariam Saiidi with a cardboard of her son, Maher.

“We hear many of these stories in the documentary, stories that exemplify Lebanon’s extraordinary tendency to defy whatever would seem to be in its own self-interest”

Categories
archives

Sarah Al-Otaibi: How Jamal Khasshogi’s murder has set new precedents

Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and murder at the hands of the Saudi regime has set precedents in several ways.

Categories
archives Syria and the Left

Wretched of the Earth: solidarity letters between Syria and Gaza

Original Arabic with English translations below. (left:) من على حدود غزة في جمعة كسر الحصار تحية طيبة للحناجر الثائرة في إدلب التي خرجت تهتف لا دستور و لا أعمار حتى إسقاط بشار و الحرية للمعتقلين... جمعة #الحرية_للمعتقلين جمعة #كسر_الحصار جمعة #لا_دستور_ولا_أعمار_حتى_إسقاط_بشار الحرية للمعتقلين 21 أيلول الجمعة From Gaza's border on the Friday of Breaking the Siege, greetings to the rebellious throats in Idlib who went out and shouted, "No constitution, no reconstruction, until Bashar falls and freedom to the detainees"... Friday of #freedom_to_the_detainees Friday of #break_the_siege Friday of #no_constitution_no_reconstruction_until_Bashar_falls. Freedom to the detainees. 21 September Friday (right:) من مظاهرات مدينة الباب في ريف حلب الشرقي .. إلى أهلنا في مسيرات العودة على حدود غزة نحن معكم .. 21-9-2018 From demonstrations in the town of Al-Bab in Eastern Aleppo countryside.. to our people in the March of Return to Gaza's border— We are with you. 21-9-2018 Thanks to Leila Al Shami, Ramah Kudaimi, and Anas Alshamy for the images and to L. and N. for help with the translations. (Original Post by Jo Morales on Facebook)

“From Gaza’s border on the Friday of Breaking the Siege, greetings to the rebellious throats in Idlib who went out and shouted”

Categories
archives Syria and the Left

“But what about Yemen?”

“It’s rather despicable to use some corpses to bury others. And quite daring to oppose the martyrdom of Yemeni children to the plight of Syria’s.”

Categories
archives

How one book lover from besieged Daraya found solace in writers from Sarajevo and Palestine

“Reading about Sarajevo is to feel less alone. It’s to tell oneself that others before us went through the same challenges. In another country. Another context.”

Categories
history

Phoenician or Arab, Lebanese or Syrian: Who were the early immigrants to America?

Al-Hoda Newspaper

“As these immigrants traveled across the Mediterranean and Atlantic to “Amirka” they were required to have an ethnic/national identity if they were to gain entry to the place that they hoped would make them a handsome sum of money and afford them new opportunities.”

Categories
archives

Why Syrian refugees in Lebanon fear going back to an Assad-controlled Syria

Syrian refugees in Lebanon fear reprisals by the Assad regime in the form of homelessness, forced conscription, torture, or worse.