hummus for thought

The Interviews

Starting over the next few months I will be conducting a number of bilingual interviews on Lebanon with people that I admire who live in Lebanon or who have left Lebanon. Since 1990 Lebanon has been experiencing what is misleadingly called a postwar period. The warlords that built their status and their capital (financial, symbolic, […]

kafala and racism

What it means to be black and African in Lebanon

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date June 29, 2020
2 Comments on What it means to be black and African in Lebanon

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

Tags Kafala system, Lebanon, racism

The People Without Cinema, by Abounaddara

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date February 4, 2020
No Comments on The People Without Cinema, by Abounaddara

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

archives 2019 protests

Open letter to protesters in Hong Kong’s prisons

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date December 12, 2019
1 Comment on 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.

archives archives 2019

Launch of new book of Syrian citizen journalism

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date November 17, 2019
No Comments on 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”

archives 2019 protests

Tripoli, Light of the Revolution

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date October 27, 2019
5 Comments on 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.

archives 2019 protests

Elias Khoury: Letter to Samir Kassir

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date October 22, 2019
No Comments on Elias Khoury: Letter to Samir Kassir

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

archives 2019 cinema

Rana Eid’s Panoptic: Acoustic Echoes and Resonant Soundscapes

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date October 11, 2019
No Comments on 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

archives archives 2019

Russiagate, Syria, and the Left

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date June 29, 2019
1 Comment on Russiagate, Syria, and the Left

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

archives archives 2019

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

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date May 6, 2019
1 Comment on 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.

archives 2019 feminism & masculinity

Lebanon’s militarized masculinity

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date January 6, 2019
No Comments on 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”

archives archives 2018

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

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date December 23, 2018
5 Comments on 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”

Tags abortion wars, Amanda E. Rogers, Colgate University, extremism, isis, kansas, wichita

archives archives 2018

An idea called Daraya

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

Tags assad, Daraya, international community, Syria, the left

archives archives 2018

Listening: The Aural Resonance of a Formless Line

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date December 17, 2018
1 Comment on 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

Tags John Berger, Yasmine Hamdan

archives 2018 cinema

Sleepless Nights: Confessing Without The Confession

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date November 13, 2018
No Comments on 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”

archives archives 2018

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

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date October 18, 2018
1 Comment on 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.

archives archives 2018 Syria and the Left

Wretched of the Earth: solidarity letters between Syria and Gaza

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date September 24, 2018
No Comments on 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”

archives archives 2018 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.”

archives archives 2018

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

Post author By Joey Ayoub
Post date August 29, 2018
No Comments on 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.”

archives 2018 history

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

Post author By Hummus For Thought
Post date August 5, 2018
1 Comment on 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.”