Adel Abidin, October 2023
Adel Abidin is an Iraqi-Finnish artist who explores history, memory and identity in his installations, painting, drawings and videos.
TMR
World Picks From the Editors, Sept 29—Oct 15, 2023
A Markaz Review bi-weekly roundup of our editors' favorite selections from within the global arts and culture scene.
Special World Picks Sept 15-26 on TMR’s Third Anniversary
TMR publishes World Picks special edition on its third anniversary, including events from Sept. 15-26, 2023.
World Picks: Festival Arabesques in Montpellier
The largest festival of Arab and North African music takes place each year in Montpellier: Arabesques is quite the two-week extravaganza.
World Picks: Exist Festival + the Mosaic Room, London
Sept. 8-10, Exist Festival in London features film, talks, music, performance & dance; Sept. 6-14, also in London at the Mosaic Rooms, check out "In the Shade of the Sun."
Nasrin Abu Baker: The Markaz Review Featured Artist, June 2023
Nasrin Abu Baker, the featured artist for June 2023, divides her time between Jerusalem and Leipzig, and exhibits widely.
Salman Toor
Artist Salman Toor paints immigrants and addresses the treatment of brown men and young people in public and private spaces. He is also concerned with the effects of technology on contemporary life.
The Skinny on Qatar’s National Museum
Impressive art, films, sounds and smells among the ultra modern and ancient treasures housed at the National Museum of Qatar.
Hamad Al Khulaifi: Qatar’s Wildlife Photographer
Bird photographer Hamad Al Khualifi devoted years to documenting the wildlife of Qatar, once reportedly spending two years in the wild to document a Pharaoh Eagle-Owl.
Nazanin Pouyandeh
The featured artist for March is Franco-Iranian painter Nazanin Pouyandeh, whose rich figurative paintings are showing in two major French exhibitions.
TMR Urges Readers to Support Recovery Efforts in Turkey & Syria
The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have left a wake of dead and suffering survivors. We can help.
TMR’s Multilingual Lexicon of Love for Valentine’s Day
Expressions of love in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish and Kurdish, to give Valentine's Day a new meaning.
Letters From Tehran: Braving Tehran’s Roundabout, Maidan Valiasr
A journalist in Tehran walks defiantly without covering her hair through one of the city's busiest thoroughfares.
Letters From Tehran: The Girl of Revolution Avenue
In our Letters From Tehran series, Iranians write intimately about daily life in the city following last fall's Women-Life-Freedom protests.
Siri Hustvedt & Ahdaf Souief Write Letters to Imprisoned Writer Narges Mohammadi
Author and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi must be released by Iranian authorities immediately.
Letter From Tehran: From Hair to Hugs, Times Are Changing
One of Iran's contemporary writers shares his thoughts with a friend in the west about the direction the country is going as a result of the Mahsa Amini protests.
5 Poems & a Video—Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora
Poems from Iranian poets in Iran and diaspora, from a new anthology edited by Christopher Nelson and introduced by Kaveh Bassiri.
Two Poems from Quebec’s Nicole Brossard
Our poetry editor, Sholeh Wolpé, has selected two poems from the new collection from one of Canada's most lauded poets.
You Don’t Have to Be A Super Hero to Be a Heroine
In the new issue of TMR, the editors present their case for everyday women achieving the extraordinary as they overcome adversity.
Homage to Mahsa Jhina Amini & the Women-Led Call for Freedom
In HEROINES, artists pay homage to the late Mahsa Jhina Amini and the women-led uprising for freedom in Iran.
Editorial: Is the World Driving Us Mad?
The world may be driving us crazy, but sharing our stories across cultures and borders is one way to hang on to our sanity.
Featured Artist: Steve Sabella, Beyond Palestine
The artist and writer from Palestine has a universal vision to bring people together across boundaries and borders.
Fouad Agbaria: Featured Artist
For our 21st monthly issue, TMR features the work of an artist who is continually working out what it means to be a Palestinian citizen of Israel.
LA Sketches: Sneakers and the Man From Taroudant
A young artisan from Taroudant, Morocco now calls Los Angeles home and brings a particular flare to shoe design.
LA Sketches: Fred Saidy, Humorist
In a blast from Hollywood's colorful past, Lebanese American writer Fred Saidy remembers Mrs. Nazralla's exquisite baklava, and her loquacious manner.
LA Sketches: John Nazarian, Defender of the Underdog
Syrian and Armenian American John Nazarian was for decades a champion of those who struggled in Los Angeles.
LA Sketches: Dimitris Mahlis, Oud Artist
Musician-composer Dimitris Mahlis celebrates multiple oud traditions as he offers TMR listeners two meditative taksim.
Hayy Jameel — Jeddah’s Sparkling New Center for the Arts
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is home to a major new arts and cultural center, opening to the public on December 6, 2021.
FIRE: An Abbreviated Reading List
Here are a few staff picks in a very short list that could benefit from having us add your own fire-related titles. Come on, light our fire.
Day of the Imprisoned Writer — November 15, 2021
TMR On November 15th, every year now for the last 40 years, PEN International has observed the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. With the harassment, detention, conviction and imprisonment of… Continue reading Day of the Imprisoned Writer — November 15, 2021
Omar El Akkad on his second novel “What Strange Paradise”
Rana Asfour, Book Editor at The Markaz Review, and the TMR Bookgroup talk to author Omar El Akkad about his second novel What Strange Paradise.
Libya’s Exiled Satirist, Hasan “Alsatoor” Dhaimish
During the long Gaddafi years, Libya produced many exiles, among them the satirical cartoonist and illustrator Hasan “Alsatoor” Dhaimish.
Summer of ‘21 Reading—Notes from the Editors
Our editors reveal their diverse literary interests, with more than a dozen recommendations for summer reading.
World Picks: July 2021
Travel the world, meet people, see great places, without ever leaving the comfort of your screen…well, in some cases you can go in person!
Is Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek, Too, Occupied Territory?
Taylor Miller explores the aesthetics of gentrification and the "settler colonial hydra that continually displaces, erases, and reinscribes Palestinian space."
TMR Resource Guide to Armenian Culture
The first of many new resource guides to the arts of a particular culture, in this case, Armenian. Readers are invited to contribute their own recommendations.
Marseille is the gateway to North Africa
< Poster courtesy of Mucem. “Marseilles has always had close ties with the rest of the Mediterranean basin, in particular the northern shore of Africa, a privileged position that has… Continue reading Marseille is the gateway to North Africa
Decisive Moments in Marseille
Marseille through the lens of photographer Bernard Plossu.
Zoppa: Mediterranean Female Duo
Meet the fabulous vocal duo formed in Marseille known as Zoppa, weaving together Spanish, Greek, jazz and world music influences.
Arab Shaman: Remembering Hani Naser
Drummer and author John Densmore recalls the mastery and the mysticism of his late friend Hani Naser.
A visual poem from Hala Alyan: Gaza
A spoken word poem from the author of The Twenty-Ninth Year and The Arsonists' City.
Academics Decry French Attacks on “Islamo-Leftists”
Hundreds of French and Anglophone academics are speaking out against what they call the French government’s “conspiracy theory” and “witch hunt” of so-called Islamo-leftists.
World Picks, February-March ‘21
Travel the world, meet people, see great places, without ever leaving the comfort of your screen…welcome to the pandemic!
Francofeminism: a Postcolonial History
Mariem Gellouz and Sélima Kebaïli deconstruct Francophonie in the context of postcolonial Tunisian, Arab and African feminism.
World Picks, January and February ‘21
Travel the world, meet people, see great places, without ever leaving the comfort of your screen…welcome to the pandemic!
Watch Water Films & Donate to Water Organizations
Is the cost of water really higher than the cost of petrol? Are we destined to run out of water if we don't find a way forward? 4 films, 6 charitable organizations you should know.
The Sea Remembers
Let us never forget that the sea remembers our presence and our trespasses—art from Riva Nayaju.
Cairo 1941: Excerpt from “A Land Like You”
“Gamal was convinced that Egypt, mother of the world, would spawn a new era—when Arabs, the wretched of the earth, would finally regain their place among the nations.”
Assaulting Free Speech in the Israel/Palestine Debate
Columnist Firouzeh Afsharnia says Facebook shut her down for bringing up Israel's heavy-handedness when it comes to Iran and flouting international law.
Breathing in a Plague
Kurdish poet-scholar-translator Selîm Temo thinks of the young Thomas Bernhard and his infant son as he fights for life in intensive care.