Essays

A Bicentennial Remembrance of Lord Byron, Among Greeks & Turks

A Bicentennial Remembrance of Lord Byron, Among Greeks & Turks

Lord Byron, a theatrical poet, created the concept of celebrity and, with his poetry, brought the Ottoman world...

7 JUNE 2024 • By William Gourlay
Arab Shakespeare?

Arab Shakespeare?

Georgina Van Welie, co-founder of Sabab theatre, shares her perspective on the "Arab" Shakespeare Trilogy for the first...

7 JUNE 2024 • By Georgina Van Welie
Palestine, Political Theatre & the Performance of Queer Solidarity in Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love

Palestine, Political Theatre & the Performance of Queer Solidarity in Jean Genet’s Prisoner of Love

"Prisoner of Love" acknowledges the limitations of language in capturing the reality of the Palestinian revolution, writes Saleem...

7 JUNE 2024 • By Saleem Haddad
Laughing for Change—Activist Theatre Tours Egypt

Laughing for Change—Activist Theatre Tours Egypt

Hara TV3 harnessed interactive theatre and comedy to address gender-based violence and FGM in Egypt writes its founder...

7 JUNE 2024 • By Nada Sabet
A Small Kernel of Human Kindness: Some Notes on Solidarity and Resistance

A Small Kernel of Human Kindness: Some Notes on Solidarity and Resistance

Empathy requires knowledge and collective action to avoid blindly following the crowds, writes Nancy Kricorian.

24 MAY 2024 • By Nancy Kricorian
Postscript: Disrupting the Colonial Gaze—Gaza and Israel after October 7th

Postscript: Disrupting the Colonial Gaze—Gaza and Israel after October 7th

In which the authors argue that, "If Israel, with Western support, achieves its aims in Gaza, it will...

17 MAY 2024 • By Sara Roy
Genocide

Genocide

In her latest essay, writer Jenine Abboushi reminds us that the ethnic cleansing and destruction of Palestinian society...

17 MAY 2024 • By Jenine Abboushi
Memory Archive: Between Remembering and Forgetting

Memory Archive: Between Remembering and Forgetting

Mai Al-Nakib explores memory, forgetting, and writing through the lenses of Woolf, Proust, and a Wim Wenders film.

3 MAY 2024 • By Mai Al-Nakib
Regarding the Photographs of Others—An Iraqi Journey Toward Remembering

Regarding the Photographs of Others—An Iraqi Journey Toward Remembering

Photographs of Iraqis imply doom due to generational violence, even in happy pictures.

3 MAY 2024 • By Nabil Salih
A Proustian Alexandria

A Proustian Alexandria

Claiming a past that never existed previously in the city, nostalgia overwhelms the inhabitants of Alexandria, writes Mohamed...

3 MAY 2024 • By Mohamed Gohar
Sargon Boulus Revisited: Encomium to an Assyrian Poet

Sargon Boulus Revisited: Encomium to an Assyrian Poet

Youssef Rakha revisits his fascination with Sargon Boulos who managed to live out poetic Arabness in exile as...

3 MAY 2024 • By Youssef Rakha
The Elephant in the Box

The Elephant in the Box

Revisiting her memories of Egypt's January 25 revolution, Asmaa Elgamal finds that denying common sense is the worst...

3 MAY 2024 • By Asmaa Elgamal
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