Tunisian born artist Amel Bennys, who works between Tunis and Paris, has just had her first solo show at the Selma Feriani Gallery in London. ‘Get Up – Stand Up’ includes ‘Fin de Partie’, a series of heavy-duty mixed media works on canvas and a selection of sketch-books.
The 14th of January marks the first year since the Tunisian people pushed the country’s despot Ben Ali out of his palace and witnessed him flee the country into exile in Saudi Arabia. Today sees thousands of Tunisians come out to the street again, demanding jobs, dignity and recognition of the martyrs slain during the […]
No list about the “Arab Spring” is complete without Jadaliyya, the kick-ass open-source news and opinion blog arm of the Arab Studies Institute, which also puts out the Arab Studies Journal.
Not sure what it says about France that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (he is portrayed as a victim of a conspiracy) and David Beckham (a 36-year-old player is entrusted with bringing back gloss to French football) dominate the headlines there this week. Meanwhile, a mix of French hip hop and smooth R&B continue to dominate my instalments of music from […]
By Dan Moshenberg Tunisians went to the polls on Sunday, October 23, 2011. Remember the date, because it’s historic. It’s the first free elections of the Arab Spring, which is, in large part, an African Spring. Tunisia. Egypt. Libya. Maybe Algeria next, maybe Morocco. Who knows? Maybe Zimbabwe. If the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe can […]
From “Hip Hop & Diaspora: Connecting the Arab Spring” by Lara Dotson-Renta over at the Arab Media & Society online journal: The diasporic connections visible in the hip-hop of the Arab Spring, and the many possibilities for future dialogues that these engender are, however, most visible in collaborations such as ”January 25,” a song spearheaded by […]
At least 313 million Africans–that’s one in three Africans–can be defined as middle class, according to the African Development Bank. If you earn between $2 and $20 a day , working in “salaried jobs or own small businesses,” you’re middle class. But only 123 million of these–those who are spending between $4 and $20 a […]
Gregory Mann, Guest Blogger Have we already forgotten that the ‘Arab Spring’ began in the winter? Ben Ali and co. took flight in January, before the whole word learned that the Arabic word for ‘liberation’ is ‘Tahrir,’ as in ‘Tahrir Square.’ But Tunisia’s revolution is not yet ancient history—it’s still underway. Here in Tunis, the […]
Perry Anderson in The New Left Review: The odious cast of the regimes in place [in North Africa and the Middle East] has persisted unaltered for decades, without triggering mass revolts against them. The timing of the uprisings is not to be explained by their aims. Nor can it plausibly be attributed just to novel […]
