Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A brief-history of the Arab ballad

“As ill-defined as the term might be, in the cultural sphere the real value of the Global South is to open a space for decolonising conversations, articulating the kind of hybridity and complexity of modern identity that a nationality cannot, a conversation held far from the old imperialist orders of the Northern hemisphere. A utopian geography that may never be real but can serve a purpose.” A series of upcoming biennials promise to explore the art of the ‘Global South’

Danny Katch: “Socialism is a society whose top priority is meeting all of its people’s needs, ranging from food, shelter, and health care, to art, culture, and companionship. In contrast, capitalism only cares about any of that basic human necessities stuff to the extent that money can be made of it.” Nathan J. Robinson: “ Because it’s not that capitalism never produces food—you can go to the grocery store—it’s not that capitalism never produces any kind of shelter—you can rent an apartment—it is that it provides it to the extent that money can be made off it, and the moment those human imperatives of the basic needs conflict with the money being made, the money will come above basic needs.” I do not think that is a full explanation; I think it is partially accurate because it forgets that capitalism also provides certain things and maintains others – erosion but not the dismantling of the welfare system, for example – to keep the social peace, and thus the system protects itself from ...

I think Dabashi should have included a couple of lines about the geopolitical and American imperialism’s objectives of the invasion and destruction of the Iraqi state. How the US media covers up war crimes

From the archive 1,000 ways to say no in Arabic

I liked the movie. In the original title ‘back’, not ‘skin’ is used.

Can art, and the differences in opinion on it between the Arab and the Western worlds, really explain the violence between the two sides? Are not these attitudes, at odds with one another regarding the depiction of the Prophet, merely a pretext for conflicts with other underlying motivations? Those who endeavor to incite this violence, do they use religion, the Prophet, and images, among other things, to cement their dominance over their local environments? Does successful globalization, wherever the case may be, not exacerbate the pressure on cultural, artistic, and ideological boundaries to adapt and expand? And, in turn, does this pressure not incite “adversarial” and “miserable” and “desperate” situations?  Examining the Past to Understand Present Controversy

Naji al-Ali

On BBC Radio 4

Painting the unrenewable

A lot has been written about the film The Battle of Algiers. This article not only does not answer its own question, but it erases the struggle of the Algerians and the Arabs in general since 2010-11.  “What relevance does The Battle of Algiers hold today, 55 years after it was first released?” When we speak about the film’s relevance today, we speak about Black Lives Matter and Occupy? How appalling! Naomi Joseph has ignored the Arab uprisings of 2010/11 and 2019. The latter year is of the Algerian uprising. How does the movie relate to neo-colonialism as contrasted to colonialism?  Is France today a neo-colonial power in Algeria, in the Sahel, and other places?  Is there anything uttered by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, relevant and echos what is in the film? Do the reactions of the French ruling class, the media, the intelligentsia, and a large section of the population in the aftermath of the violent attacks in France in 2015 and afterwards reveal a continui...

I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies, to other ways of being. And even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries— the realists of a larger reality . Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art.  We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings.  … Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I’ve had a long career and a good one, in good company, and here, at the end of it, I really don’t want to watch American literature get sold down the river. ...  The name of our beautiful reward is ...

Paintings that define atrocities

 By Iranian filmmaker and photographer Mostafa Heravi

By Sameer Khalili, a Syrian from Homs living in the Netherlands. December 2020

Libya through Italian eyes

The Taliban of San Francisco

Uncommodified, unclassified music

Contrary to its title, the "interview" is mostly about art in a social context. But you’re an artist making commodities even though you despise neoliberal commodification. “It’s a system I’ve benefited from, no question. We risk becoming further cogs in the wheel of production. Only poetry and the more serious classical music seem able to resist becoming commodities. There’s a sense that  art has been eroded by the market . The world that  Steve Bannon wants is here. And it’s our fault.” Whose? “Liberal lefties like me. I’m going to dare the art world is a part of it.” Part of what? “The ruin of art’s ability to stand opposed to the order of things.” Anish Kapoor: "If I was a young Muslim, would I feel angry enough to join ISIS?  "

Jocelyne Saab: A Just Life