#Hisham Aidi

[writing-after-the-disaster]

Hisham Aidi writes:

Exactly 20 years ago I was running around Cairo trying to find people who had met Malcolm X. I spoke to Jamal al-Banna (liberation theologian, trade unionist & youngest brother of Hasan al Banna) and David Du Bois (journalist, Maoist & jazzhead and step-son of W.E.B. Du Bois. They were both very helpful in making sense of MX's thought.

(The image below is from Al Bilad, a Saudi newspaper (in July 1964) -- it's one of my favorite interviews with MX, where the interviewer tells Hajj Shabazz – I don’t understand why you describe yourself as black, when you’re actually “wheat-colored;” MX laughs and proceeds to explain the “one drop rule” and how race works in America.

In this long-acoming essay, I discuss the globalization of MX's image over the last 20 years; MX's time in Egypt, Ghana, and Saudi; his interest in setting up a branch of Al-Azhar in Harlem & how in Sept 1964 (following months of training) he was appointed an official representative of the (Salafi) Muslim World League and hoped to make Muslim Mosque Inc a "legal branch of the Muslim World League" - also in Harlem; also discussed -- the controversy surrounding the 2011 Marable biography, and the once published - now off the market - slightly redacted travel diary of MX.

==================

"‘I have difficulty praying. My big toe is not used to it,’ Malcolm told his diary on April 20, 1964 shortly after arriving in Mecca. Having recently left the Nation of Islam with their practices, he was still acclimating to sitting on his knees during prayer. Despite the pain, the following day he embarks on the journey to Mount Arafat, part of the hajj pilgrimage, joining ‘hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, all colors, buses, car, camel, donkey & foot.’ Mecca, he writes, is surrounded by the: "cruelest looking mts [mountains] I’ve ever seen. They seem to be made of the waste material from a blast furnace. No vegetation on them at all. The houses are old & modern. Some sections of the city are no different than when the Prophet Abraham was here over 4000 [years ago] – other sections look like a Miami suburb.

Wandering among the pilgrims, he describes the rituals, the seven stones cast at the devil, the circumambulating of the kaaba, and observes,‘This would be an anthropologist’s paradise.’

The diaries also provide a firsthand account of Malcolm’s travels in Egypt, Ghana, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia in 1964. There’s Malcolm crossing Tahrir Square to buy some lemonade at Groppi’s, a still-existing pastry shop; then he’s buying pajamas, picking up vitamin C tablets (because he’s feeling kind of “woozy”), going to the movies, and so on.

Malcolm X is a powerful optic through which to understand America’s post-war ascendance and expansion into the Middle East. His is the perspective of a ghetto-dweller who has transcended the borders drawn around him.‘[A]s though I had stepped out of prison,’ he writes, when he travels abroad. The diaries – several notebooks of single-spaced hand- writing – show an anthropologist’s eye. Malcolm comments on the landscape, the politics, cultural and religious differences, with humorous asides. When a friend arrives late, he quips, ‘Arab time!!’ At one point, he observes, ‘The worst most dangerous habit among Arab Muslims is cigarettes. They smoke constantly, even on the Hajj.’ There are also personal reflections on his mood, health and intense solitude.The words ‘lonesome’ and ‘alone’ appear on almost every other page. His thoughts on Saudi Arabia support the standard narrative that the hajj was transformative.

Yet the diaries show something else: when not in Arabia, Malcolm seemed to enjoy being away from his role as a religious leader, and away from religious strictures as well.Whether in Ghana, Guinea, Kenya or Egypt, he immerses himself in the cultural life of these newly independent states, and the younger Malcolm, the music aficionado, resurfaces, as he frequents night-clubs and dance centers again. In Nairobi, he goes to see his friend Gee Gee sing at the Equator Club, and then accompanies Vice-president Oginga Odinga to a party at the Goan Institute of Dance. (‘The PM is a good dancer, remarkably for his age,’ he writes.) In Guinea, he attends a wedding party, then goes to a nightclub and,‘watche[s] some Americans from the Ship-hope try to dance.’ He rejoices in seeing newly independent states shunt aside European colonial music and celebrate their own musical traditions. In Accra – accompanied by Maya Angelou – he attends a party at the Ghana Press Club and enjoys ‘Highlife,’ which would become the country’s national music (Angelou 1986, 134). But it’s mostly in Egypt, which he saw as the bridge between Africa and Asia, a key player in the Non-Aligned Movement, that he spent the most time and experienced the most cultural immersion.

The story of Egyptian jazz dates back to the Harlem Renaissance, when African-American musicians who had settled in Paris, ventured east. In December 1921, Eugene Bullard, the Georgia-born military pilot, drummer and prize fighter, traveled from Paris to Alexandria, Egypt. For six months, he played with the jazz ensemble at the Hotel Claridge, and fought two fights while in Egypt (Lloyd 2000, 79). A decade later, the blues singer Alberta Hunter followed suit, singing in Istanbul and Cairo (Shack 2001, 43). The trumpeter and vocalist Bill Coleman would live in Cairo from 1939 to 1940, leading the Harlem Rhythmakers/Swing Stars. As Islam began to take hold in American cities and within jazz circles, Muslim jazz musicians would journey to Egypt. In 1932, an African-American Muslim with a saxophone turned up in Cairo, saying that he was working his way to Mecca (Berger 1964). With America’s post-war ascent, jazz would spread around the world carried by servicemen, Hollywood and Voice of America broadcasts. In 1958, the bassist Jamil Nasir, trumpeter Idrees Sulieman, and pianist Oscar Dennard traveled to Tangier, where a VOA relay station would broadcast Willis Conover’s Jazz Hour to listeners behind the Iron Cur- tain, where they recorded an album. They then went on to Cairo. In the Egyptian capital, the thirty-two-year-old Dennard would fall ill and die from typhoid fever; he would be buried in the city, his grave a regular stop for visiting jazz musicians.

All to say, by the time David Du Bois arrived in Cairo in 1960, there was already a local jazz scene and the State Department had launched its jazz diplomacy tours aimed at countering Soviet propaganda. Du Bois and his friends – with the support of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture – would try to create a music culture different from that sponsored by the US government. The Egyptian government was also leery of the jazz tours, and turned back ‘jambassador’ Dizzy Gillespie at Cairo airport in 1956 following the Suez War.

This was the buoyant cultural moment that Malcolm X encounters when he arrives in July 1964. Egypt is flourishing culturally, a regional leader in music, cinema and litera- ture. Malcolm’s diary entries from Egypt confirm the events and personalities described in Du Bois’ novel. David Du Bois is working as an announcer at Radio Cairo, and lobbying Egyptian officials to have his father’s books – especially Black Flame Trilogy – translated. (Black Boy by Richard Wright was the only work of African-American literature available in Arabic, he would write to his mother in November 1960; he wanted the government to translate Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun and Langston Hughes’ primer on jazz.) The local jazz scene was feeding off musical trends in the US, as American jazz artists wrote compositions in honor of Africa and Afro-Asian solidarity. Malcolm would soak up the scene in Cairo and Alexandria, attending weddings and concerts, socializing at Cairo’s elite social clubs, sailing down the Nile to the Valley of Kings. It’s in Cairo that he meets Fifi, a Swiss woman who works for the UN, and who is quite smitten by him. All along, of course, he is networking with regime officials and scholars hoping to build a branch of Al-Azhar in Harlem.When he travels from Cairo to Saudi Arabia for hajj, he is struck by how culturally barren the kingdom is compared to Egypt.

The diaries in effect show a man who has landed smack in the middle of the ‘Arab Cold War’ of the early 1960s, which pitted Nasser’s Egypt and her socialist allies against Saudi Arabia and the conservative monarchies backed by the US. As part of the Non-Aligned Movement, Nasser had stepped up his rhetorical attacks on American-allied monarchies in the region, through Radio Cairo, denouncing the royals for their social conservatism and alliance with the West. Music was at the heart of this propaganda effort, as top musicians were enlisted to sing the praises of ‘our destiny’ and ‘historical leader.’ And the expat jazz artists were solidly on the Egyptian side. One of the musicians, saxophonist Othman Karim, would set up the Cairo Jazz Quartet and record a track called ‘Yayeesh Nasser’ (‘Long Live Nasser’) (Du Bois 1964, 47). Karim would go on to collaborate with Salah Ragab, a young drummer and major in the Egyptian army, who would become Egypt’s most famous jazz musician, working with Sun Ra and Randy Weston.2 When Malcolm X arrives in Cairo, he negotiates this cultural tug of war, hanging with the ‘bros’ but also listening to jazz with Morroe Berger, a Princeton Arabist, expert on Black Muslims and organizer of State Department jazz tours. This contest is subtly rendered in Du Bois’ novel. Both Ragab and Karim make appearances – as characters named Salah Janin and Muhammad X – performing at the Cairo Jazz Combo.The Saudis would soon respond to Nasser’s cultural diplomacy, creating a radio station with religious broadcasts. In 1964, they launched their own ideological offensive, setting up the Muslim World League, to mobilize various Islamist groups to counter the spread of socialism and secular Arab nationalism."

Hisham Aidi, “Du Bois, Ghana and Cairo Jazz: The Geo-Politics of Malcolm X” https://www.academia.edu/36710145/Du_Bois_Ghana_and_Cairo_Jazz_The_Geo-Politics_of_Malcolm_X

[saxafimedianetwork]

Somaliland And The Great Powers

As the war in #Tigray, #Ethiopia drags on, & #Somalia struggles to assert control over its #territory, & #China continues to expand into #Africa, #USA & #UK’s calculus could change, and #Somaliland’s #independence could come to be seen as a #strategic asset.

(more…)

[tabloidtoc]

TV Guide, January 18-31

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Jared Padalecki is the new Walker 

Page 1: Contents, Editor’s Letter, Your Feedback 

Page 4: Ask Matt -- Star Trek: Discovery, Aidy Bryant and Saturday Night Live, The Great Christmas Light Fight, Coming Next Issue -- The Hot List with Outlander’s Sam Heughan on the cover 

Page 6: TV Insider -- 25 top shows 

Page 7: First Look -- Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin in Genius, The Show We’re Talking About in the Office -- WandaVision, The Big Number -- 10 is the number of NCIS episodes that landed in the 100 most watched broadcasts of 2020 more than any other scripted series; Chicago Fire was the No. 2 scripted show with eight episodes making the list 

Page 8: Family Room -- shows both adults and kids will love 

Page 10: The Roush Review -- midseason sitcoms look to the stars for laughs with mixed results -- Mr. Mayor, Call Me Kat, Call Your Mother 

Page 11: Coyote, Trickster, The Watch 

Page 16: Cover Story -- Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki reboots a Chuck Norris action series as the Texas family drama Walker 

Page 17: Genevieve Padalecki on her role as Walker’s dead wife Emily 

Page 18: Gina Torres suits up as a heroic paramedic on Season 2 of 9-1-1: Lone Star 

Page 20: The Unicorn’s scene stealers -- Rob Corddry and Michaela Watkins match wits on the hit comedy 

Page 22: What’s Worth Watching -- Week 1 -- Ty Pennington on Ty Breaker 

Page 23: Monday, January 18 -- Folake Olowofoyeku on Bob Hearts Abishola, The Bold and the Beautiful, All American, 9-1-1, The Clown and the Candyman 

Page 24: Tuesday, January 19 -- Finding Your Roots with John Waters and Glenn Close, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, NCIS, Prodigal Son, Unpolished

Page 25: Wednesday, January 20 -- David Eigenberg on Chicago Fire, Presidential Inauguration, The Alps, Riverdale, Nancy Drew, When Disaster Strikes 

Page 26: Thursday, January 21 -- Craig Ferguson on The Hustler, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Legacies, The Rev 

Page 27: Friday, January 22 -- Hisham Tawfiq on The Blacklist, The Wrong Prince Charming, The UnXplained, Blue Bloods, Painting With John 

Page 28: Saturday, January 23 -- Sandra “Pepa” Denton on Salt-N-Pepa, A Wild Year on Earth, A Winter Getaway, Sunday, January 24 -- A Discovery of Witches, Bridge and Tunnel, Agatha Christie’s England 

Page 29-45: TV listings 

Page 46: Stream It! Your guide to the very best streaming available now -- Netflix -- Ralph Macchio and William Zabka on Cobra Kai, The Dig, Penguin Bloom, Pieces of a Woman 

Page 47: Last Tango in Halifax, Lupin, Monarca, After Life, The Crown, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Hollywood, Ratched, Space Force, Netflix Top Ten, What I’m Bingeing -- Outlander 

Page 48: Prime Video -- Vikings, 5 British mysteries to watch now -- Grantchester, Endeavor, Fearless, Silent Witness, Unforgotten, Roush Review -- A Discovery of Witches 

Page 49: Hulu -- Russell Tovey on The Sister, True-Crime Intrigue -- Torn From the Headlines: New York Post Reports, Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein?, Streaming Service Spotlight -- Discovery+ 

Page 50: New Movie Releases 

Page 51: Series, Specials & Documentaries 

Page 52: What’s Worth Watching -- Week 2 -- Sean Bean on Snowpiercer 

Page 53: Monday, January 25 -- America’s Hidden Stories, All Rise, World’s Most Unexplained, The Salisbury Poisonings, The Good Doctor, Lucille Ball: Life Death & Money 

Page 54: Tuesday, January 26 -- Tika Sumpter on mixed-ish, To Tell the Truth, This Is Us, black-ish, Big Sky, The Proof Is Out There, The Terror 

Page 55: Wednesday, January 27 -- The Big Interview With Dan Rather -- Randy Travis, Resident Alien, For Life 

Page 56: Thursday, January 28 -- Vanna White on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Mr. Mayor, Rehab Addict Rescue, Go-Big Show, Friday, January 29 -- The Ray Bradbury Theater, Little Women: Atlanta

Page 57: Saturday, January 30 -- Wendy Williams on Wendy Williams: The Movie and The Wendy Williams Story: What a Mess!, Snowkissed, Heartland Docs DVM, Saturday Night Live 

Page 58: Sunday, January 31 -- The Long Song, Love Is a Piece of Cake, American Gods, The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, All Creatures Great and Small, Cal Fire 

Page 59-78: TV listings 

Page 84: Cheers & Jeers -- cheers to Mr. Mayor’s national treasure, Bling Empire, The Rookie, Name That Tune, jeers to The Masker Dancer, The Stand, The Office 

[bookclub4m]

Episode 137 - Music Non-Fiction

This episode we discuss non-fiction books about Music! We talk about sea shanties, whether musical scores count as non-fiction, reading about music we’re unfamiliar with, how we interpret lyrics, and more! Plus: We made a playlist of music for you to listen to based on the books we read!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

808s & Otherworlds by Sean Avery Medlin

808s & Heartbreak (Wikipedia)

Sailor Song: The Shanties and Ballads of the High Seas by Gerry Smyth

Wellerman (Wikipedia)

Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton

Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

Disasterama!: Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977 to 1997 by Alvin Orloff 

They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

You're History: The Twelve Strangest Women in Music by Lesley Chow

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib

Everybody's Doin' It: Sex, Music, and Dance in New York, 1840-1917 by Dale Cockrell

Companion Playlist for this Episode

Spotify

YouTube

Other Media We Mentioned

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

33 ⅓ Series

We Oughta Know (How Four Women Ruled the '90s and Changed Canadian Music) by Andrea Warner

Hip Hop Family Tree, Vol. 1: 1970s-1981 by Ed Piskor

Burning Down The Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr

Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

Todd in the Shadows

One Hit Wonderland: "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Dop)"

Billbuds

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats

Punch Up the Jam

Song Exploder

All Songs Considered

Brave New Faves

BBC Radio 6

Pump Up the Volume (Wikipedia)

The Boat That Rocked (Wikipedia)

Iron and the Soul by Henry Rollins

Vintage Sadness by Hanif Abdurraqib

Hospice by The Antlers (Wikipedia)

“Hospice tells the story of a relationship between a hospice worker and a female patient suffering from terminal bone cancer”

Master of Reality by John Darnielle

Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 008 - Christmas/Holiday Reads

22 Winter Holiday Books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) Authors

Manga in Libraries: Spooky & Scary Manga

Anime Planet booklist

Google Doc

Episode 125 - Literary Theory & Literary Criticism

Hark! Podcast

Harvey Pekar (Wikipedia)

Canadian Content - How the MAPL system works (Wikipedia)

Riot grrrl (Wikipedia)

Vote for which romance genre we’ll discuss in our February episode!

Amish

Contemporary

Fantasy/Fairy Tale

Western

20 Non-Fiction Music books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

Rock Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution by Salman Ahmad

Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi

Boyz N the Void: A Mixtape to My Brother by G'Ra Asim

Violence Girl: East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story by Alice Bag

Black Music by Amiri Baraka (published as Leroi Jones)

Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter edited by Veronica Chambers

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo

Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band by Michelle Gonzales

House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason

Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym

My Name Is Love: the Darlene Love Story by Darlene Love

Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection by Portia K. Maultsby

Soul Serenade: Rhythm, Blues & Coming of Age Through Vinyl by Rashod Ollison

Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter

Run As One: My Story by Errol Ranville

Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson

Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way by Blair Stonechild

Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music by Mari Yoshihara

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, November 16th we’ll be talking about Adaptations of Books into other media!

Then on Tuesday, December 7th we’ll be discussing the genre of Thrillers!

[protoslacker]

The two books that I had in mind while writing were Paul Gilroy’s The Black Atlantic and Robin Kelley’s Race Rebels. These were my bibles as an undergrad, and I was trying to follow in these scholars’ footsteps: trying to use music as a lens to understand links between empire and racial oppression.

Hisham Aidi in interview with Jadaliyya. Hisham Aidi, Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/1199/rebel-music-by-hisham-d-aidi/

[cavalierzee]

- The Story Of Ole -

In a recent lecture, author Elizabeth Gilbert discusses the history of the concept of creative genius.

Before the modern humanist era, creative genius was not attributed to individual people, but to inspiration from the spirit world: daemons in ancient Greece, muses, genies, and, as is made evident in the etymology of the Spanish word Olé, even Allah.

The Moors of Northern Africa ruled the area of the Iberian peninsula known as Spain for nearly 700 years. Their language was Arabic, and no language other than Latin had a more profound effect on the history and evolution of Spanish. Today, over 4000 Spanish words come directly from Arabic, nearly 8% of the Spanish lexicon. One of those words is Olé. As Gilbert explains in the lecture, there existed an ancient tradition among many Moors to have great celebrations that included dancing. When a dancer performed at the highest levels of grace and intensity, for that moment, they were believed to be vessels through which Allah was acting, and the moment allowed the witnesses to see a glimpse of Allah’s power through the artist. So, it was customary for the Moors of Northern Africa centuries ago to exclaim Allah! when a dancer was performing in such an inspired and moving way.

Hisham Aidi, of the group Islam Awareness, notes that there existed a heated debate over the Moorish influence in Spanish culture for much time, well into the 20th century. While many scholars refused to acknowledge Spain’s Muslim and African past, or saw it as a negative influence if they admitted it at all, a few sought to celebrate that heritage. The poet Manuel Machado proudly declared himself a member of the “Moorish race, a race from the land of the sun,” and the celebrated Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca confessed his “feeling for those who are persecuted…the Moors.”

Somewhere along the course of it’s long history in Spain, the word Olé lost it’s connection to Allah, and became a common Spanish exclamation for any situation where human physicality inspires people to cheer, whether it’s a futbol match, a bullfight, or a Flamenco performance. In Flamenco, which shares perhaps the most intimate connection to the word’s origin, Olé is not reserved for marking transcendent moments (though it can), it’s really meant to give the dancer energy and encouragement.

No three letter word could capture as much Spanish history as Olé

Article by Manny Echevarria

Source: Altalang.com

[souryogurt64]

Do you kno what coles favorite books are Just coming out some shit depression and want to start reading again

[[READ MORE]]

this list was compiled by @uncooldebutante !!!!!! 

for more info check out @grungemombookclub i believe this is mainly twitter-based now? i think her handle there is caseygotrobbed but im not sure because i dont go on twitter 

Under the Volcano — Malcom Lowry

One Hundred Years of Solitude — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley — Malcolm X and Alex Haley

White Noise — Don DeLillo

The White Album — Joan Didion

What is the What — Dave Eggers

Americanah — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Motorcycle Diaries — Ernesto Che Guevara

Middlesex — Jeffrey Eugenides

A Brief History of Seven Killings — Marlon James

Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture — Hisham Aidi

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao — Junot Diaz

The Good Lord Bird — James McBride

Kill ‘Em and Leave — James McBride

Play It As It Lays — Joan Didion

No Name in the Street — James McBride

Just Kids — Patti Smith

Art on My Mind: Visual Politics — bell hooks

If Beale Street Could Talk — James Baldwin

Nobody Knows My Name — James Baldwin

A Sand County Almanac — Aldo Leopold

My Bondage and My Freedom — Frederick Douglass

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl — Harriet Jacobs

Natural State: A Literary Anthology of California Nature Writing — edited by Steven Gilbar

Tropic of Capricorn — Henry Miller

Creativity: The Perfect Crime — Philippe Petit

Ways of Seeing — John Berger

Signifying Rappers —David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place — Terry Tempest Williams

No More Lies — Dick Gregory

Malcolm X Speaks — Malcolm X

Geography of Home — Akiko Busch

Double Duce — Aaron Cometbus

The Trial  — Franz Kafka

Giovanni’s Room — James Baldwin

Junky — William Burroughs

The Complete Poems of John Keats

The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many — Noam Chomsky

[jkottke]

LeBron James and the Philly Beard Theory

LeBron James, as a basketball player, is arguably better now than he's ever been. More importantly, LeBron James's beard is inarguably better now than it's ever been.

Look at that fullness, that thickness, that beautiful roundness! That, my friend, is the beard of a man with a dietician, a dermatologist, and a barber on retainer.

It is the beard of a dad and a daddy both.

It is a beard fully realized. It is a Philly beard.

Here I need to explain. I was born in Detroit, but lived for many years in Philadelphia. The men of Philadelphia, and particularly the black men of Philadelphia, are known for their lustrous beards. Some of it is the influence of Islam; some of it may just be needing to be outdoors in cold weather. But it's a source of civic pride and power.

This was the first video I ever saw on the Philly beard, made by the now-defunct Phillybeard.com in 2009:

The local PBS station made its own version, emphasizing some of the qualities needed for a proper Philly beard:

Even Al-Jazeera America got in on the action, with this excellent essay on the Philly beard by Hisham Aidi, tying to the city's hip hop and jazz traditions as well as Islam:

But overseas the moustacheless, bushy beard is not so identifiably hip-hop and has caused considerable controversy, with security officials in Europe and the Middle East mistaking the Philly for a jihadi beard. In February 2014, for instance, Lebanese police arrested Hussein Sharaffedine (aka Double A the Preacherman), 32, a Shia rapper and frontman for a local funk band. Internal Security Forces mistook him for a Salafi militant and handcuffed and detained him for 24 hours. In Europe hip-hop heads such as French rapper Médine -- a Black Powerite who wears a fierce beard that he calls "the Afro beneath my jaw" -- complain of police harassment. French fashion magazines joke now crudely about "hipsterrorisme." European journalists are descending on Philadelphia to trace the roots of what they call la barbe sunnah and Salafi hipsterism.

But just as not everyone who rocks a Sunnah is Sunni, it's a mistake to conflate the moustacheless Sunnah with the Philly beard as such. For instance, check out Questlove and Black Thought, two classic examples of the Philly beard, avec une moustache:

These, I think, are the key criteria for a Philly beard:

A full beard, trimmed only at the edges of the cheek and the neck;

A trimmed moustache. The lips should be visible;

That roundness. A Sunni muslim might grow out their beard long, so it gets that verticality. The Philly beard is round -- as Médine says, it is an "afro beneath the jaw";

It has to be well-cared for. A Philly beard is not unshaven; a Philly beard is deliberate.

Even though LeBron James does not live in Philadelphia, nor has ever lived in Philadelphia, nor had anything to do with Philadelphia other than beating the Sixers and occasionally saying nice things about our rookie Ben Simmons, if I had to point to an example of a Philly beard, after the guys from The Roots? I would point to LeBron James.

This of course, leads to the obvious question: is LeBron, who has never before worn a beard quite like this, announcing without announcing, hiding in plain sight, via the medium of his face, his preferred free-agency destination in 2018?

The answer, for any fan of the Philadelphia 76ers, is clearly yes.

Naysayers, like my brother, would say the beard's meaning is ambiguous. Perhaps it signals his intention to join James Harden with the Houston Rockets. But James Harden's beard is not a Philly beard. Harden has to wear that thick moustache on top to hide his baby face. Harden's beard is not round, but rectangular. It's an impressive beard. But it is not the beard LeBron James is wearing. LeBron's is a Philly beard.

Look: suppose you had to choose between playing in Los Angeles with Lonzo Ball (no beard, no hope of one), Brandon Ingram (sick, scraggly beard), Kyle Kuzma (my guy is from Flint, represent, but still), and maybe Paul George (who plays your position already) -- OR you could play with Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Robert Covington, Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric, and MAYBE JJ Redick, for an equally storied franchise, but one that hasn't won a title since 1983, AND you can stay in the Eastern conference and stick it to Dan Gilbert and Kyrie Irving forever -- why would you not sign with the Sixers? Play in a city that would love you, love your children, is just a few hours away from home in Akron, and would love the hell out of that beard?

I think the choice is obvious. LeBron will be a Sixer in 2018. He'll teach Simmons how to shoot, Embiid how to become indestructible, and be Magic Johnson and Dr. J rolled into one. I'll make this promise now, with the web as my witness: I will move back to Philadelphia if this happens. And I will love every second of these young talents filling in around LeBron's dad-game.

Trust the process; believe the beard.

[arablit]

Friday Finds: ‘So Why Did I Defend Paul Bowles?’ In the New York Review of Books, Hisham Aidi writes about Paul Bowles, Tangier, repression, Orientalist distortion, and the persistence of myth:

[itsallabouthind-blog]

Blog Post #3 - Music & Art and International Politics

Music has always been around; the first depiction of music appeared in 1500 BC in Prehistoric time. Back then, music was primarily entertainment. However, trough times the place of music in society takes a new path. Marie Zawisza, a British journalist, exposed the disputed position of music in our community. As I said earlier, music has always been around in the entertainment industry. However, the political side of music occurred during the 17th century, with the birth of Opera. Back in this day, music became a part of soft power for nations, where political issues were resolved by mutual support rather than force. From the 17th century to nowadays, everybody is using music to spread their culture, inform, and sensitize people.

Music as a soft power started in Italy with the emergence of Opera to project the power of the prince. Italy was followed by other European countries but also by North and South American countries, African countries, and so on. The government is now aware of the power of music regarding international affairs. As seen in class with the exportation of the American jazz overseas during the cold war, members of the government sent artist overseas to spread national culture. Indeed, the United States, sent mostly African-American artists abroad, especially in USSR, to fight back against racial accusations. Sending the artists abroad is not the only musical strategy used by the United States to promote American culture, the US also engaged in “audio diplomacy” by financing hip-hop festival in the Middle East. Nations against American culture are globalized even without their consents.

Regarding the spreading of hip-hop, originally from the Bronx, President Obama is one of the first President to use Hip-hop as part of the American Soft Power openly. In Hisham Aidi’s article “Hip-Hop Diplomacy,” it revealed how Obama is trying to give a new face to this so-called “ghetto” music. It worked so well that people started using rap and hip-hop as a political instrument.

The US is not the only country using this method, even though there are the most successful at it.  European and African countries have also jumped in the wagon. Zawisza takes time to talk about Youssou N’dour, a Senegalese businessman and singer. Back in 2012, N’dour was named a minister of culture in his country, for an African country is a big step towards the acceptation of music as a political tool. Through his music, N’dour has stand-up against oppression, inequalities and speaks about his culture. His view on music as soft power is shared by other head of African countries. As an African student, I strongly agree with the author on Youssou N’dour’s part. In African culture, music plays an essential role in education and culture conservation; thus using this tool as a soft power strategy is evident. Music should not only be considered as entertainment but as a powerful tool that can change a lot. Since the beginning of the universe, music has always been around and help cultural spread with globalization. So why not using this an element of peace? In “How Music is [..] diplomacy” the author quotes  a French journalist Flechet “[…] highlighted the conviction that culture can play a role in bringing people together, shows how music can become a political language.” This quote is the definition of music in the public sphere, a tool to bring people together.

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#CorpMedia #Idiocracy #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #Humanity

“Al Andalus in New York” Zine Launch

https://mollycrabapple.com/al-andalus-in-new-york-zine-launch/

Last week at NYU’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near-Eastern Studies, artist in residence Molly Crabapple and her students released their zine “Al Andalus in New York”. The event featured a performance by Syrian-American rapper and poet Omar Offendum, speeches by Molly, Algerian-American film-maker and journalist Assia Boundaoui, and Columbia University professor Hisham Aidi...

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The geo-politics of Malcolm X

The geo-politics of Malcolm X

by Hisham Aidi, africasacountry.com

“I have difficulty praying. My big toe is not used to it,” Malcolm told his diary on April 20, 1964 shortly after arriving in Mecca. Having recently left the Nation of Islam with their practices, he was still acclimating to sitting on his knees during prayer.

Despite the pain, the following day he embarks on the journey to Mount Arafat, part of the hajj…

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20 Non-Fiction Music books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib

Rock Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution by Salman Ahmad

Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi

Boyz N the Void: A Mixtape to My Brother by G'Ra Asim

Violence Girl: East LA Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story by Alice Bag

Black Music by Amiri Baraka (published as Leroi Jones)

Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter edited by Veronica Chambers

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo

Spitboy Rule: Tales of a Xicana in a Female Punk Band by Michelle Gonzales

House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason

Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung by Min Kym

My Name Is Love: the Darlene Love Story by Darlene Love

Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection by Portia K. Maultsby

Soul Serenade: Rhythm, Blues & Coming of Age Through Vinyl by Rashod Ollison

Approaching Fire by Michelle Porter

Run As One: My Story by Errol Ranville

Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies by Dylan Robinson

Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way by Blair Stonechild

Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music by Mari Yoshihara

[kahlouchasinparis]

Le Blackout, ou comment l’Argentine a “éliminé” les Africains de son histoire et de sa conscience.

Des dizaines de millions d’Africains ont été arrachés de force à leur terre du 16e au 19e siècle, pour trimer sur les plantations et les fermes du nouveau monde. Ce soi-disant “passage du milieu” a représenté l’une des plus grandes migrations forcées dans l’histoire humaine, c’est aussi l’une des pires tragédies que le monde ait connues.

Des millions de ces Africains ont échoué au Brésil - actuellement environ la moitié de la population brésilienne ont leur généalogie qui remonte à l’Afrique. La culture africaine a imprégné le Brésil de manière profonde et permanente, en termes de musique, de danse et de plein d’autres façons concrètes.

Qu’en est-il du voisin du Brésil, l’Argentine ? Des centaines de milliers d’Africains ont été déportés là aussi - pourtant la présence noire en Argentine a littéralement disparu des archives et de la conscience du pays.

D’après les récits historiques, les premiers Africains sont arrivés en Argentine à la fin du 16e siècle, dans une région appelée aujourd’hui Rio de la Plata, qui inclut Buenos Aires, prioritairement pour travailler aux champs ou comme employés domestiques. A la fin du 18e siècle et au début du 19e, les noirs Africains étaient nombreux dans les régions d’Argentine, atteignant la moitié de la population dans certaines zones incluent Santiago del Estero, Catamarca, Salta et Cordoba.

A Buenos Aires, les quartiers comme Monserrat et San Telmo étaient habités par de nombreux esclaves, certains travaillant dans l'artisanat pour leurs maîtres. En effet, les Noirs comptaient pour un tiers de la population de la ville, d’après des études menées au début du 19e.

L’esclavage a officiellement été aboli en 1813, mais a été maintenu en pratique jusque 1853. Paradoxalement, à partir de ce moment, la population noire d’Argentine va commencer à se réduire.

Les historiens attribuent deux facteurs, principalement, à cette soudaine “disparition massive” de Noirs africains du pays - la guerre sanglante contre le Paraguay de 1865 à 1870 (dans laquelle des milliers de Noirs se sont battus en première ligne pour l’armée Argentine) autant que plusieurs autres guerres ; et l’apparition de la fièvre jaune à Buenos Aires en 1871.

Les fortes pertes subies par les Argentins noirs au combat ont créé des écarts hommes-femmes dans la population africaine - une circonstance qui a poussé les femmes noires à se marier avec des Blancs, ce qui a dilué la population noire. D’autres ont quitté l’Argentine pour le Brésil et l’Uruguay, perçus comme plus accueillants pour elles.

D’autres sources affirment que s’est joué quelque chose de plus vil.

Il a été dit que le président d’Argentine de 1868 à 1874, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, a cherché à effacer la population noire du pays avec une politique de génocide déguisée en politiques extrêmement répressives (avec notamment l’enrôlement de force d’Africains dans l’armée, l’obligation pour les Noirs de rester dans des quartiers où des épidémies les décimaient, faute de soins médicaux appropriés).

Significativement, Sarmiento écrit dans son journal en 1848 : “Aux Etats Unis… 4 millions sont Noirs, d’ici 20 ans ils seront 8 [Millions]. Que faut-il faire avec de tels Noirs, haïs par la race blanche ? L’esclavage est un parasite que la végétation de la colonisation anglaise a laissé attaché à l’arbre de la liberté”.

En 1895, il restait si peu de Noirs en Argentine que le gouvernement n’a pas jugé nécessaire d’enregistrer les descendants d’Africains dans le recensement national.

Le World Factbook de la CIA note actuellement que l’Argentine est à 97% blanche (comprenant principalement des personnes descendant d’immigrants espagnols et italiens), ce qui en fait la nation “la plus blanche” d’Amérique latine.

Mais les Noirs n’ont pas réellement disparu d’Argentine, malgré les tentatives du gouvernement de les éliminer (notamment en encourageant une forte immigration, aux 19 et 20e siècles, d’Europe et du Proche-Orient. Au contraire, ils demeurent une part cachée et oubliée de la société argentine.

Hisham Aidi, chargé de cours à l’école d’Affaire publiques internationales de l’université de Columbia écrit dans Planète Afrique qu’en 1950, quand l’artiste noires Joséphine Baker arrive en Argentine, elle demande au Ministre de la Santé publique, métis, Ramon Carilio : “Où sont les Noirs ?”. En réponse, Carilio blague : “Il n’y en a que deux, vous et moi”.

Comme dans toutes les sociétés d’Amérique latine les Noirs se sont mélangés avec les Blancs et les Indiens locaux, la question de la race est extrêmement complexe et controversée.

“Les personnes d’héritage mélangé souvent ne sont pas perçues comme “noires” en Argentine, historiquement, parce qu’avoir une ascendance noire était mal considéré” dit à Planète Afrique Alejandro Frigerio, anthropologiste à l’Université Catholique de Buenos Aires.

“Aujourd’hui le terme ‘noir’ est utilisé grossièrement pour toute personne ayant la peau légèrement plus foncée, mais ils peuvent être descendants des Amérindiens ou d’immigrants du Moyen Orient”.

AfricaVive, un groupe militant fondé à Buenos Aires à la fin des années 1990, affirme qu’il y a 1 million d’Afrodescendants en Argentine (sur une population de 41 millions). Un rapport publié dans le Washington Post suggérait même que 10% de la population de Buenos Aires pouvait avoir du sang africain (même s’ils sont classés comme Blancs par le census).

“Les gens ont accepté l’idée qu’il n’y a pas de Noirs en Argentine”, déclarait au Post Myriam Gomes, professeur de littérature à l’université de Buenos, et elle-même en partie Noire. “Même les manuels scolaires acceptent cela comme un fait. Où ça me place alors ?”

Elle explique aussi que pratiquement personne en Argentine n’admettra avoir du sang noir qui coule dans ses veines.

“Sans aucun doute, le préjugé racial est immense dans cette société, et les gens veulent croire qu’ils sont Blancs”, dit-elle, “ici, dès que les gens ont une goutte de sang blanc ils se définissent comme Blancs”.

Gomes a aussi dit aux Chroniques de San Francisco qu’après plusieurs décennies d’immigration blanche en Argentine, les personnes avec du sang Africain ont pu s’intégrer et masquer leurs origines.

“Les livres d’histoire en Argentine sont en partie responsables de la désinformation à propos des Africains dans la société argentine”, dit-elle, “l’Argentine dit qu’il n’y a pas de Noirs ici. Si vous recherchez des personnes traditionnellement Africaines, avec une peau très foncée, vous n’en trouverez pas. Les Africains en Argentine ont un héritage mélangé.

Ironiquement, le cadeau culturel le plus célèbre fait par l’Argentine au monde - le tango - vient de l’influence Africaine.

“Les premières peintures de personnes dansant le tango représentent des Afrodescendants”, ajoute Gomes.

D’un point de vue plus large, l’”élimination” des Noirs de l’histoire du pays et de sa conscience reflète le désir caressé de longue date par les gouvernements successifs d’imaginer le pays comme une extension “complètement blanche” de l’Europe Occidentale en Amérique latine.

“Il y a un silence sur la participation des Afro-Argentins dans l’histoire et la construction de l’Argentine, un silence sur l’esclavage et la pauvreté”, dit Paula Brufman, une chercheuse et étudiante en droit, d’après Planète Afrique.

“Le déni et le dédain pour la Communauté Africaine montre le racisme d’une élite qui voit les Africains comme sous-développés et non-civilisés”.

Source : Blackout: How Argentina ‘Eliminated’ Africans From Its History And Conscience, par Palash Ghosh,

IB Times http://www.ibtimes.com/blackout-how-argentina-eliminated-africans-its-history-conscience-1289381

Traduction : mza

[antimperialistablog-blog]

El antiorientalismo ambiguo de Juan Goytisolo

El antiorientalismo ambiguo de Juan Goytisolo

  Hisham Aidi Orient XXI   Traducido del francés para Rebelión por Beatriz Morales Bastos   De la miríada de escritores y artistas que se instalaron en Marruecos a lo largo del siglo pasado Juan Goytisolo era claramente al que más apreciaban los marroquíes. Ningún escritor expatriado había intentado con tanta obstinación integrarse en la sociedad marroquí. Sin embargo, desde su muerte en junio de…