Art, Music & Culture
The Arts, Music & Culture section of EI reports on Palestinian and Palestine-related film, books & literature, music, theatre, photography, comedy, and performing arts -- offering reviews, news, and notice of key upcoming events. Quality submissions are welcomed.
Palestinian artist Emily Jacir awarded top prize
Maymanah Farhat, The Electronic Intifada, 15 December 2008
On 13 November Palestinian conceptual artist Emily Jacir was awarded the prestigious Biennial Hugo Boss Prize. Established in 1996 in conjunction with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to "recognize significant achievement in contemporary art," the prize includes a $100,000 award and a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum New York in 2009. The award is the latest honor for the celebrated artist. Maymanah Farhat reports. [MORE]
Wisdom and laughter in a child's view of Palestine
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Electronic Intifada, 10 December 2008
Randa Abdel-Fattah's new novel for young people, Where the Streets Had a Name, is an engaging family story deftly that weaves together every iconic element of Palestinian disenfranchisement -- land titles, checkpoints, curfews, the general frustrations of daily life -- along with jokes, arguments and repeated stories which keep people going. Lost olive trees and the profound and irrevocable sense of time and haunted belonging, are in place by page 20. And they all ring very very true. Naomi Shihab Nye reviews for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
Musical resistance against the siege
Sameh A. Habeeb, The Electronic Intifada, 8 December 2008
On 27 October, a group of young Palestinians, none of them over the age of 25, organized the first music concert of its kind in the Gaza Strip, called Gaza Concert '08. Regardless of the awful conditions in the Gaza Strip brought on by the 19-month Israeli siege, the youth sang for freedom, peace and ending the unjust siege. Thousands of people came from all over Gaza while several international and local media outlets covered the event that was sponsored by Action for Peace Italia. A mixture of traditional Palestinian debka dance, rap, and nationalist anthems were performed calling for lifting the siege and ending Israeli occupation. Sameh Habeeb reports from Gaza. [MORE]
Book review: Abdel Bari Atwan's "Country of Words"
Atef Alshaer, The Electronic Intifada, 24 November 2008
A Country of Words: from the Refugee Camps to the Front Page is a remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility. Its author is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Quds al-Arabi who also wrote The Secret History of al-Qa'ida. Individuals have their own lives and create their own narratives, and for Atwan, his story begins in Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
"Occupied Space 2008" adds Palestinian color to London's art world
Isabelle Humphries, The Electronic Intifada, 17 November 2008
Using what they call the "simplest language," the Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art seeks to challenge the harsh obstacles of life in their native Gaza: "we color life for the others." In the past month some of their work has reached London as part of a new exhibition organized by the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign in association with the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Occupied Space 2008: Art for Palestine brought together over 100 works not only from Palestinian artists, but from those across the globe from Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan to the UK to China. Isabelle Humphries reviews for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
"My Son Tom": Mother continues the solidarity that Israeli bullets cut short
Raymond Deane, The Electronic Intifada, 13 November 2008
In April 2003, the 21-year-old Tom Hurndall was shot in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities absurdly claimed "that a Palestinian gunman wearing fatigues had been shooting a pistol at a watchtower and had been targeted by a member of the Israeli Defense Force ['IDF']." His mother Jocelyn, the author of the harrowing memoir, My Son Tom - The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndall (with Hazel Wood), travels to Israel. At the Soroka Hospital in Beersheva she recognizes her comatose son "despite the bandages surrounding [his] dreadfully swollen head, covering [his] eyes." Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
Film review: Absurd humor succeeds in "Laila's Birthday"
Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 20 October 2008
In his new feature film, Laila's Birthday, director Rashid Masharawi paints a bittersweet picture of life in the West Bank city of Ramallah. There, Masharawi's main character, Abu Laila (played by the legendary Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri), struggles to make ends meet as a taxi driver while attempting to get a license to work as a judge from the bureaucratic Palestinian Authority. EI's Maureen Clare Murphy reviews. [MORE]
Book review: Israel's occupation, inside out
Raymond Deane, The Electronic Intifada, 13 October 2008
Israel's one-sided war on the Palestinian people continues unabated while mountains books on the subject are being written, published, read and sometimes reviewed. EI contributor Raymond Deane assess whether two new volumes on Israel's occupation, Neve Gordon's Israel's Occupation and Saree Makdisi's Palestine Inside Out, present a radically new perspective or have the potential to influence public opinion in the right direction. [MORE]
Israel's surprising best seller contradicts founding ideology
Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 8 October 2008
No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel's bestseller list -- and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel's biggest taboo. Jonathan Cook reports. [MORE]
Palestine in verse: "Flawed Landscape" and "Poets for Palestine" reviewed
Atef Alshaer, The Electronic Intifada, 6 October 2008
It is inspirational to find Palestine richly meditated in poetry. Two new poetry collections provide a robust testament to that -- One collection is by the Palestinian-American poet Sharif S. Elmusa, Flawed Landscape, and the other is made of selected works by various poets edited by Remi Kanazi, Poets for Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada. [MORE]
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