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Berlin music
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 days ago

I can't listen without feeling rattled': how Fairuz's anthem of resilience became a harbinger of strife for Lebanon

Fairuz's Bahebak Ya Lebnan symbolizes Lebanese unity and resilience, becoming a national anthem amidst ongoing tragedies and conflicts.
fromHyperallergic
1 day ago

A Palestinian-American Photographer's Intimate Gaze

"In 'break bad (freddy flexing)' (2021), a slim man's attempt to exert physical strength instead displays his fragility. A gentleness in his eyes suggests truer strength beneath the performance."
Arts
Mental health
fromPsychology Today
1 day ago

Talking About Death: The Depth of the Meaning of Life

Death is a certain aspect of life that is often uncomfortable to discuss, yet it shapes our relationships and understanding of existence.
fromPhilosophynow
2 days ago

Love & Emptiness in the Sufi Tradition

Rumi argues that to love is to enter the unknown: to love is to empty the self of all self-knowledge entirely. He believes that emptiness is a paradoxical state of infinite fullness, allowing for the purest form of love and union with the divine.
Philosophy
Cancer
fromIndependent
5 days ago

'Writing allows me to face what is happening now. And what is happening now is that I'm dying'

Gabriel Rosenstock faces mortality with peace, relying on poetry and philosophy for support during his battle with terminal cancer.
#gaza
London music
fromPitchfork
1 week ago

Joshua Idehen: I know you're hurting, everyone is hurting, everyone is trying, you have got to try

Joshua Idehen transformed from a toxic troll to a reflective artist, using his experiences to create impactful poetry and music.
#eid-al-fitr
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago
NYC parents

In Gaza, the joy of Eid has gone. Visiting relatives at the end of Ramadan is a procession through loss | Ahmed Kamal Junina

NYC parents
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

In Gaza, the joy of Eid has gone. Visiting relatives at the end of Ramadan is a procession through loss | Ahmed Kamal Junina

Eid al-Fitr in Gaza this year was marked by sorrow and loss, overshadowing traditional celebrations and rituals.
Independent films
fromVulture
1 week ago

Palestine 36 Portrays a Historical Period Often Overlooked by the West

Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36 uses restored archival images to challenge misconceptions about Palestine before the establishment of Israel.
Books
fromPsychology Today
1 week ago

Fiction Is Indispensable to Life's Journey

Fiction is essential for emotional connection, learning, and social cognition, allowing us to escape reality and engage deeply with narratives.
fromHyperallergic
1 week ago

Lebanese Artist Ali Sbeity Reportedly Killed in Israeli Strike

Ali Sbeity painted vibrant portraits and landscapes of his rural hometown in Southern Lebanon, often sharing his works on his Facebook. He participated in numerous local arts exhibitions and created murals for schools in Beirut.
Arts
fromwww.aljazeera.com
2 weeks ago

Quran echoes loudly as Palestinian reciters gather in Gaza

Two hundred and fifty-six Quran memorisers—Palestinians who have committed the entire holy book to memory—sat in the place while companions beside them listened attentively, following each word carefully to ensure the recitation remained flawless. The gathering, titled Safwat Al-Huffaz—The Elite of Quran Memorisers, has become a special collective way of observing Ramadan in Gaza.
World news
fromThe Art Newspaper - International art news and events
1 week ago

Textiles weave tales of Palestine's rich but troubled history

Textiles are a window into the communities that created them, with every motif and line signalling a different memory, tradition or identity. Often seen as folk art, these pieces of embroidery and weaving bring together dozens of narrative threads, from Japan to South America. But nowhere is it more fraught with meaning than in Palestine.
Arts
Berlin food
fromwww.aljazeera.com
2 weeks ago

Baking in rubble: Gaza woman keeps Eid traditions alive despite shortages

Gazans persist in baking traditional Eid cookies despite border closures, ingredient shortages, and lack of cooking gas, maintaining cultural traditions while generating income for families.
fromWorld History Encyclopedia
2 weeks ago

Mesopotamian Literature: The Earliest Works of the Imagination

Writing was created in response to the need to communicate over long distances in trade and, initially, was focused on the purely practical aspects of record-keeping. Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia recorded what commercial goods had been shipped to which destination, their quantity, purpose, and cost.
History
Berlin music
fromFuncheap
2 weeks ago

Love and Loss

The San Francisco Philharmonic performs Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and Brahms's Symphony No. 4, exploring themes of forbidden love, tragedy, and symphonic power on the first day of spring.
fromHyperallergic
1 week ago

Iranian Artist Speaks Her Heart

The Lower East Side institution's OMA-designed, $82 million expansion debuted this week to mixed reviews, reflecting a range of opinions on its new look and functionality.
Arts
Writing
fromKqed
4 weeks ago

A Glimpse of Iran Through the Eyes of its Artists and Journalists

Iranian-American artists and writers explore diaspora, identity, and historical trauma through poetry, fiction, and documentary, examining the lasting impact of political upheaval and U.S. intervention on Iranian communities.
fromHyperallergic
2 weeks ago

Flying Back With the Birds to My Hometown of Tehran

Distance does not soften the terror. It only deepens my helplessness. In moments like this, I realize that geography is not measured in miles, but in attachment. War rearranges distance. These days I find myself returning to "The Conference of the Birds," the 12th-century poem by Attar of Nishapur, seeking meaning through ancient wisdom about spiritual journeys and transformation.
Arts
Berlin food
fromTruthout
3 weeks ago

Ramadan Revolved Around My Grandma. Bombs Took Her House. Famine Took Her Life.

A Palestinian family's Ramadan traditions centered on their grandmother are forever altered after her death during famine conditions in Gaza, leaving an irreplaceable absence in their annual observance.
fromHyperallergic
2 weeks ago

When a Palestinian Artist Asserts Her Own Humanity

There is a scene in "Morgenkreis | Morning Circle" (2025), a 16-mm film by Berlin-based Palestinian artist Basma al-Sharif, that unfolds at the threshold of a daycare center. A young boy clings to his father, his fists locked into the fabric of his coat, his arms wrapped tightly around him. The father gently tries to pry himself free while a daycare worker crouches nearby, attempting to distract the child and coax him inside. It is an ordinary moment, one that anyone who has ever been a child - or cared for one - recognizes instantly, as well as the gut-wrenching feeling it provokes.
Arts
fromBusiness Insider
1 month ago

I left Iran at age 12 and never went back because it never felt safe. At 48, I can finally picture returning home.

Two or three weeks ago, I would've thought that Iran might be free by the time I was 90, and I could die there. I had this vision of me walking through the airport with a cane. Now, at age 48, I can see myself making a trip back to Iran within the next year, and potentially living there permanently within the next five.
World news
Books
fromThe New Yorker
1 month ago

Yiyun Li Reads "Calm Sea and Hard Faring"

Yiyun Li reads her short story 'Calm Sea and Hard Faring' from The New Yorker's March 9, 2026 issue, showcasing work from an acclaimed author of eight fiction books.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

A love letter to Beirut': Lana Daher on sifting 20,000 sources and 70 years of film to make Do You Love Me

Excavating suppressed archives and remembering wartime realities is essential to confront Lebanon's past, preserve collective memory, and challenge cultural erasure and censorship.
France news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

I felt betrayed, naked': did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman's life story?

The Goncourt prize win intensified tensions between France and Algeria, revealing political repression, Western Sahara disputes, and effects on publishing and cultural exchange.
#unrequited-love
Social justice
fromMedium
3 years ago

Confessions of a Race Writer

Race writers risk performing a narrowed, victimized 'blackness' while often holding privilege and a platform to speak for marginalized people.
Mental health
fromThe Nation
1 month ago

My Sister's Death Still Echoes Inside Me

Rewaa, a compassionate sister, was killed in a bombing on July 25, 2025, leaving family devastated and forever divided between life before and after.
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

I am here in the evening light

An enduring presence promises return through nature, offers land and comfort, and reframes endings as ongoing continuity amid memory and quiet dusk.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Do You Love Me review exhilarating documentary is ode to the collective courage of Lebanese people

Do You Love Me uses 20,000+ hours of archival footage and nonlinear montage to evoke Beirut's resilient spirit, juxtaposing everyday joy with wartime devastation.
#grief
Books
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths says she won't let pain be 'the engine that drives the ship'

Rachel Eliza Griffiths experienced dissociative episodes and memory blackouts after her best friend's death and during subsequent trauma, and she chronicled these experiences in a memoir.
World news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

If you are reading this it is because I'm dead: here's what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernandez de Miguel

A journalist facing death reflects on personal fortune, global injustice, the Gaza massacre, and belief that truthful reporting can improve the world.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Glyph by Ali Smith review bearing witness to the war in Gaza

Glyph confronts Israeli apartheid and genocide in Palestine, using Petra and Patch's names, etymology, and imagery to intensify ethical and linguistic urgency.
Books
fromKqed
2 months ago

Encore: LA's Former Poet Laureate on Storytelling and Survival | KQED

Luis Rodriguez credits reading and writing with sustaining his resilience throughout his life.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Sadia Shepard on Loss, Faith, and the Web Between Stories

I think there's a deep loneliness to her life that cohabiting with her brother kept at bay-and, now that he's gone, she is forced to face it. As more of Kim's letters are delivered, Helen becomes invested in the narrative they form, as if she were piecing together a puzzle, one that, in some ways, echoes her own past. Kim's family is Muslim, from Pakistan.
Books
fromHyperallergic
1 month ago

Queer Arab Artists on Their Own Terms

"The show is about giving the pen back to the writer, giving the paintbrush back to the artist, during this time of genocide," the Ridikkuluz told Hyperallergic in an interview at the gallery. "And when there's been so much censorship, these are artists that might not have been able to do this anywhere else."
Arts
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine review drag fabulousness in war-torn Beirut

Buoyant, camp novel follows Raja, a gay philosophy teacher and drag performer, and his mother through Lebanon's crises, turning trauma into resilient, joyful storytelling.
fromAnOther
2 months ago

A Reading List by Ocean Vuong: Part One

Because, let's face it, creative work does require some form of faith. It is a tumultuous thing to launch an idea into a vast nothingness and hope that it makes a light bright enough to be found by others. Luckily, these luminaries were my light, and I hope they may become yours as well, and - more so - that these snippets lead you to more of their work.
Books
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

A moment that changed me: in the bombed-out ruins of an apartment block, I saw a book I'd translated

A translator's books and work symbolize resilience as Tehran endures sudden missile strikes, blackout, displacement, and the collapse of daily life.
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