Check out Narcy's Blog!

Just want to give a shout-out: be sure to check out Narcy's Blog...will put you in the know for what is going on in the Arab hip hop scene. 'Shek it out: http://www.illuminarcy.blogspot.com/

Muslim Comics Coming of Age

A recent post by one of the funniest Arab-American comics around, I hope you get a chance to watch this documentary on PBS. I certainly will be. I'll try to include a YouTube video of his comedy at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Hey friends- I just wanted to let people know about a great one hour documentary airing nationally on PBS on May 11, 2008 at 10:00 PM about the rise of Arab-American and Muslim American comedians. Its part of PBS's critically acclaimed series "America at a Crossroads" and its entitled: "Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age." It was shot over the past three years and it features Ahmed Ahmed, Tissa Hami, Azhar Usman, Maysoon Zayid and myself. Here is the link to the show's webpage on the PBS website: http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_standup.html
The 2005 and 2006 NY Arab-American Comedy Festivals and Comedy Central's The Watch List" taping are also featured in the special so many of you who attended those shows are in the audience shots.They also uploaded some short clips on Youtube including this one with me and my Sicilian mom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CiG6H9Kb4o.This documentary presents us being very funny and getting a chance to tell our own story (which we must do!) Obviously its rare to see a full hour on American TV that portrays us in a positive light.I hope you will check it out!
Thanks!Dean

Seminar on Cultural Diplomacy

Recently I attended a Seminar on Cultural Diplomacy at George Washington University in honor of Dave Brubeck, one of the first musicians to conduct cultural diplomacy tours around the world. Dr. Marc Lynch spoke about the parallels between Hip Hop and Jazz and the importance of listening to that which reaches those audiences that we want to see America in a more positive light, particularly in the Arab world. Now, I'm not in support of exporting Nelly or 36 Mafia, but instead, I argue we should foster the growth and development of those indigenous hip hop artists already in place. Perhaps we could provide productive hip hop mentors such as Talib Kweli and others who write and sing about social justice, equality and those issues which parallel the experience of many Middle Eastern youth who struggle to harness their emotions into a vehicle of song and spoken word. I believe that we really have a golden opportunity to reach those youth that so desparately need their voices to be heard. Arab rappers and hip hop artists have very important things to say--they are politically and socially conscious and are not singing about those things which the American public look to as frivolous and materialistic, but rather those concepts which America's historical experience has grown through and from. Exporting American culture is not necessarily the goal, but rather providing a public space for the growth and maturation of a culture already in place. We don't need to transplant American values onto populations (and the youth) in the Middle East; those values are already there. Instead, I argue we should work to enhance those characteristics which are already there that we too identify with: equality, social justice, freedom and happiness. I think we'll find that by fostering the opportunities for young voices to be heard, particularly in the Middle East (whether through hip hop, jazz, art, rock any artistic form) we will find a much more successful long-term cultural diplomatic strategy. I've been told that this is all well and good, however the Arab youth are so "angry" and "passionate"--well I say, right on! Isn't that what socially conscious music has always been about? What we see as muscially and socially acceptable may not be wrapped up in an Enya-like package, but instead, may be found in the emotional and angry poetry which comes from the hearts of the oppressed and are shouting at the rest of the world to pay attention. It would behoove us to listen. Hala.

Cultural Diplomacy

If you're a fan of cultural diplomacy and music and are near the DC area, this is a panel discussion not to be missed!

http://www.elliottschool.org/events/calendar.cfm?fuseaction=ViewMonthDetail&yr=2008&mon=4#640


TuesdayApril 8, 2008 6:00 PM - 7:15 PM Lindner Family Commons, Room 6021957 E Street, NW

Cultural Diplomacy and Dave Brubeck

David Grier, Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Elliott School of International Affairs; Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy and International Affairs, GWU
Hugh Agnew, Associate Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs; Professor of History and International Affairs, GWU
Ambassador Karl Inderfurth, John O. Rankin Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, GWU
Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, GWU

Please send RSVP to: rsvpesia@gwu.edu
Sponsored by The Elliott School of International Affairs

Palestinian Hip Hop and Social Justice

(Photo Separation Barrier artwork by Banksy)

I want to share with you the words of one of the best (in my opinion, the best) Palestinian Hip Hop groups today, DAM. As I've said before, the Arab youth, especially Palestinian youth have some very important things to say and have chosen the artistic vehicles of spoken word, rap, hip hop and other forms of music to express them. Hip Hop (and any music for that matter) is a very powerful way to present protest which communicates the forces of perceived (and real!) injustices to those experiencing similar life situations (regardless of geographical location) and to those who are guilty of perpetrating them. It is through this form of art that Palestinian and other Arab youth are able to break out of the prisons of poverty, seclusion, violence and suppression and express their hopes and wishes for the liberty from those who have built walls, real or imaginary around them.

The following words have been translated, but to get the true feel of the lyrics, I would highly recommend listening to (and purchasing!) them on DAM's Dedication album. (the link will take you to the page where you can order it). Personally, I feel the third segment is the most powerful and really expresses the pride and strength among many of the Palestinian youth today. And now, the words of DAM (Tamer Nafar, Suhell Nafar and Mahmoud Jreri):



Nghayir Bukra (Change Tomorrow)

This is for the small kids in
this big world
Lost, don't know what is happening
Barely opened your eyes, you saw tears
Barely opened your heart, you felt pain
Barely joined us, you saw that we are separated
Jews, Christians, and Muslims

None of these sides wants to
understand the other
Every side thinks they're
better than the other
Claiming that he's the only
one going to heaven
Meanwhile, making our lives
hell
But, you're different from us,
your heart is still pure
So don't let our dirt touch it

Keep asking for a life full of
equality
And if someone asks you to
hate, say no
I am the child of today, the
transformation of tomorrow
We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change
tomorrow
We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change
tomorrow

The path to equality is a long
road to travel
On the way you'll meet people
with bitter hearts
They'll try to make you feel
that they're above you
If that's what they think, then
they are beneath you
You're not a terrorist, You're
not a beast
You're a human being, and
what ruins your reputation
Is something called politics,
takes the good from you
For greedy reasons, and some
people walk with you
Because they feel sorry for
the 'pitiable' Arabs
Hell noooo, erase that word
from your mind
A pitiable man accepts his
poverty and you will not
Don't feel weak, whatever
We failed, yet you stand on
your feet
We cried, yet you wipe our
tears
Children of today, raise your
heads

We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change
tomorrow
We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change
tomorrow

So we can change tomorrow
I wanna make it easy for you

You wanna reach the future?
Then study your past
Know the meaning of
occupation in your mind
And know the meaning of
independence in your heart
And now, repeat after me:
In the WHITE & the RED (in
the white and the red)
The GREEN & the BLACK
(in the green and the black)
We will paint our culture, we
feel it even though we can't
see it
The ones who erased it, still
didn't erase us
They torture us?! Ohhh, if you
can't take it
Don't grab a gun, but grab a
pen and write
I'M AN ARAB like Mahmud
Darwish did
I'll never kill the others just to live
My heart is screaming, we are
human beings
My head is held high, in the
name of Palestine
My hand will never abandon
my abandoned brothers
Their hopes will cross my
heart, near the Handala
(Wait, wait, wait, if you don't understand
What I'm saying, go and ask
your parents)
And if no one has the answers,
study it alone
So you can answer your kids
We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change
tomorrow
We want education, we want
improvement
To have the ability to change tomorrow.

***

Salaam alaykum il a kul asdiqahi. *Riyah al Layl*
(Peace be unto you all of my friends) Riyah

Commanding Culture through Rhyme (NPR)

Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88110225&sc=emaf


From NPR:


Scroobius Pip, Commanding Pop Culture in Rhyme
By Guy Raz
Listen Now
[8 min 17 sec] add to playlist
'Thou Shalt Always Kill'
add
Video: 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' (YouTube)
'The Beat That My Heart Skipped'
add
Video: 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped' (YouTube)
'Letter From God To Man'
add
"[Scroobius Pip] is kind of a metaphor for when I realized that I could kind of do spoken word and hip-hop and have indie influence and punk influence and jazz influence [in my music] -- it didn't have to be one specific thing."Scroobius Pip All Things Considered, March 11, 2008 - Scroobius Pip is an unlikely hip-hop phenomenon. He's beanpole-thin, about 6'2" tall and white. He dons skinny ties, speaks with a nasal north London accent and wears his beard as long as a Hasidic Torah scholar.
And yet his self-released track "Thou Shalt Always Kill," with its accompanying video, already has taken the British music world by storm.

"They're not manufactured," says Phil Alexander, editor of the British music magazine Mojo. "They're refreshing and there's no doubt that there's a lot more to come from them."
From nearly the moment Pip and his collaborator, DJ Dan le Sac, posted the song to their MySpace page last year, it became a hit. In the video, Scroobius Pip tears down a narrow flight of stairs, out the door and onto a London street, where he recites a litany of pop-cultural commandments.

"Thou shalt not worship pop idols," he says. "Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Dekker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrett in vain." The video is a literal illustration of the rhyme. When Pip commands "thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture" — quoting OutKast's hit "Hey Ya" — he shakes a Polaroid. When he says "thou shalt not read NME," he snatches the famous British music magazine from the hands of a man in a park.

At one point in the video, Pip stands in a stairwell, holding a stack of legendary rock albums and begins to toss each one aside. "The Beatles: Were just a band / Led Zeppelin: Just a band / The Beach Boys: Just a band / The Sex Pistols: Just a band," he recites.
"It was just kind of pointing out that although the music is important and changes people's lives, the people who've made it are just regular people like everyone else," says Scroobius Pip. "I mean, their job is important and touches people's lives, but it's not as important as, like, your nurses and your care workers and things like that, so they are all just bands and they're just blokes making music."Scroobius Pip, whose real name is David Meads, took his stage name from an Edward Lear poem. The Scroobious Pip (as Lear spells it) is a creature without an identity, but who is happy to relate to all the other animals in the jungle.

"[The name] is kind of a metaphor for when I realized that I could kind of do spoken word and hip-hop and have indie influence and punk influence and jazz influence [in my music] — it didn't have to be one specific thing," Pip says. Scroobius Pip and Dan le Sac started collaborating a few years ago, when they worked together at an HMV record store outside London. Le Sac would take recordings of Pip's poetry and set it to sampled music and beats. The result is a sound that combines electronic beats and sounds, occasional vocals, catchy riffs and compelling spoken-word poetry. There's a whimsical quality to much of Pip's writing, but he also struggles to find the right language — words he can actually say. Since the age of 4, he's had to work around a debilitating stutter.

"If anything, I feel it's been a benefit," he says. "It's allowed me to grow. I was restricted with what words I could use because of certain [ones] I'd stutter on. I had to think a sentence or two ahead, and I'd be thinking, 'I'm gonna stutter on that word' so I'd be replacing it. So it kind of allowed me to widen my vocabulary without being much of a reader but more out of necessity."
Scroobius Pip and Dan le Sac's five-city U.S. tour starts Tuesday in New York and includes a stop at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Hip Hop Saturdays in Amman

If you like Arab Hip Hop/Rap then listen to Radio Amman (92.4 in Amman, Jordan) (listen online at: http://www.ammannet.net/) on Saturday at 8pm Jordan time, or 1pm EST. It's a mix of Arab hip hop and American hip hop, with discussions and interviews sprinkled throughout by DJ Niz-R (Nizar Samarrai). Most if not all of the programming is in Arabic (Lahijey Philistini au lahijey Sooriye) but you will hear some English. The program is one hour long. Enjoy--Hala!

(Press photo of DAM, a Palestinian Hip Hop Crew)

Sling Shot Hip Hop Update!

From info@slingshothiphop.com:

Hi EveryoneFresh from its world premiere as part of the Sundance Film Festival, Slingshot Hip Hop will have it's NYC premiere at MoMA's NewDirectors/ New Films.Tickets are on sale this Friday, March 7th, at 11:30am, and they will sell out quickly.

Showtimes:Saturday, April 5 at 9:00pm at the Walter Reade Theater, LincolnCenterSunday, April 6 at 4:30 at the MoMATicketshttp://http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/ndnf.html http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/ndnf.html http://www.filmlinc.com/ndnf/program.html

Check out the new VIBE magazine (with De Niro and 50 cent on thecover)Slingshot Hip Hop got a 4 page spread by Harry AllenOther screenings:SXSWMarch 15th, 12:45 pm - 2:00 pmAustin, Texashttp://2008.sxsw.com/carver/There will be a NEW Slingshot Hip Hop website up in the next coupledays. www.slingshothiphop.com so please check it out!

Thanks for all the support,
The Slingshot Hip Hop team

An Israeli and a Gazan Blog for Peace

An Israeli and a Gazan blog for peace

The Christian Science Monitor

By Josh Mitnick Thu Mar 6, 3:00 AM ET

Sderot, Israel - It's a friendship that spans the poles of the Israeli-Palestinian war zone – this southern Israeli border town and a Gaza refugee camp about 10 miles away. The two men have not seen each other in about a year. But they are now reunited in the blogosphere, writing a joint diary to stave off their own despair and prove that a dialogue is still possible across the divide.
Titled, "Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot," the pair rants in (uneven) English about the seeming futility about the Hamas-Israeli hostilities, the daily stress of surviving the violence, and the loneliness of optimists.

"Peace man," an unemployed bachelor who resides in Gaza's Sajaiya refugee camp, blogs between Gaza's power outages and complains of insomnia from the constant overflights of Israeli attack helicopters. "Hope man," a software programmer whose Sderot house has been buffeted on all sides by Qassam rockets, worries about being away from his kids – who are at school – when the next rockets fall.

"We decided we wanted to come out to the world, and to show that there other types of relationships between Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis in Sderot, not only rockets and violence," says the Sderot blogger. "Even though things are really awful, it's to show there can be a true connection."

On Wednesday, under pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would resume talks with Israel after a suspension earlier this week in protest over the killing of more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza.
On the eve of Ms. Rice's visit, Hope Man said he had low expectations that her talks would yield a permanent halt to the cross-border violence. "I don't think anyone has a clue about how to get out of this bind."

Started in January, the Israeli-Palestinian blog team (http://gaza-sderot.blogspot.com/) posts about every other day and they try to steer clear of political debate. The entries include first-person accounts of dodging Qassam rockets, shopping for scarce goods in Gaza's markets, the frustrating search for like-minded Israelis and Palestinians, and a mantra-like appeal for a stop to the violence. Afraid their public conversation may be seen as disloyal by their countrymen, they assiduously guard their true identities. The Gaza blogger says in a phone interview that some of his friends who know about the blog have expressed concern for his well-being.
The fighting of the past week, some of the worst in years, has made it almost impossible for Gazans to openly speak of peaceful relations with Israelis, even if it's only in cyberspace. "They say it's dangerous and that some groups don't like this," says Peace Man. "In Gaza, nothing is clear."

In Israel, too, where the firing of hundreds of Qassam rockets resulted in one fatality last week, there is hostility toward those who openly talk to Palestinians. "Who's that traitor that's writing that damned blog," Liron Amir, an Israeli sitting at a pizza restaurant in Sderot, replies when asked about the blog. "He should go live with them. We don't want any connection with them."
The bloggers met about two years ago through an Israeli-Arab dialogue group sponsored by the Center for Emerging Future in Boise, Idaho, which obtained Israeli army permits for Peace Man to cross into Israel to attend dialogue meetings in Jerusalem and Sderot.

Danny Gal, the Israeli coordinator for the center, said the group encourages Israelis and Palestinians to set up joint peace ventures. They originally hoped to establish a joint summer camp for kids from Sderot and Gaza, but since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israeli border permits have become very difficult to obtain unless it's for medical care. Though they continued to speak on the phone frequently, the frustrated pair decided to take their conversation online.

In the same way that blogs have experienced popularity as an alternative to mainstream news reports, a desire to "correct" the portrayal of the conflict in both Israeli and Palestinian media is another purpose of the blog, says the Sderot blogger. "If you turn on Channel 1 in Israel, you will not see a balanced picture. That's understandable. I'm not blaming anyone. We're just trying to represent our reality," says Hope Man.

"There's a tendency of the media – especially when there's an escalation – not to say things that are against the mainstream or the policy of the government. They try to show solidarity with policy." Talking by cellphone from his Gaza home, over the background thump of Israeli helicopters, Peace Man says that hope for peace among Gazans has nose-dived ever since Middle East leaders gathered in Annapolis, Md., to announce the resumption of peace negotiations.

Desperate for a respite from the violence, the blogging pair recently started calling for a one-month truce in the fighting, which they say will give a chance for the anger to ease on each side and for leaders to think creatively about searching for a solution. "We just need a breather," says Hope Man. "We may be a little naive, but its better than sitting around and waiting for everything to destruct around us."

Palestinian hip hop rapped at Sundance

Great article!! It's good to see coverage of Jackie Salloum's work!! Yay!

Jackie Salloum, director of 'SlingShot Hip Hop' Photo by: AFP

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080120/wl_mideast_afp/entertainmentusfilmfestivalsundancemusicmideast

PARK CITY, Utah (AFP) - Palestinian hip hop group DAM, which has spawned a cult following and a small army of imitators, was featured here in a new film at the Sundance Film Festival on the emerging Middle East music scene. "Slingshot Hip Hop" by director Jackie Salloum offers a peek into contemporary life in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Middle East hip hop culture inspired by the political rants of US rappers such as Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur and Eminem. Rapper Mahmoud Shalabi from the village Akka, is featured in the documentary, as is female hip hop duo Arapeyat. The movie also highlights the work of the group Palestinian Rapperz (PR) among others.

In the film the Palestinian rap groups offer an alternative form of resistance against "Israeli occupiers," however reinforcing entrenched Palestinian views of pre-1948 history.
Their message has left audiences and critics wondering if the new music might not simply reinforce longstanding cultural differences. But Salloum offers a different take.
"Palestinians are steadfast and a very proud people," she said in an interview with AFP.
"When I visit my family in the West Bank, the situation just gets worse and worse. But these rappers gave me hope," she said. The filmmaker said the rap groups often bring positive messages to youths, encouraging them to express their anger through rhymes, not violence.
And although they are not topping the charts in Israel, they have attracted a small, leftist Jewish fan base. "It's still underground, but it's getting through," said Salloum.

"Palestine's First Lady of R & B" Abeer, who is also in the film, established herself in hip hop singing on the song "Born Here" with DAM. She has collaborated recently with Los Angeles-based Palestinian-American rap crew The Philistines, and also is working on a solo album.
DAM meanwhile, recently launched a small record label to distribute Arab and Palestinian music. Salloum first heard Palestinian hip hop on the radio -- the song "Meen Erhabi" ("Who's the Terrorist?") by DAM -- which launched the group's stardom in the region.
She decided first to make a music video for the song, later to make her documentary "Slingshot Hip Hop," which shows scenes of rappers Tamer, Suhell and Mahmoud in their early, awkward recording attempts and their politicization during the Second Intifada.

By embracing rap "a form of music that is among the most popular around the world -- the music of the oppressed and the marginalized -- it's easier to sell their message to young Palestinians," Salloum said. "It's having a huge effect on the new generation," she said.
Salloum added, however, that some Palestinians do not agree with the music.
"There might be a tiny few who don't like it. Some say, 'Why are you dressed that way? You shouldn't wear baggy clothes.' At one show, some kids protested (on religious grounds)."
At one point in the film, a female rapper's family is threatened against appearing on stage again.
In the movie, the rap artists encounter crushing poverty, difficult cultural boundaries, daily border checkpoints, and other obstacles. "They're also always broke," Salloum said. "It took them five years to make an album, they're struggling financially, and there is no music infrastructure available to them," she said. "Hopefully, that will change."

The 10-day Sundance independent film festival opened Thursday and closes on January 27.