The afikra Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Producing for Arab Pop Stars: Metrics & Mental Health | Sleiman Damien Sep 25, 2023

Show notes

With a vast discography featuring both emerging artists and some of the biggest names in Arabic music, Sleiman Damien is completely tapped into the region’s pop genre. We asked him what he thinks of the phrase “Arab pop fusion”, which metrics actually matter to him, and why he thinks legacy superstars have more sticking power in today’s fickle industry.

We reflect on the role of ego in the region’s music industry, comparing the “old guard” to emerging musicians and their approach to collaboration. Sleiman also talks about his experience working as a ghost producer and how he reacts emotionally to his own work.

He also shares his mental health journey, especially when it comes to the emphasis placed on performance metrics and an obsession with knowing how people feel about his own creations.

Sleiman Damien is a music producer, DJ and audio engineer from Beirut, Lebanon. Much of his work is focussed on the Arab pop genre.

He has worked with music talents from across the region such as Georges Wassouf, Nassif Zeytoun, Haifa Wehbe, Assi Hallani, Ragheb Alama, Abeer Nehme, Dana Hourani, Maritta Hallani, Adonis, Zef and many more.

Theme music: "Peninsular", Tarek Yamani

👉: https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/

🔊: https://spoti.fi/47I59ns

Hosted by: Mikey Muhanna, afikra Founder & Executive Director

👉: https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/

**** ABOUT THE SERIES ****

Quartertones is a music show. It is an opportunity to listen to music, across genres, from musicians of and from the Arab world. This series is similar to NPR’s All Songs Considered that is focused on the Arab world. afikra will be inviting musicians of all genres, as well as music historians, to help better understand the music that they perform or study. In this series, the guests will be invited to talk about their work and play their music, whether live or recorded, in three segments. The series will host current musicians who play contemporary and modern, including alternative scene or hip-hop, electronic, classical music, among other genres. The musicians will also be from different geographies.

Join the live audience:

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****** ABOUT AFIKRA ******‎

afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region- past, present, and future - through conversations driven by curiosity.

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Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
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THIS SERIES IS PART OF THE AFIKRA PODCAST NETWORK
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ABOUT AFIKRA
afikra | عفكرة is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region – past, present and future – through conversations driven by curiosity.
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Abu Dhabi's Performing Arts: Present & Future | Bill Bragin Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

Bill Bragin – executive artistic director of the NYUAD Arts Center – talks to us about the center’s upcoming season, how it's impacted the city of Abu Dhabi so far, and what he envisions for the future of both the center and its ripple effect on the country as a whole.

Bill shares his approach to curatorial work and practice, as well as the importance of responding to a space/venue when programming. We also reflect on what it means to exchange culture and build long-lasting educational institutions, and how Abu Dhabi’s unique audience has reacted to the center’s work so far.

This conversation kicks off the second season of the podcast series in collaboration with The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi and delves deep into the intricate tapestry of the Arab world's histories and cultures. This podcast is your passport to the Arab world's rich and diverse histories and cultures. Get ready to embark on an immersive journey of knowledge, inspiration and endless curiosity.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Join us on an intellectual odyssey with The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi Podcast Series that delves deep into the intricate tapestry of the Arab world's histories and cultures.

As our guests share their expertise and personal journeys, we invite you to embark on a voyage of discovery. Prepare to be enlightened, entertained, and intrigued, as each conversation sparks a new flame of curiosity within you.

The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi Podcast Series is your passport to the Arab world's rich and diverse histories and cultures. Get ready to embark on an immersive journey of knowledge, inspiration, and endless curiosity.

****** ABOUT AFIKRA ******‎

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📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

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FADI BARDAWIL | Arab Marxism, the New Left & Political Realities | Conversations Sep 11, 2023

Show notes

Learn about Arab Marxism, radical patriarchal politics, and Lebanon’s political economy over the last century in this conversation with professor Fadi Bardawil from Duke University. Starting with his book “Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation”, Professor Bardawil maps out the history of the Political Left in Lebanon and more broadly in the region, pointing us to key moments over the past century. We also touch on the New Left, Lebanon’s new political realities and the significance of October 17th as a moment of feminist resurgence.

Fadi Bardawil is assistant professor of contemporary Arab cultures in the Department of Asian Studies and Middle East Studies at Duke university. He also regularly writes for Megaphone, an online independent media platform based in Lebanon. His work is interdisciplinary, combining political anthropology, critical theory and intellectual history. In particular, Bardawil focuses on Lebanon investigating articulations of cultural production and political practice.

About “Revolution and Disenchantment: Arab Marxism and the Binds of Emancipation”:

The Arab Revolutions that began in 2011 reignited interest in the question of theory and practice, imbuing it with a burning political urgency. In Revolution and Disenchantment Fadi Bardawil redescribes for our present how an earlier generation of revolutionaries – the 1960s Arab New Left – addressed this question. Bardawil excavates the long-lost archive of the Marxist organization Socialist Lebanon and its main theorist, Waddah Charara, who articulated answers in their political practice to fundamental issues confronting revolutionaries worldwide: intellectuals as vectors of revolutionary theory; political organizations as mediators of theory and praxis; and non-emancipatory attachments as impediments to revolutionary practice. Drawing on historical and ethnographic methods and moving beyond familiar reception narratives of Marxist thought in the postcolony, Bardawil engages in "fieldwork in theory" that analyzes how theory seduces intellectuals, cultivates sensibilities, and authorizes political practice. Throughout, Bardawil underscores the resonances and tensions between Arab intellectual traditions and Western critical theory and postcolonial theory, deftly placing intellectuals from those traditions into a much-needed conversation.

****** ABOUT THE SERIES ******

afikra Conversations is our flagship program featuring long-form interviews with experts from academia, art, ‎and media who are helping document and/or shape the histories and cultures of the Arab world through their ‎work. Our hope is that by having the guest share their expertise and story, the community still walks away with new ‎found curiosity - and maybe some good recommendations about new nerdy rabbit holes to dive into head first. ‎Following the interview there is a moderated town-hall style Q&A with questions coming from the live virtual audience ‎on Zoom.‎

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****** ABOUT AFIKRA ******‎

🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

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Chromeo: From Beirut to Planet Funk | P-Thugg Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

P-Thugg, one half of music duo Chromeo, shares the secrets to a successful and long-term musical collaboration. On set with us in Beirut, he talks about the experiences that led to his discovering funk and hip hop, growing up between Lebanon and Canada and his changing relationship with the former, and what it’s like attending the VMAs. He tells us of Chromeo’s early days when he and David “Dave 1” Macklovitch met and started making music together. We also reflect on how the craft of making music videos has changed and how important humor, honesty and musical knowledge are. P-Thugg also talks about the origins of his online marketplace “Ya Habibi Market” and names his all-time-favorite dance artists. P-Thugg, also known as Patrick Gemayel, is a Lebanese musician and one half of the electro-funk duo Chromeo. He’s also the founder of Ya Habibi Market, a collective of multidisciplinary MENA creatives, artists and designers from around the world.

Theme music: "Peninsular", Tarek Yamani

👉: https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/

🔊: https://spoti.fi/47I59ns

Hosted by: Mikey Muhanna, afikra Founder & Executive Director

👉: https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/

**** ABOUT THE SERIES ****

Join the live audience:

https://www.afikra.com/rsvp

Watch all afikra Conversations:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

****** ABOUT AFIKRA ******‎

🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New Podcasts + Videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

⚡ Support our work http://afikra.com/support

🔗 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afikra_

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OMAR KHOLEIF | Downloading Arab Identity | Conversations Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

Did “Arabness” die in 1973? How meaningful is the word Arab now anyway? And what role does the internet play in visual culture and civic imagination? In this multifaceted conversation with Dr Omar Kholeif, we explore many strands of thought, venturing from Arab culture as a “creole culture” to looking at the internet as a “pesky medium”. We share afikra’s core tenets and philosophy and reflect on key players in the production of Arab pop culture now in 2023.

Dr Omar Kholeif is an Egyptian-born artist, author, broadcaster, edit and curator (among other things). They are currently director of collections and senior curator at the Sharjah Art Foundation. Kholeif started their career as a music writer, researcher and documentary producer, going on to found the UK’s first Arab Film Festival (now called the Safar Film festival). They have since worked across film, media, fine art and visual culture. They have taught at many institutions including the University of Chicago and University of Oxford.

About their most recent publication “Art_Internet: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs”:

“A leading figure in the world of networked culture explores the artists and events that defined the mass medium of our time.”

Since 1989, the year the World Wide Web was born, the art world has grappled with the rise of networked culture. This unprecedented survey of the artists and innovators in this area from 1989 to today is interwoven with the personal narrative of one of the leading voices of the digital world. In this book, Omar Kholeif, whose prolific career parallels the growth of the internet, tells the story of this mass medium and how it has fostered new possibilities for artists, both analog and digital.

The book showcases work spanning a range of media from legendary artists including Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Nam June Paik, Heather Phillipson, and Wu Tsang. Tracing the key artists and innovators from the emergence of browser-based art to the dawn of NFTs, this is a tale for the present and the future.

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🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New Podcasts + Videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

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BASSAM HADDAD | Syria's Business Model | Conversations Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

What is Syria’s business model? How will the current political constriction, brain and human drain, and regional geo-politics affect the country moving forward? In this fascinating conversation with Bassam Haddad, we consider money as a mentality, Syria’s political economy, and reflect on the growing drug trade and rentierism. He also shares his experience founding (and naming) Jadaliyya and being the executive director of the Arab Studies institute.

Bassam Haddad is the Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and an associate professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He’s also the co-founder and editor of Jadaliyya and executive director of the Arab Studies Institute. He wrote “Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience” and co editor of “A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East.”

About “Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience”:

Collusion between business communities and the state can lead to a measure of security for those in power, but this kind of interaction often limits new development. In Syria, state-business involvement through informal networks has contributed to an erratic economy. With unique access to private businessmen and select state officials during a critical period of transition, this book examines Syria's political economy from 1970 to 2005 to explain the nation's pattern of state intervention and prolonged economic stagnation. As state income from oil sales and aid declined, collusion was a bid for political security by an embattled regime. To achieve a modicum of economic growth, the Syrian regime would develop ties with select members of the business community, reserving the right to reverse their inclusion in the future. Haddad ultimately reveals that this practice paved the way for forms of economic agency that maintained the security of the regime but diminished the development potential of the state and the private sector.

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🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New Podcasts + Videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

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BERNARD HAYKEL | Saudi Arabia in Transition | Conversations Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

Studying Yemen, al-Shawkani, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and football. In this fascinating conversation with Professor Bernard Haykel, he offers deep insight into contemporary Saudi Arabia, the realities of pivoting an entire economy away from oil, and what MBS’ vision 2030 actually looks like for the country.

We talk about why Haykel started out studying Yemen before moving onto Saudi Arabia, contemporary geopolitics, and key axes of power between China, the US, and Saudi Arabia.

Bernard Haykel is a professor of Near Eastern Studies and the director of the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at Princeton University. Between 1992 and 1993, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in Yemen. He has taught at New York, Oxford, and Princeton Universities. His research is primarily focused on the political and social tensions that arise from questions about religious identity and authority. He has written two books: “Saudi Arabia in Transition” and “Revival and Reform in Islam”.

About “Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change”: Making sense of Saudi Arabia is crucially important today. The kingdom's western province contains the heart of Islam, and it is the United States' closest Arab ally and the largest producer of oil in the world. However, the country is undergoing rapid change: its aged leadership is ceding power to a new generation, and its society, dominated by young people, is restive. Saudi Arabia has long remained closed to foreign scholars, with a select few academics allowed into the kingdom over the past decade. This book presents the fruits of their research as well as those of the most prominent Saudi academics in the field. This volume focuses on different sectors of Saudi society and examines how the changes of the past few decades have affected each. It reflects new insights and provides the most up-to-date research on the country's social, cultural, economic and political dynamics.

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🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New Podcasts + Videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

⚡ Support our work http://afikra.com/support

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DJing in the Middle of Nowhere | Nooriyah Qais Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

DJ Nooriyah’s iconic Boiler room set with her Baba on the oud, growing up between Saudi, Japan and London, and her beloved CDJ 2000s Pioneer decks. We sat down with Nooriyah Qais to talk about everything DJing, her guide to safeguarding yourself in the club industry, and how she transforms a sample into an infectious dance track.

We also touch on the community she’s built with her curated event and party series “Middle of Nowhere”, how she’s bringing SWANA music into the mainstream, and her favorite Arab cities to play.

Nooriyah Qais is a radio host, producer, DJ and journalist. Through her work as a DJ and audio producer, she champions music from the Arab region and diaspora, founding “Middle of Nowhere” which is a “SWANA focused collaborative in London”. Her iconic Boiler Room set reached over 1 million streams in the first 3 months. Nooriyah has performed at global dance festivals including Glastonbury.

Created & Hosted by Mikey Muhanna, afikra

Edited by: Ramzi Ramman

Theme music by: Tarek Yamani https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/

About Quartertones:

QuarterTones is a music show. It is an opportunity to listen to music, across genres, from musicians of and from the Arab world. This series is similar to NPR’s All Songs Considered that is focused on the Arab world. afikra will be inviting musicians of all genres, as well as music historians, to help better understand the music that they perform or study. In this series, the guests will be invited to talk about their work and play their music, whether live or recorded, in three segments. The series will host current musicians who play contemporary and modern, including alternative scene or hip-hop, electronic, classical music, among other genres. The musicians will also be from different geographies.

Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp

Follow

Youtube - Instagram (@afikra_) - Facebook -Twitter

Support

www.afikra.com/support

About afikra:‎

afikra is a movement to convert passive interest in the Arab world to active intellectual curiosity. We aim to collectively reframe the dominant narrative of the region by exploring the histories and cultures of the region- past, present, and future - through conversations driven by curiosity.
Read more about us on afikra.com

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SULTAN AL-QASSEMI & DR RIDHA MOUMNI | A Historic Exhibition of Arab Art at Christie's London | Conversations Aug 07, 2023

Show notes

What was it like curating the biggest exhibition of Arab art happening right now? Why is “Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation” such a landmark exhibition? We sat down with the exhibition’s curator and deputy chair of Christie’s MENA, Dr Ridha Moumni, and the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation to go behind the scenes of the curation process.

They share the logistical challenges of putting this exhibition together and share some of their favorite pieces on display including work by: Shakir Hassan Al Said, Ibrahim El Salahi, Mahmoud Sabri, Safia Farhat, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, Mohammed Melehi, Nadia Saikali, Samia Halaby, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Fahrelniss Zeid, Huguette Caland, Samia Osseiran Jumblatt, Simone Fattal, Kadhim Hayder, Abdel Hadi El Gazzar, Marwan and Hassan Sharif.

“Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation” at Christie’s London is an “immersive journey through the transformative epochs and powerful voices that shaped the modern Arab art landscape.” Drawing from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s rich collection, this gender-balanced exhibition showcases the region’s artistic heritage through the work of both well-known and emerging artists. The exhibition runs until 23rd August 2023. Kawkaba is a gender-balanced exhibition that presents masterpieces of leading figures of the field, such as Huguette Caland, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Etel Adnan, Marwan, Safia Farhat, Jewad Selim, Inji Efflatoun, and Mohamed Melehi.

It concurrently sheds light on underrepresented artists - based in the region, from the diaspora, or exiled -, who have highly contributed to modern Arab Art. Kawkaba is a window into the soul of the Arab world, an exploration of its complexities, and a tribute to its resilience and creativity. Through this exhibition, visitors are invited to traverse the artistic spirit of the Arab world and partake in its unrivalled transformative journey.

Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi is an Emirati columnist, researcher, scholar and founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation. He established the Barjeel Art Foundation in 2010 as a Sharjah-based organization dedicated to promoting North African and West Asian art.

Dr Ridha Moumni is an Art and Archaeology historian with a specialist focus on Antiquity and the early and modern art of Tunisia. He is the current Deputy Chair of Middle East and North Africa at Christie’s. Prior to taking up his position at Christie’s, Moumni was an Aga Khan Fellow at Harvard University’s Department of Art History.

****** ABOUT THE SERIES ******

****** ABOUT AFIKRA ******‎

🖥️ Live Events & Conversations hosted on Zoom http://afikra.com/rsvp

📍 Local Events in 30 locations worldwide (17 in MENA, 7 in Europe, 6 in Americas) http://afikra.com/chapters

🎧 New Podcasts + Videos weekly http://afikra.com/podcasts

⚡ Support our work http://afikra.com/support

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LAILA SHEREEN SAKR | Digital Activism in the Arab World | Conversations Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

What impact did the 2011 Arab Uprisings have on our use of technology? How should we approach, regulate and manage technologies as they emerge? And is it really possible to make political predictions by analysing tweets?

We talk about cross-cultural communication, her book ‘Arabic Glitch: Techno Culture, Data Bodies and Archives’ and using machine learning to predict the fall of Qaddafi. She explains what sentiment analysis actually means and how she grapples with existential anxiety. We also discuss why she sees the Arab World as the nexus of the technology era and not Silicon Valley.

Laila Shereen Sakr, better known to some as VJ Um Amel, is an Egyptian-American digital media theorist and artist. She is the founder of the digital lab, R-Shief, which is “one of the largest repositories of Arabic-language tweets”. Laila is also an assistant professor of Film and Media Studies, as well as a Faculty Affiliate in the Feminist Studies Department at the University of California.

Created & hosted by Mikey Muhanna, afikra

Edited by: Ramzi Ramman

Theme music by: Tarek Yamani https://www.instagram.com/tarek_yamani/

About Outline:

Outline is a process-focused conversation that looks at guests’ individual projects rather than their full bodies of work. The conversation sketches the journey of the project; the spark of curiosity that led to the project, the process of implementing the idea, the struggles that emerged throughout the implementation, and the aftermath of the project that includes new questions and new ideas. The name “Outline” stems from the idea of creating a retroactive project outline which is part of a broader emphasis on the process of curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking from a nuts and bolts perspective. Outline is not discipline-specific; the series will be held with artists, academics, writers, filmmakers, among others. Join the live audience: https://www.afikra.com/rsvp

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About afikra:‎