Azzedine Alaïa, 82

Azzedine Alaïa, Fashion’s Most Independent Designer, Is Dead at 82
by Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, November 18, 2017

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Khalid Albaih: Cartoonist of the Arab Spring

Cartoonist’s Pen Leaves Mark Across Arab World
by Ismai'il Kushkush, The New York Times, June 7, 2013

The heroic song of Emel Mathlouthi: World Nomads Tunisia

Tunisian vocalist-guitarist Emel Mathlouthi (photo by Ghaith Ghoufa)

Emel Mathlouthi--exalted voice of the Arab Spring--concluded the live performance offerings of French Institute Alliance Française's World Nomads Tunisia last evening, accompanied by pianist Emmanuel Trouvé and guitarist Karim Attoumane. (The festival's film and visual arts presentations continue. See here.) Mathlouthi, who spent several years abroad in France where she could freely develop her career, is revered by progressive forces in her homeland. Her "Kelmti Horra" ("My Word is Free"), a song from 2007, became a major anthem of Tunisia's uprising. At Florence Gould Hall, she took a full and mesmerized audience on a ninety-minute tour through a spectrum of emotions--from alienated despair to thoughtful hope and even giddiness.

Mathlouthi is quite a mix: bare feet not quite squaring with the resplendence of her tomato-red party dress; pure, mellifluous vocals channeling anger and heartbreak not quite aligning with the impulse to sprinkle a couple of songs with Stevie Nicks spins. "Ethnia Twila," or "The Road is Long"--dedicated to "all those courageous people who fought for dignity and freedom"--veers from ballad to power ballad to New Age, Celtic-tinged folk reminiscent of Ireland's Máire Ní Bhraonáin (the voice of Clannad) and Canada's Loreena McKennitt.

Her gorgeous voice, soaring over the poetic, sometimes spooky work of Trouvé and Attoumane, often strongly evokes Björk. I noted that Björk resemblance and, later in the evening, chuckled to myself when, with an expression of ruefulness and yearning, Mathlouthi actually pulled Björk's "All Is Full of Love" from up her sleeve. Oh, and there was a Canadian angle, too, both unexpected and, curiously, expected. Can you guess? Yes, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," little more than dutiful in execution yet well-received.

Mathlouthi also doesn't need the reverb effects she occasionally applies to her songs. From art song to full-throated protest, her straight-ahead singing is quite enough.

It's regretable that FI:AF did not make provision for at least one or two more shows with this inspiring artist. But let's hope that the audience response--warm and loving--will encourage them to bring her back. While she need not have worried that her show would suffer without the two musicians who were unable to secure visas in time, it would be grand to have her return someday, able to share her songs in the way that, to her taste, represents them best.

Download Mathlouthi's Kelmti Horra CD here.

Connect with FI:AF here.

Radhouane El Meddeb: He's Everywoman

In Sous leur pied, le paradis ("under their feet, heaven"), Tunisia-born Radhouane El Meddeb dances to rapturous music and crowd cheers from a live performance by Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian vocalist who died in 1975 after a long, world-renowned career. Costume El Meddeb in satin brocade and glitter, and he might look quite a bit like this beloved singer, substantial of face and body. But in his hour-long solo--a U.S. premiere presented at Alliance Française's Florence Gould Hall for the World Nomads Tunisia festival--the dancer wears a loose black t-shirt and black shorts and sometimes slips behind or between folds of heavy black drapery.

Through a minimalist, schematic approach to both self-presentation and movement, El Meddeb pursues not self-camouflage but revelation of a state of consciousness, sourced in women's experience, existing beyond gender. His bare feet and limbs, the casualness of his attire, eschew glamour but do not preclude regality. He allows the tangy, shimmering, low-rumbling music and the singer's dark, earthy voice to entrance him into stark, iconic postures and gestures. Despite difference in language, that voice and that music, both unsparing in passion and torment, reach right into the listener's chest.

"Under their feet, heaven" refers to the Islamic saying, "Paradise is found under the feet of mothers." Choreographed by the performer in collaboration with French dancemaker Thomas Lebrun, the solo presents a lens through which we are invited to see the condition and striving of women of the Arab world and Arab Spring. It is a dance of recognition, of honor, of celebratory ululation and encouragement to action--just as Umm Kulthum's bitter love song, the famous "Al-Atlal" ("The Ruins"), can be read as a sly indictment of any form of seduction and betrayal, from intimate dyad to oppressive societal hierarchy.

My heart, don't ask where the love has gone/It was only a mirage that collapsed....

Give me my freedom, release my hands/Indeed, I've given everything and have nothing.

We woke up, ah if only we did not awaken/Wakefulness ruined the dreams of slumber....

Perhaps one day our fates will cross/when our desire to meet is strong enough.

As El Meddeb's hour nears its end, he gradually sheds his meager clothing. Shorts off. A little later, bikini briefs off. Then, the t-shirt--tugged down in front and behind before it, too, gets pulled away. In themselves, these are acts of rebellion, modest only in the quiet, matter-of-fact manner of their execution. The dancer's broad back gleams at us under the lights before he draws a train of filmy, white fabric around his lower body and sinks into the floor. The singer's voice rises to crescendo, and the trance is done.

For more on El Meddeb, read this account of a journey of the senses in another work, I Dance & I Feed You, reported by Neil de la Flor in Miami for Knight Arts.

For information on remaining World Nomads Tunisia 2013 events and exhibits, click here.

Sonia M'barek performs at World Nomads Tunisia fest

Tradition Performed With a Twist
Sonia M’barek at the French Institute Alliance Française
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, May 7, 2013

Arab spring: Art heralds revolution

Arab Art as an Early Indicator of Revolution
by Aida Alami, The New York Times, October 5, 2011