Critical essays and reflections on politics, culture, queerness, and contemporary art
This essay is an attempt to understand what thinking through failure and despair might mean for a generation that witnessed radical political change, including a revolution and its savage counter-revolutionary backlash, and a world order rapidly running toward its own demise and the possibility of love as resistance.
Letter (5) is part of a series of the project, "Letters to a Young Lover", an epistolary publication on queerness, ecological anxiety, and possibilities of relatedness in a post-apocalyptic world.
An essay reflecting on Hannah Arendt's dissertation, Love and Saint Augustine, trying to think about how the notion of love can also bring the notion of possibility.
Text contribution for A Book On A Proposed House Museum for the Unknown Crying Man, DAAD (with the support of AFAC), 2022.
This essay is part of a collaboration with artist Yvonne Buchheim, looking at the nature of migraines, the body in pain and family histories that manifest themselves through genetic and physical experiences and conditions. The essay uses the process of migraines itself as a dramaturgy to understanding what is going through our brains during a migraine.
A critical examination of authenticity discourse within queer communities and its implications for identity and belonging.
An essay part of the anthology, Encounter/تلاقي in November 2019. The text explores queerness as a constant process of disappearing and reappearing, across time and space. The translation was commissioned by Outburst Festival for Queer Arts, with the support of the British Council.
A reflection on contemporary Egypt and the sense of impending change in times of political and social uncertainty.
This essay reflects on the aftermath of the rainbow flag incident, when a rainbow flag was waved at a concert, by the Lebanese band, Mashrou Leila in Cairo in 2017. The subsequent arrests and persecution of members of the LGBT+ community in Egypt remains unprecedented.
A critical examination of cultural appropriation and the commodification of Arab cultural icons in contemporary global culture.
An analysis of how Egyptian intellectuals and cultural figures responded to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and its aftermath.
A study of the complex cultural and political formations in Arab societies during the colonial and pre-independence periods.
This essay reflects on the legacy of Nina Simone, both as musician, activist and a black icon. The essay was written after the release of Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone's documentary (she was the executive producer), What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) raising questions about motherhood, representations of mental illness and the problematics of doing political art while being constantly radicalized.
A cultural and political analysis of belly dance as both art form and site of cultural contestation in the Middle East.
An exploration of Egyptian cultural influence in the Arab world through the lens of music and its circulation in mid-20th century Beirut.
This essay was originally published in ArteEast quarterly, Winter 2014. An analysis of performance and propaganda during the United Arab Republic period.
The essay examines the 25 January Revolution in Egypt and the ensuing political protest that took place from 2011 on, through the lens of performance studies and the concept of the affect. The text tries to shed light on the importance of performing political symbols as potential and reaction to conditions of oppression and marginalization.