A vision of a city that was the place I was born in, and sometimes the fugitive corners of all the other streets I’d ever wandered down, called to me insistently night after night. I walk the deserted routes of my childhood at dawn towards something unnamed. Then there is darkness and a full moon, a bright neon moon.
Arts & Letters
The Venice Biennale is regarded as one of the most prestigious cultural events in the international calendar. Its history dates back to 1895; since 1998, it has sought to place new work in a relationship with the past and promote a stronger dialogue with the viewer.
Early on a Friday morning, we enter the Muslim quarter of old Jerusalem through Damascus Gate. Arab-owned shops are opening languidly. Some display images of Mecca and Medina, indicating that the owner has been there on pilgrimage.
Three poems by Marilyn Hacker.
Once upon a time there was a quiet little mosque in the middle of a business park. The mosque occupied the ground floor of an office building, and the other three floors were devoted to an import-export business. The mosque was a busy place on Fridays, when Muslims from the west side of town would gather, but other than that, it was fairly quiet.
My name often causes misunderstanding among people who think that Muslims must have Arabic names. Some forget that Islam spread beyond the peninsula where the religion was founded and that most Muslims are not Arabs.
Unlike so many of my ‘people’, I am not steeped in family, culture, religion, a past. While everyone I knew growing up was wrapping themselves in what was expected of them, like naked souls dressing up against the cold, I was cutting myself free.
Four poems by Saudi-Irish poet Rowyda Amin.
Only on my third visit to the Alhambra did I really begin to understand the writing on the wall. The palace-fortress of the Nasrid rulers of Granada can be read – if you know Arabic – just like a book.
It was my last night in that city. I’d been looking for her all day, dodging the traffic, the beggars, the rumours of war. Life is beautiful but cheap there. Even the poor buy flowers, they are a necessity.