Professor of Arabic Studies Suja Sawafta joins us for a broad-ranging conversation about her work which includes editing the 47th volume of the International Poetry Review (focused on the Arab Spring), her incredible piece in The Baffler titled 'Two Shores, One Sea', and an upcoming project about Abdulrahman Munif, an exiled Saudi-Iraqi novelist.

Here is a link to the IRP's 47 volume: UNC Press

Music at the end was produced by Ahmed (thatkalb).

Description:

A beat sampling the El-Fanoun Palestine Popular Dance Troupe’s version of “Tarweedeh Shmaali,” sometimes translated to “Northern Song." 

The beginning sample, which repeats throughout the entirety of the beat is explained well by @sbeih.jpg. According to historians, these songs were sung by women passing their husband’s prison cells in British Occupied Palestine, and they would encrypt messages about how to escape from their cells.

Here is a translation of the song provided by @middleeasteye:

"Northern is the wind of home, northern
to the north, their doors open
Tonight, I will send [a message] with the northern wind


It will look for the loved ones and reach them, yaba [oh father]


Our exile has lasted too long and we miss them
 oh bird, go to the loved ones and tell them


Tell them and look for those related to them


And greet my beloved when you visit them"

Women played, and still play a large role in oral storytelling and the maintenance of folklore/cultural memories, and this history is crucial for sustaining a movement. Throughout the rest of the track, I sample women leading chants at various national protests.