Mass Raqs: New England's Premiere Belly Dance Festival

10/29/2024

**Palestine Cinema Days in
Portland, OR, this Saturday**
On the somber anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, observed on November 2nd, and in an effort to amplify Palestinian voices, we are screening “Naila and the Uprising” (2017) directed by Julia Bacha.

This event is part of the global Palestine Cinema Days initiative, a global effort celebrating Palestinian art and activism with film screenings taking place on the same date, all around the world.

Event Details:
* Film: Naila and the Uprising
* Date: Saturday, November 2, 2024
* Time: 1:30 PM (Doors Open at 12:45 PM)
* Location: Datura Studio, 116 NE Russell St, Portland, OR 97212
* Admission: FREE!
Naila and the Uprising tells the compelling story of Naila Ayesh, a woman at the forefront of the nonviolent resistance during the First Intifada. Through her journey, we witness the power and resilience of women in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.
(Please note the location is up 1 flight of stairs)

10/08/2024

En solidaridad. En este doloroso aniversario se renueva el compromiso a la lucha por una Palestina libre. 🇵🇸💖
Imagen por
🇵🇸

10/06/2024

Sometimes folks are looking for ( etc). So I figured I should let y’all know there’s some here!

09/27/2024

Gracias por todo, Walla Walla.
Ha sido una aventura.

09/27/2024

Some information for you all to consider, friends.
If anyone has a credit for slide #19, will you please share it with me?
As always, please support and follow all this good people who are helping us so much with their content in these vulnerable times.

09/08/2024

08/17/2024

NEW BOOK ALERT:

Transnational Arab Stardom: Glamour, Performance and Politics

Kaya Davies Hayon, Stefanie Van de Peer
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2024
Building on the work of star studies scholars, this collection provides contextual analyses of off-screen representation, as well as close textual analyses of films and star personas, thereby offering an in-depth study of the Arab star as text and context of Arab cinema. Using the tools of audience reception studies, the collection will also look at how stars (of film, stage, screen and new media) are viewed and received in different cultural contexts, both within and outside of the Arabic-speaking world. Arab cinema is often discussed in terms of political representation and independent art film, but rarely in terms of stardom, glamour, performance or masquerade. Aside from a few individual studies on female stardom or aspects of Arab masculinity, no major English-language study on Arab stardom exists, and collections on transnational stars or world cinema also often neglect to include Arab performers. This new book seeks to address this gap by providing the first study dedicated entirely to stardom on the Arab screen. Structured chronologically and thematically, this collection highlights and explores Arab film, screen and music stars through a transnational and interdisciplinary set of contributions that draw on feminist, performance and film theories, media studies, sound studies, material culture, q***r star and celebrity studies, and social media studies.

08/17/2024

NEW BOOK ALERT:
From Dr. Shayna Silverstein ()
“Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria.” In it, she analyzes how Syrian dabke, a popular dance music suffused with collectivism and cultural memory, has paradoxically contributed to isolation and fragmentation within Syrian society.

Silverstein’s main area of research examines the politics and aesthetics of sound, movement, and performance in the contemporary Middle East and generally attests to the centrality of performance in constituting and destabilizing social spaces in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA).

“Drawing on almost two decades of ethnographic, archival, and digital research, I show how dabke dance music embodies the fraught dynamics of gender, class, ethnicity, and nationhood in an authoritarian state,” says Silverstein. “My book situates dabke in a broader account of expressive culture in Syria’s recent (and ongoing) turmoil. I show how people imagine the Syrian nation through dabke, how the state has coopted it, and how migrants and refugees have reimagined it in their new homes in Europe and the United States.”

“Fraught Balance” is available for order at bookshop.org. shaynasilverstein.com/fraughtbalance-media/ is the companion booksite.

08/17/2024

NEW BOOK ALERT:
A memoir from the lead dancer of the legendary Reda troupe of Egypt, Madame Farida Fahmy. Available in hardcover, e-book, audiobook formats, from:
https://www.faridafahmy.com/NewBook.html

‘Farida: a memoir’ is translated into 13 Languages. NEW Video Book narrated by editor, Michele Drouart out 1st Sep 2024.

08/17/2024

NEW BOOK ALERT:
(Repost from )
See Nissa’s profile to purchase

08/10/2024

More at

08/10/2024

Can we please move together with integrity and consistency? Biden is still president but he suddenly disappeared from the news and we are so easily distracted! The focus on Kamala is a strategy to dilute the pressure on Biden for being a war criminal complicit in (and main funder of) genocide.
Please - do not act (or campaign) like genocide is over. Kamala is also a part of this government and also supporting this genocide.
The Olympics are a distraction too, and it is an embarrassment upon the whole enterprise that Israel is allowed to compete while carrying out a genocidal campaign. We can’t stop talking about Palestine. We can’t stop protesting. We can’t stop interrupting her. We can’t stop pushing for divestment. We can’t stop calling for a ceasefire. We can’t stop boycotting Israel and calling for sanctions. We can’t stop demanding immediate aid be allowed into Gaza, including water and medical supplies. We can’t stop demanding that Israel stop murdering doctors, aid workers, and journalists. We can’t stop calling for accountability for the murder of civilians, children, for the r**e and torture taking place in Israeli prisons; for the starvation campaign. The conditions have only worsened. We can’t stop. Please don’t stop. 🇵🇸