News
What It Takes to Be Mister Lebanon
As opportunities shrink in Lebanon, contestants are pouring increasing amounts of time, money and effort into the country’s most famous male beauty pageant, and the possibilities it might unlock
Eurovision, Samira Said, and Morocco’s Unreceived Love Letter
Revisiting Morocco’s choice to perform at Eurovision in 1980, the first and last Arab country to do so, reveals a complex web of forces at play in our history, and a legacy that stands in evidence of a confused national identity, much less healed from colonial violation than it purports to be
Aestheticised Violence and The Spectacle of Political Slop
How a war became content, and why the exhaustion is the point
A Language Of Image: From Manuscripts To Meta-Algorithms
From Islamic manuscripts to Blender renders, the image of the Arabic language has always been built from overlapping histories and references. The designers pushing it forward today are proving that visual history is most useful when it becomes a tool for invention rather than nostalgia, and that the archive is not a repository of finished answers
Meet the Initiatives Rethinking Syrian Craft
MSN3 DMSHQ and Syrian Crafts Council are working to rebuild what was lost before it disappears for good
Following Traces: Anthony Bourdain, Food, and the Politics of Travelling with Care
Anthony Bourdain arrived in Beirut in 2006 to film a food show. Two days later, Israel bombed the city. The footage, and the Emmy nomination that followed, say something uncomfortable about the Western appetite for Arab tragedy on television. On food, travel, and the difference between loving a place and consuming it
The Only Producer Who’s Ever Gotten Fairuz’s Blessing
Kanye did it. Drake did it. Madonna got sued $2.5 million for it. Only one producer has ever sampled Fairuz completely legally, and he's telling the whole story