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The Derivative is a bi-annual online publication launched in October 2020, in the midst of unprecedented political, social, economic, and environmental collapse in Lebanon. It is an attempt at building collective vocabularies, registers, and practices able to account for and run against the systemic onslaught we are faced with.

The Derivative is a student of the uprising of Oct 17, 2019; it is first and foremost a rhizomatic object around which to mobilize a diversity of praxes. Experimenting with collective editorial models, each issue is above all an excuse to think and make together and a way to expand and strengthen networks of friends and allies through divergent modes of address, thought, and action.

Every issue of The Derivative starts with three guest editors, each assigned a theme in the form of a three-letter root word (جذر) in Arabic. Each editor then collaborates with five contributors to help unfold the various facets of each theme, as well as an artist contribution responding to each text.

lori

In the Line of Fire (Oh Brother)

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What drugs will not cure, the knife will; what the knife will not cure, the cautery will; what the cautery will not cure must be considered incurable. – Hippocrates A call from the surgical residence in the outpatient clinic informing us of a new admission to the ward. “It is a burn case,” he warns, […]

Humans of Hamra

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In Hamra, banks and bars did not mix. During the day, banks were busy while bars were hush.  At night, banks were shut while bars were high. But nightlife is not possible without money, and money is not possible without banks. The humans of Hamra were hooked on both: bars by choice and banks by […]

The Jinniyya’s Daughter

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Translation: Ziad Dallal In his book on pre-Islamic poetry and the origins of Arabic prosody,  Palestinian poet Hussein Barghouthi, that comet that, just like my mother, burned out too soon, writes: “This is not a research project where [as the poet Abu Nuwas says], ‘I know some things (about the jinn) while being ignorant of […]

Three Poems

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[Safaa al-Sarray (1993-2019) was an Iraqi revolutionary poet and artist. He was killed by Iraqi security forces during the 2019 uprising and became one of its icons and a national figure. These poems were chosen from his posthumous collection of poems.] I am so sadso hungryfor peoplethat I forgot the tasteof wild liliesin my soulI […]

Sidewalks of Beirut

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I make eye contact with him and smile. I walk past him, then turn around to see if his eyes are still fixed on me. He discretely gestures at me and my friend to come over. He wears a wide grin crowned by a neatly trimmed mustache—the type that was common among men of all […]

Second Letter Against the Language (To Sean Bonney)*

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There are names which cannot be pronounced, yet no transaction occurs without them. These words of immense power circulate in an economy of self-silencing voices. If these words are screamed however, pulled from our throats and exploded with rage, they can rip our ears and destroy our hearing. Only then can we listen to the […]

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DISCLAIMER

The editors have made every effort to contact all copyright holders of the images used in this publication. If you claim copyright of any of the images presented here and have not been properly identified, please contact the editors with sufficient proof that you are the copyright holder. They will update the publication with a formal acknowledgment of your copyright.

MANAGING EDITOR

Haig Aivazian

MANAGING EDITOR FOR ISSUES 01 02

Ahmad Ghossein

Resident Editor

Lori Kharpoutlian

Arabic Editor

Rida Hariri

VISUAL CONCEPT AND DESIGN

Studio Zumra

WEB DEVELOPMENT

Jazilan

FONTS

29LT Azer by 29Letters and WorkSans by Wei Huang

Publisher

Beirut-Art-center_Logo_Final-white

beirutartcenter.org

© 2020–2025 The Derivative • المشتق. All Rights Reserved. Beirut Art Center Association.