Two weeks into my prison sentence, as I stood by the cell’s open door during exercise time, I saw two inmates holding a third from his underarms. They were walking him through the corridor, with the prison guard hurrying them to move faster as they struggled with the heavy weight of his body and his […]
On Rubble and Buried Meaning
“Tread softly;For I believe the crust of this earthIs nothing but the crumbled dust of these bodiesIt is disgraceful of us, regardless of time,To desecrate our fathers and forefathers” -Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī [1] There is no clear and documented historical context for the reasons that prompted al-Maʿarrī to write these verses. However, in the context […]
Punctuating Anxiety
First off, an admission: The process of writing this has, like most writing, spawned its own little qalaq storm. Least of all because, as I reflect on the topic of anxiety, I cannot help but anxiously wonder whether there is any point to writing on historical cultural anxiety at a moment when the present itself […]
Separation
clubhouse Julian Christopher pinged you: 3m ago You should join this room. I am talking with Chora Nerval, Gerard Labrunie, and 6 others about “Techniques for Eliminating Breath from Talk Radio” I am dead, dear listener. This is not a recording. This is not a metaphor. This is not a lie. I am dead, […]
Understanding the Void of a Historical Pit
Though we may disagree on the causes, extent, and means of liberating ourselves from the injustice we are living in Lebanon, the fact that this injustice exists remains undeniably true. This is not to say, however, that we necessarily comprehend its inner workings and how it oppresses our ability to think and act. Since the […]
Qalaq
By the time this piece of writing is ready for submission, London, where I reside, will hopefully be slowly dragging itself out of a year of endless restrictions and lockdowns, with the promise of the UK’s ambitious vaccination program and Boris Johnson’s grandiloquent determination to follow his ‘roadmap to freedom’. We sit in the post-Brexit mess, […]