IMEU : Performing Arts

Palestinian youngsters make music in former prison (Erika Solomon, Reuters)

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:26:23 PST

Ramzi Abu Redwan says he remembers waiting in the halls of Al-Fara'a prison as a boy, holding his grandfather's hand and staring up at the walls as he waited to see his father, jailed by Israel. Now, those same walls echo, not with the footsteps of Palestinian prisoners, but with music and children's laughter. The prison, just outside the West Bank city of Nablus, was used in turn by the British, Jordanians and Israelis.

Young Palestinians in Gaza find their voice through hip-hop (Jordan Flaherty, The Electronic Intifada)

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:08:48 PST

The Maqusi Towers in Gaza City look a bit like US housing projects. The neighborhood consists of several tall apartment buildings grouped together in the northern part of town. It is also ground zero for Gaza's growing Hip-Hop community. On a recent evening in one small but well-decorated apartment, a dozen rappers and their friends and families relaxed, danced, smoked flavored tobacco, and rapped the lyrics to some of their songs.

Staging a revolution (Patrick Martin, Globe and Mail)

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:09:23 PST

Walk down the unpaved lanes of the Jenin refugee camp, past the many posters of martyrs, and you'll find The Freedom Theatre - a drama school in its third year and a budding acting company that just staged its debut show: a production of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

Video: War on Gaza relived on West Bank stage (Al Jazeera English)

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 07:24:02 PST

While Palestinian leaders have been slowly edging towards reconciliation, its people are still dealing with the aftermath of Israel's latest offensive on Gaza. A group of actors in the West Bank have staged a play which focuses on the injustices of the war. Nour Odeh reports on how Israel's war on Gaza is likely to live long in the minds of Palestinians.

Israeli bombs silence Gaza music school (Nadia Hijab, The Daily Star)

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:11:55 PST

There was a music school in Gaza. It was just six months old. The school worked out of rented premises in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society building just across the street from the Preventive Security Forces compound in Gaza City. The compound was targeted in the first wave of Israeli bombardments on December 27, and twice more the next day. The five-story building was vaporized; a flat gravel surface is all that remains.

A Palestinian-Swedish cultural encounter in Bethlehem (Jiries Abu Ghannam, This Week in Palestine)

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:25:00 PST

The International Center of Bethlehem (Dar Annadwa) and the Swedish Christian Study Centre in Jerusalem (BILDA) are preparing once again to welcome young, arts-focused Palestinians and Swedes to Ad-Dar Hall for the annual Dandanat Music Festival. From its beginning in 2005, Dandanat has been a place of cultural and artistic exchange between young people from Palestine and Sweden. Each year, a new group of young artists gather together to interact

Palestinian youth express themselves through hip-hop (Suzanne Manneh, New America Media)

Mon, 26 May 2008 17:32:00 PST

May 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba - Arabic for catastrophe, the expulsion of the Palestinian people and creation of the state of Israel. However, the Palestinian Diaspora decided to commemorate it with a different image: sharing and performing hip-hop. A commemoration concert was recently held here at the Civic Center Plaza and it was free and open to the public.

The Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival (IMEU)

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:02:00 PST

The third annual Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival begins this weekend, and features a varied line-up of both traditional modern performances from local and international dance troupes at several venues throughout the city, as well as in Jerusalem, over the next two weeks. The festival opens on Thursday, April 17 and runs through May 6.

Promoting culture and hope in Gaza (Sami Abdel-Shafi, This Week in Palestine)

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:40:00 PST

The giant eucalyptus tree in front of the spacious yard of the Centre Culturel Francais (CCF) - or French Cultural Centre - in Gaza is symbolic enough. One of the last such trees that remain in the city, it stands in living memory of Palestinian appreciation of foreign cultures and in testimony to nineteen years of genuine French cultural partnership and cooperation with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Sabreen Association for Artistic Development (Julie Touma, This Week in Palestine)

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:25:00 PST

The Palestinian musical group Sabreen was established in 1980 with the vision of focusing on the development of the Palestinian modern song that reflects the humanitarian and cultural reality in general and the suffering emanating from the political situation in particular. Sabreen's music is derived from local sources as well as from international sources. This unique blend of musical genres and cultures continues to distinguish Sabreen's music.