Monday, March 18, 2024
#kufiyaspotting again
Monday, February 12, 2024
Americans in Lebanon march for Palestinian right of return, April 1973
Monday, February 05, 2024
#kufiyaspotting: Esperanza Spalding at the Grammys (+ watermelons: Aja Monet + artists4ceasefire: boygenius and Annie Lennox)
At the Grammys last night, jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding (double nominee)
showed her support for the Palestinians by donning a kufiya.
Also: poet Aja Monet, up for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, carried a watermelon clutch.
and...boygenius wore arists4ceasefire pins.
And finally, Annie Lennox gave a shoutout for #ceasefire
Sunday, December 31, 2023
#kufiyaspotting: John Lennon, Bermuda, 1980
October 7 and its aftermath have produced multiple kufiya spottings, and a fair bit of news coverage. I've been too overwhelmed by the events to get on the blog to write about it. I will try to make more of an effort in future, but all I can promise is dribs and drabs. This represents some housekeeping, in fact, a photo that has been on my hard drive for some time but never managed to post.
John Lennon spent some time in Bermuda in 1980. A friend sent me this photo, found on reddit. The description says only this: "new release photo, on deck, Bermuda June 1980." Do we presume then that John was on some yacht, and needed to cover himself from the sun, or protect himself from the wind. And why did he use a kufiya? Kufiyas were starting to become somewhat common street wear in US urban areas by the early eighties, as I've written about elsewhere, so I guess it was simply something he came across in New York City, where he lived. That's all I've got! Check out the photo:
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
My book chapter, "The Kufiya" (2021) available here as a pdf
My book chapter, "The Kufiya," published in Asef Bayat and Linda Herrera, Global Middle East: Into the Twenty-First Century, University of California Press, 2021, is now available here, as a pdf.
Note that there is even a kufiya on the cover of the book! (On the shoulders of Edward Said, from a mural.)
Note too that if you search this blog there is lots of kufiya/kaffiyeh/keffiyeh content.
My kufiya article from 1992: "Seeing Double: Palestinian/American Histories of the Kufiya"
My 1992 article, “Seeing Double: Palestinian-American Histories of the Kufiya,” published in Michigan Quarterly Review 31(4): 557-577, can now be found here, as a pdf. It also appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review's 60th anniversary issue--60(1): 341-362 in 2021.
Sunday, July 09, 2023
Cheikha Rimitti Scopitone!
Watch it here.
This is courtesy the FaceBook page (which I hope you can access) of the Archives Numérique du Cinéma Algérien, who say about it:
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
RIP Otis Grand
RIP my old pal Otis Grand (on left), who passed away on June 7in London. Me in the middle, on vocals, on the right, Walid Boustany. We got our start playing 'unplugged,' in 1973. then got a full, electrified group going called Bliss Street Blues Band. On harmonica, George Bisharat, AKA Big Harp George. Bass: Todd/Craig Lichtenwalner. Drums, Raja Kawar.
Then we dispersed, Otis ended up in London, eventually started his own band, and was such a prodigious talent that he was voted 'Best UK Blues Guitarist' seven years running (1990–1996) by the British Blues Connection magazine. (After 7 years, his name was retired.) He issued lots of recordings, they are easy to track down. I'll have more to say about Otis in future.