Nico, Kufiya, "Chelsea Girls"

Nico (1938-1988) chose to look like this when she appeared in the 1981 BBC4 documentary on New York City's Chelsea Hotel.





She sings "Chelsea Girls," authored by Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison (of Velvet Underground), which appeared on her 1967 album solo album, Chelsea Girl. The song, and album, refer to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls (which I've never seen). The youtube segment from the BBC documentary opens with some clips from Warhol's film. Then Nico starts singing Chelsea Girls--not the entire song, just selected verses--backed by Joe Bidewell on electric guitar. Nico talks about how the girls at the Chelsea were her friends and how she was the person who made the Chelsea famous. These are the lyrics from the much longer song that she sings in the film segment.

Here's Room 506
It's enough to make you sick
Bridget's all wrapped up in foil
You wonder if she can uncoil.

(chorus) Here they come now
See them run now
Here they come now
Chelsea Girls

Pepper she's having fun
She thinks she's some man's son
Her perfect loves don't last
Her future's died in someone's past.

Chorus

Dropout, she's in a fix,
Amphetamine has made her sick
White powder in the air
She's got no bones and can't be scared

Chorus

Here comes Johnny Bore,
He collapsed on the floor
They shot him up with milk
And when he died sold him for silk

Chorus

But what about the kufiya?

It could "mean" any number of things. Or all of them. At the time, Nico was living in New York City, when the kufiya was quite the fashionable item for hipsters in the city. Like, for instance, Madonna and all the punk and hip-hop kids hanging around places like the Roxy, watching Afrika Bambaataa. And the kufiya would have been seen as well on the shoulders of left-wing activists involved in the anti-nuclear movement. And you might have seen it on post-punk bands like Delta 5. Or who knows, maybe Nico (who was living in Europe in the late seventies, as far as I can tell) was "citing" the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang), whose politics were so (unfortunately and tragically) tied up with Palestinian solidarity.

Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader, from the film, The Baader Meinhof Complex

Or the choice of the kufiya may have had more to do with cultural affinities. Nico recorded the album, Drama of Exile, in 1981, which has a bit of an "Eastern" feel to it, due to the presence of the Algerian Muhammad Hadi (a.k.a. Mad Sheer Khan) on guitar and buzuki. The production of the album has a murky history, and two different versions were released. (Unfortunately, it is currently out of print.)

Interestingly, this is one version of the cover of the re-released album, on Invisible Records (1983) and on Rakos (2004). Again, it shows Nico in what looks to be a kufiya.

(More research needed!)

Yes we have more kufiyas

Ayad Alkadhi is an Iraqi artist, one of many, many Arab and Muslim artists who have used Arabic calligraphy in their work, who has done some interesting pieces using calligraphy and kufiyas. These are from his "I am Baghdad" series. He says about the series: "I view the portraits as interviews, wherein Baghdad citizens express their feelings about post-occupation Iraq." What do you think this citizen is saying?

Is the kufiya here a mask? A blinder? A restraint?

And what about this one?!

In the middle of the skull are the words, عودة ذاكرة الكفاح or, "Return of the memory of the struggle," circled in red. Thoughts?

Kufiya kitsch.

Thanks to Arang Keshavarzian for these photos of kufiya bracelets, on sale right now at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City. Chelsea! Someone please buy one and send it to me. I'll pay you back!



What the Chelsea lacks, unfortunately, are green kufiya bracelets, for wear at rallies in support of the Iranian democracy movement. Hopefully, someone will fill the gap.

Kufiya out of plastic handcuffs.

This item from Yves Gonzalex-Quijano, author of the invaluable blog, Culture et polititique arabes. (He also publishes a blog in English that translates some of the original French material.) It's a photo of an installation (?) by Rana Bishara, called Kuffiyah for Prisoners, made of out plastic handcuffs that are used for prisoners. It's part of a great exhibit of contemporary Palestinian art, currently at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris. Check out the other work too, by Kamal Boulatta and Emily Jacir, among others. I particularly like the stunning still from Sherif Waked's video, "Chic Point: Fashion for Israeli Checkpoints."

Sorry, it's a bit hard to make out the kufiya image in the Bishara piece. But you get the idea. Go here for another view.

Kofia

This is the name of a leftwing Swedish prog/folk band that released an album of Swedish folk-rock/Palestinian music in 1976, called Palestina mitt land (فلسطين بلدي) or "Palestine is my land." You can download it here. Give it a listen. I am fairly familiar with Swedish roots music and with Palestinian "folk" music, and I'm not really convinced that the mix works all that well. I like the Swedish folk instrumental bits the best. A little to earnest sounding at times.

I've not been able to find out much about Kofia, except that it was from Göteberg, and that it released 4 albums. Palestine solidarity was very big on the Swedish left, and the European left in general, during the sixties and seventies. And Palestine solidarity is of course still strong in Sweden. I was told that for Swedes, the word kofia simply and unambiguously means Palestinian scarf.

Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew: Hip-Hop from Sierra Leone

Kufiyas aren't just about hipness and/or Palestine solidarity in the US and Europe and Jamaica, it seems that they are also big in Sierra Leone. At least that's what I conclude from these photos I ran across on The Afrobeat Blog. Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew are hip-hop artists from Sierra Leone. Did they get the idea of the kufiyas from US hipsters? From Palestinian freedom fighters? From US hip-hop artists? From the Jamaican scene? All of the above?

Please check out their mixtape. And read about them here and here.

Bajah has an album reportedly coming out soon in the US, including kufiya-spotted guest ?uestlove. And Talib Kweli, who must have put one on at some point, right?