Magaña Baptiste
Image © Magaña Baptiste
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8/05. Magaña Baptiste reflects on her decades of achievement in dance and her place in the history of the yoga and fitness movement in San Francisco. Read
the San Francisco Chronicle interview.
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Jamal Baadani Speaks for Arab Americans in the Military
Image © Parade
Jamal Baadani on the cover of Parade magazine |
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4/05. Egyptian-born American serviceman Jamal Baadani, who is the son-in-law of Giza friend Mufdallah, is featured on the cover of Parade magazine.
In the accompanying article, he discusses the sting of prejudice he has experienced as one of the estimated 3500 Arab American citizens who serve in the military as well
as his reasons for serving his country.
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Jamal Kassab Future Arab Superstar
Image © Linda Grondahl
Jamal Kassab with Giza Club Fans |
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2/05. Arab American singer Jamal Kassab, who sings with the Arabian Knights and guests often with the
Georges Lammam Ensemble, was chosen from hundreds of applicants to be a finalist on the Lebanese television show, "Superstar". This show is BIG in the Arab world.
The show has a format similar to "American Idol". If you have Arabic cable, look for it on the Future channel. We're rooting for Jamal to take it all the way. Look for his face on the new hot music coming
out of Lebanon.
To read about the impact of this show in Arab-speaking countries, see the CBS news piece at this link.
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2/05.
Producer Birame N'Diaye, also known as dancer Leila Haddad's partner, won a
Grammy for
"Best Contemporary World Music Album"
this year for producing Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's Arabic-flavored CD "Egypt".
N'Diaye worked with the Fathy Salama orchestra in Cairo as well as N'Dour's regular musicians.
After the award was delivered,
N'Dour's motorcade through Dakar
brought out thousands of fans. Youssou is also a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations and an ambassador to Unicef.
Youssou N'Dour & Super Etoile at Stern Grove, San Francisco, July 2004.
Image © A. Bonham.
Read the
San Francisco Chronicle article of July 17, 2004 which appeared in conjunction with his appearance at Stern Grove.
Youssou is bringing his Egyptian group to Berkeley's Cal Performances on November 11, 2005.
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Ashraf Khalil's
article in the San Francisco Chronicle about public opinion in Cairo.
Giza Member Amina Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
at Los Angeles Belly Dancer of the Universe Pageant
Also featuring Bahlouk family, tour includes San Francisco
Bay Area Dance Pioneer Reflects on 60 Years of Teaching
in
San Francisco Chronicle Interview
Mondol Master Moh Alileche
© L. Grondahl
Sings of Imazighen (Berber) Culture and Struggle
On New CD,
Taawit ("Source of Water")
Read the
San Francisco Chronicle article
"Writing needs as much courage as
killing does......If my fingers had not
learnt the use of a pen they might have
learnt the use of an axe or a chopper."
Nawal El Saadawi
Controversial Egyptian writer and activist El Saadawi, author of The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World,
follows up her 1999 memoir, Daughters of Isis,
with another autobiographical work, Walking Through Fire.
Giza member Hala is interviewed about the cultural context of oriental dance
in conjunction with her sponsorship
of Egyptian dance legend Mahmoud Reda's US tour. Hala has also made a video of the July 2002 concert
celebrating Reda's visit. It features Badia from Cairo and Los Angeles as well as local oriental dance stars and
is available at her site www.haladance.com.
"I Dream of Amina"
"That sense of
creative liberation,
combined with a
unique personal
vision..."
Patio Magazine pays a visit to Giza Club Central.
"Spies, satanists and bellydancers"
"It may to all appearances seem a conservative society, but when it comes to
book buying, the sleazier it is the higher the sales."
No, they're not talking about
San Francisco and Danielle Steele.
See the 1997
Cairo Times article
about pulp fiction in Egypt. And you thought Harry Potter was popular. How about
The Age of Fifi Abdou, now past its ninth printing? And wasn't that girl in the
picture at the Giza Cabaret last Saturday?
Can you say "Waksman-Kimiagaroof" really fast?
Probably not. So just say "Mira Sings". Local musician Mira Waksman-Kimiagaroof sings mostly in Hebrew,
but her music comes from all over the Middle East. Giza Club members will recognize many of her band
members as accomplished Arabic-style musicians. Mira sings monthly at Cafe Dolce Vita in Palo Alto on the first Saturday of the month.
Read the recent
Palo Alto Weekly feature about Mira.
Umm Kulthoum's Birthday December 31
Umm Kulthoum (1898-1975) was arguably Egypt's most famous singing superstar. The Egyptian
Ministry of Culture has just opened the
"Kawkab Al-Sharq" (Star of the East) Museum to commemorate her achievements.
Read about it in
ArabicNews.com.
Books for 2002
The Oxford Encylopedia of Ancient Egypt-Donald B. Redford, Editor.
In typical Oxford University Press fashion, this book compiles 600 original articles about
ancient Egypt in three weighty-looking tomes. They have kindly put the chapters on "Hairstyles",
"Cleopatra", "Medicine", and "Scarabs" online as teasers. If you pull up the "Cleopatra" article (under "Samples"), you
can also read the first part of the "Clothing" article.
Mass Mediations
New Approaches to Popular Culture
in the Middle East and Beyond
-Walter Armbrust, Editor.
This book is available online in its' entirety. Chapters on Badia Masabni, the Egyptian dancer and
impresario; Master Musicians of Jajouka; the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema (including the film
Flirtation of Girls with Leyla Mourad), and the film Nasser 56.
Two from the various Middle East series from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
the University of Texas at Austin.
Asmahan's Secrets: Woman, War, and Song-Sherifa Zuhur.
UC Berkeley Professor Zuhur explores the life and myth of Druze princess Asmahan,
sister to singer Farid el Atrache and singer and actress in her own right.
Men and Popular Music in Algeria: The Social Significance of Rai-Marc Schade-Poulsen.
Rai music as it relates to Algerian social mores. Read
an introduction to Rai music that has been
adopted from Schade-Poulsen's book.
"What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response"
TV Broadcast Sunday, December 30, 2001 at 8:00PM/11:00PM ET.
Bernard Lewis, author, Princeton professor emeritus, and Middle Eastern scholar, discusses his
book on
C-Span's
Booknotes Program.
Check your local television listings
for C-Span-2's channel in your area. A transcript of the broadcast will be available at Booknotes.org after it is aired.
Naguib Mahfouz' 90th Birthday December 11, 2001
Egyptian Author Naguib Mahfouz
Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988
His bio at the Nobel Foundation e-Museum
(celebrating its' centennial in 2001).
His
lecture to the Nobel Foundation and call for global social justice.
"Biased to Grassroots",
an article at Egyptian State Information Service site.
List and synopses of some of his work.
Photo courtesy Dina Talaat
Up Close and Personal with
Super-Star Egyptian Dancer Dina
Egyptian Reporter Article (7/01)
Earlier Cairo Times Article (8/99)
Dina also quoted in
salon.com's
somewhat sensationalist
article (7/00)
about the dance scene in Egypt.
Dina's own site at http://dinaonline.net/.
You can even learn dancing online by subscribing to e-dancing
school with Dina!
Lamp art courtesy
gif.com (J. Kyle)
