In Berlin these days, the police seem to regard the kufiya as a sign of...
In Berlin the popo are keeping a close watch on kufiya wearers. The kufiya, they seem to have determined, is a sign of anti-Semitism.(posted May 20, 2022)
View ArticleKufiya skirt (via YOOX)
I checked YOOX, 8PM, Midiskirts online just now, and this item no longer seems to be available.As is often the case, someone sent this to me (thanks, can't remember who did!), and it took some time...
View ArticleAswan: Krushchev visits Egypt
I very much like this photo of a Nubian (I presume) kid looking at the photo welcoming USSR Premier Nikita Krushchev on his May, 1964 visit to Egypt. (I apologize for not keeping a record of where I...
View Articlekufiyas and tarbushes in the 1936-39 revolt
I've written rather extensively about the push by the Palestinian rebels to impose kufiyas on Palestinian males at the height of the 1936-39 revolt, in fall 1938. And I just came across another story...
View ArticleJanuary 6 kufiya
The last video shown yesterday (June 13) at the House January 6 hearings featured several insurrectionists explaining that they were present at the Capitol that day because Trump had called them to...
View ArticleChile kufiyas, the estallido social (social explosion) of 2019
From the New Yorker, June 13, 2022, an article on Chile's new leftist president, Gabriel Boric. Read it here.
View ArticleSoviet Aswan Dam poster
"Aswan Dam. We are loyal to our friends and always help them in a brotherly unmercenary way." Soviet poster, 1970s. Source here.The effect of the Aswan Dam on Nubians, one elderly Nubian told me in the...
View ArticleShows I've seen: Grateful Dead, Sly & the Family Stone, Creedence,...
I attended Swarthmore College in 1968-69 and tried to get into Philly as often as the budget and time would allow to see shows. The Spectrum was a big arena with a revolving stage (!). Weird, but at...
View ArticleQussay Samak on Naguib Mahfouz in Merip Reports: "a competent novelist of the...
I love this assessment, from the Egyptian leftist Qussay Samak's article "The Politics of Egyptian Cinema," in Merip Reports No. 56 (April 1977). Get it via JSTOR here.
View ArticleForthcoming book chapter: Rai, World Music, and Islam
Very honored to have been asked to contribute to this great volume, to be published, inshallah, in October. Look for it! My chapter is entitled: "Rai, World Music, and Islam." More details here.
View ArticleGraham Nash, "Oh! Camil (The Winter Soldier)"
This is an amazing song (found on Nash's 1973 album, Wild Tales) that I only just learned about, thanks to a brilliant book I recently finished, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the...
View ArticleRIP 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,...
View ArticleCheikha 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:"Alors voici un document extrêmement rare et inédit sur...
View ArticleMy kufiya article from 1992: "Seeing Double: Palestinian/American Histories...
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...
View ArticleMy 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...
View Article#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...
View Article#kufiyaspotting: Esperanza Spalding at the Grammys (+ watermelons: Aja Monet...
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...
View ArticleAmericans march for Palestinian right of return, April 1973
This is an AP wire photo that I purchased off of ebay a couple years back. I don't know whether the photo ever showed up in any news report on the event. A group of Americans, I don't think belonging...
View Article#kufiyaspotting again
I'm gonna try to get back to logging kufiya related incidents. Kufiya wearing has really blown up since October 7 (no pun intended), and I've been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material. But here...
View ArticlePalestinian health institutions under attack: 1978, Lebanon.
Interesting film, "Palestine Red Crescent Society" (1979, dir. Monica Maurer and Samir Nimer). Filmed in 1978 in Lebanon, it examines the development and the work of the PRCS. Its work encompasses not...
View Articlekufiyas post-October 7
Since October 7 there has been a steady stream of reports about the kufiya: their growing use and visibility, and, in response, efforts to squelch or silence or even arrest people for wearing them....
View ArticleThe legacy of Genocide Joe Biden
From artist Laura Harling: The Legacy: Joe Biden displays his legacy while Palestinian children beg for food. Link to Laura Harling's excellent gallery, here.
View Article