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Stories can be told without words, in the hands reaching for the plate on the lunch table, in the torn bread dipped in oil and zaatar, in the ripe fruit picked fresh off the tree, or in the blessings whispered before a meal begins. Food is the way many of us first learn about care. We are taught that sharing a meal amongst family and friends is sacred. We also come to know that hunger is not always about sustenance, and that nourishment often arrives as a form of love, generosity, resistance, or even mourning.
The clash between tradition and modernity has been an ongoing narrative in the Levant. A region proud of its ancient civilizations and historical legacies, the Levant holds onto a wide array of cultural, social, and even religious traditions. These traditions are deeply rooted in centuries- old customs, familial bonds, and cultural practices passed down through generations [...]
For over four months, the settler-colonial state has been conducting a genocidal war on Gaza, a series of raids and detention sprees in the West Bank, and a war on South Lebanon. It is within this context that our seventh issue, titled "Pre-Occupied Thoughts," unfolds – a collection of reflections, analyses, and narratives that aim to shed light on the multifacetedness of the occupation that extends beyond mere territorial boundaries and goes back long before October 7.
Noun: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. Many of those who have lived in the Levant or within Levantine families have struggled with the concept of freedom on multiple levels. This struggle manifests as the little girl who has to understand that she is not allowed to do the same things her brother does. [...]
Tilt; emotional upset, mental confusion, or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in poor play. [...]
Change; an act or process through which something becomes different. Change is when cavemen learned how to use fire. When empires were torn down to make space for new ones. When the leaves on the tree change from green to orange, brown, or yellow. Change is natural, if not necessary to keep up with the progression of life. In the last couple years alone, the world witnessed many events that uprooted our sense of normalcy, and replaced it with new norms better fitting for the times. [...]
The intertwined crises that continue to wreak havoc on our home and our loved ones weigh heavily on us, and the zest and red-hot energy that supercharged the days following our beloved October 17 feel farther away by the day. [...]
As daily life in the homeland deteriorates beyond recognition, we all feel nostalgia for a bygone Lebanon that never really existed. The romanticized dream of what our society once was, however, pales in comparison to the Lebanon we have the potential to build. Join us in flipping the script on those who would rather we stayed silent. Sometimes the darkest times illuminate the brightest ideas.
In the first issue of the first ever digital magazine for the Lebanese diaspora, we introduce a wide range of initial topics that captivated us during this tumultuous time – from activism through art to parliament’s staggering inaction to working from home in Beirut during a pandemic.