Foundations and Torn-Up Bibles
Author’s Note: This piece consists of the Prologue of my book entitled The Faith of an Unbeliever. This book is a spiritual and philosophical memoir about my phenomenological experience with Christianity amidst a vibrant religious milieu. As I explain in the piece, I grew up in a Christian family, school, and village. This mist of […]
The Three Stooges – Escapism, Hedonism, and the Lebanese Nightlife
Credits: Light shining on rock formations during Resonate by The Ballroom Blitz, The first 2 day solo outdoor festival. Feytroun, Lebanon, 2022. Photo Courtesy of Stephani Moukhaiber. Feytroun, Lebanon, Summer 2022. Somewhere in between the region’s most amazing rock formations with mere hours separating us from sunrise, an arm extended itself over the crowd […]
Escapism in Lebanon: Placing a Band-aid on a Bullet Wound
“It’s only in the loudest moments that we hear the silenced screams of our soul.” Perhaps the best way to silence an intense psychological pain is to surround ourselves with a much louder noise, an external noise. A noise so loud and capable of silencing the bitter reality of what it means to be Lebanese […]
Rasha Hamade: Two Years With Grief
“Since August 4th, 2020, 6:07 pm, no survivor of the Beirut blastperceives life the same way they did before. I find it therapeutic to create and live this continuous grief next to others who share similar yet contrasting experiences. I gathered the experiences of survivors living in Lebanon or part of the diaspora and channeled […]
Preserving Beirut Through Dia Mrad’s Lens
Credits: “6AM Splurge” from “The Silos Series” (2021) Photo courtesy of Dia Mrad A qualified architect but photographer by profession, Dia Mrad has taken on a career animating Beirut’s old buildings. Using photography as a medium, Dia narrates an often overlooked aspect of Lebanon’s history through his photography, immortalizing Beirut’s heritage and putting its rich […]
Lebanese Perception of Politics and Culture is Long Overdue for a Reckoning
Foreword “Our culture and heritage are so important because amid our division, they have the power to unify us.” This is how we first introduced the section to Nour. Starting the conversation lightly (you know, dabke, labne, and Rahbani), we inevitably came face-to-face with the identity crisis gravely influencing Lebanese culture. So then, […]