Oppression is not a point of view
Published on May 21, 2013 Reviving calligraphy and shaping the future of script through her students, Bahia Shehab, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of the Arts, works on the first ever encyclopedia of the Arabic script.
» Read moreBY Nama Khalil 2 September 2014, Design and Violence From the curators: Using sexual violence to intimidate, crack down on dissent, or brutalize opposition is nothing new. Neither is graffiti—illicit drawings are older than Pompeii. However, such designs have taken on new life of late, paralleling an increased public and political focus on female sexuality. During the wave of disparate yet
» Read more24 March 2014, Louisiana Channel “Graffiti is like flowers. They are beautiful, but they don’t live long.” An interview with Lebanese-Egyptian street-artist Bahia Shehab about the role of art during the Arab spring: “You cannot resist ideas. They can travel into any mind.” “I am a quiet person, I don’t know how to scream”, says Bahia Shehab. “My contribution
» Read morePosted by: Karen Eng September 7, 2012 TED Blog When art historian and scholar of Arabic script Bahia Shehab was asked to create a piece commemorating the centenary of the first exhibition on Islamic art in Europe, little did she know that the Egyptian revolution would ultimately transform her into a street artist and activist with a powerful and subtle voice of protest.
» Read moreBy Bahia Shehab, Citysharing The streets of Cairo have become an open gallery to many artists wishing to express their views, dreams and hopes for a better Egypt. Artists are using the walls of the city to tell their stories, to lament the death of martyrs and to call for political and social change. Thus each painted wall acquires a life of its
» Read moreFilmed June 2012 Subtitles available in 36 languages Art historian Bahia Shehab has long been fascinated with the Arabic script for ‘no.’ When revolution swept through Egypt in 2011, she began spraying the image in the streets saying no to dictators, no to military rule and no to violence. Interactive transcriptInteractive transcript TED Fellow Bahia Shehab sends an
» Read morePublished on Mar 22, 2013 Egypt’s January 25 revolution helped bring out the best in raw and potent urban arts, most of all in the graffiti scene in Cairo. This short video gives a brief glimpse into the always evolving street art scene that has gone from strength to strength and become a valuable component in the creative resistance
» Read moreAfricaseen blog, 2nd April 2013 by Susan Phillips While Soraya Morayef identifies herself as a writer and journalist, I see her through a different lens, as an artist and archivist. Through her photo blog documenting the extraordinary explosion of street art in Egypt following the initial Tahrir Square protests of January 2011, Morayef has captured, framed, and contextualized a fleeting moment in Egypt’s
» Read more28 March 2013, africaisacountry.com Mickey Mouse is pulling apart a bomb: inside is the torso of George W. Bush, and they’re both looking perfectly happy about the whole thing. Soraya Morayef is taking a photo of the wall where these figures are painted, on a busy street in downtown Cairo, when a man walks up to her and asks her
» Read moreBy Soraya Morayef Open Democracy, 13 November 2013 Many disregard the recurrent stories of prison deaths, police torture and rape because – on the other hand – Egypt’s streets are empty after curfew and the walls are freshly painted; surely a clear indication that the state has succeeded in restoring security and defeating terrorism. On Tuesday November 5, Egypt’s Minister
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