Excerpt of ‘Malcolm X’ by Gwendolyn Brooks
“And in a soft and fundamental houra sorcery devout and verticalbeguiled the world.“ ~Excerpt of poem ‘Malcolm X’ by Gwendolyn Brooks, 1969.
Author: mzabteam
Wombs and Bilums: Post-natal Care in Papua New Guinea
red rooms past, passed to room to room to me, this present present Wombs and pearls and stories like fleshy heirlooms to birth you- Soukeyna O. Women and Wombs: Tangible History The bilum bag is a frayed womb, a ropey stringy thing of not only dancing fibres, but legacies of strength and resilience, legacy intertwined like gentle whispers in its yarny midst. The bilum bag is a rite of passage, a story, an artefact and an heirloom carried by men and women alike throughout the course of their lives- a time capsule of their mother’s wisdom, their mother’s mother’s wisdom and of their ancestors and theirs and theirs. From the Tok Pisin language of Papua New Guinea and directly translated as ‘womb’, the bilum bag is not only the beginnings of life but also the woven bag crafted by expectant mothers in circles of womanhood whereby post birth, their sleeping babies are laid in, their bodies taking the familiar position they once held in the womb. The sack, traditionally woven from foraged natural fibres, is …
Occupied Alphabet
I.I use google translate to convey English phrases in Arabic sometimesA client tells me she is depressedAnd her father has been having tremors since the war startedBut usually when he is doing typically stressful things like dealing with an angry customer orFixing that damn light in the bathroom that won’t stop flickering even though the bulb is for sure new I type in the word “somatic” to try and figure out how to explain the correlation between the brain and the bodyAnd my insides laugh mockinglyUsing english to explain the destruction that the they third person pronoun have caused I think we got the order wrong in grad schoolThe disease cannot also be the medicine My people do not understand healing as a clinical hourThis lexicon of pain is not a researched and deliberately punctuated abstract,it is a slangAnd its letters are clear on the back of my grandma’s hands who birthed nine babies and buried some tooand knew to sweep the floors when it got too much and knew to pet the cat when …
Surfing along Morocco’s Western Coast: In Conversation with Local Surf Maroc
At MZAB, we were fortunate to get in touch with the team at Local Surf Maroc, a locally owned Moroccan surf school and surf camp in Tamraght, along the Western Coast of Morocco in Taghazout Bay. In the interview, we explore the founder Rachid’s story, what it was like growing up an ocean child, and the transformative nature of water. Read on as we learn what to pack for a surfing retreat, the powerful moments water can bring to the word Rachid lives by. Q1 Thank you so much for the interview! At MZAB we love adventure, modern day and adventurers and exploring cultural history, ritual and artefacts. Tell us more about yourselves (Christina and Rashid) and the inspiration behind Local Surf Maroc. Rachid (the founder) grew up with the ocean always within view. His earliest memory of being an ocean child was when his family would go to Killer Point to collect mussels to cook for dinner that same evening. With his father being a fisherman, Rachid was introduced to swimming among waves and local …
In Conversation: Artist Dalya Ismail on Impressionism, the Nostalgia of Sudanese Kinship and the Destiny of Names
Dalya Ismail is the founder of creative studio D.I. Design and is an interior designer and artist of Sudanese origin residing in the UAE. Read below as we caught up with her on her formative years, lines of poetry she lives by and the sanguine years she spent in Sudan. Thanks for allowing us to interview you Dalya, at MZAB we love your art, and the culture you represent. Tell us more about your upbringing, what got you involved in artistic expression and turning points in your formative years that influenced your work Thank you so much! My upbringing played a major role in my art and design journey having been exposed to many cultures and ways of being all my life. I was born in the US, spent my formative years in Sudan, then moved to Sultanate of Oman. I spent my late teen and adult life in different parts of Canada and currently reside in the UAE. Despite the heavy influence of my travels on my current artistic expression, it was those few …
Frontiers of a new artistry: Sarah Addouh on the changing creative scene in Morocco and architecture as a witness
Join MZAB as we interview the visionary creative Sarah Addouh, a Moroccan photographer, architect and collage artist based in Casablanca. At MZAB we have been a fan of your work for quite a while. Tell us more about yourself, your heritage and what inspired you to embark on an artistic profession My name is Sarah Addouh, I am a Moroccan collage artist and architect based in Casablanca. Collage is a great way to unleash my creativity by combining old elements to create new ones. I have always been inspired by Moroccan popular culture which is by default very rich and unique due to its craftmanship, history, people and traditions. I first received a camera when I was in my 1st year at architecture school and it marked the beginning of my artistic journey. I was really excited about the idea of capturing moments of life in HD from an artistic point of view (moments with friends, family, in the streets, in the souk, in festivals). Additionally, I have always been inspired by my grandparents, as …
Arab Fashion from the Past and Present: An Under-represented Costume Tradition
From soap making and cosmetics to costume in the Abbasid Caliphate, Nehal of the blog Lugatism explores the rich history of adornment through the Middle Ages. Read on to learn why she began an odyssey into Medieval Arabo-Islamic beauty practices and costume culture. Since I was a child, I was an avid consumer of American entertainment. If an average Jane like me wanted to find out how a certain culture dressed in a chosen epoch, they could look up a movie or a show about said culture. The popularity of Hollywood and other global entertainment industries made this effort easier. The majority of Hollywood’s historical films or period-re-enactment dramas are notorious for their, let’s say, “white-centric” portrayal. They either tell the story of a white character in a historical setting or sometimes a story set in a historical period with a white protagonist. The woefully problematic history of Hollywood’s negative portrayal of non-white minorities has accumulated quite a long rap sheet over the years, which has garnered the disparagement of various audiences. Alongside biased and prejudiced …
Mystics and Sages: Baiyinah Brookins on Tuareg Craftsmanship and the Ornamental Resiliency of a Nomadic People
Join MZAB as we catch up with Baiyinah Brookins, founder of Mystics and Sages, an ethical sterling silver handcrafted jewellery brand which supports Tuareg artisans across Africa. Please tell us more about your formative years and what inspired your link to jewellery and the Tuareg. My formative years were shaped by the rich culture, history, spirituality, and entrepreneurship that surrounded me. Growing up the daughter of two entrepreneurs who founded an African Arts Boutique in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, I was immersed in a world of craftsmanship, history, and culture. The spark that ultimately ignited my journey to create the brand, Mystics and Sages, occurred when my father returned from a business trip to West Africa and gifted me a small half moon sterling silver Tuareg necklace. This necklace was a gateway to the world of the Tuareg people. I was intrigued by the beautiful geometric designs artfully etched into the silver and carefully crafted glass beads that encircled the necklace. I fell in love with the mystical lore and …
The Hijab as an Alien: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sheikh Abdul Fattah and Expansive Horizons
The thing about horizons is that they are always subjective. Opening your front door will always give way to your immediate horizon, the squeal of playing children and the clamour or alternatively the silence of life in your neighbourhood- most intriguingly the curve of the sky meeting the earth. For the astronaut finding home inside a space station, horizons don’t signify the ending but rather the expansion of things. A thought put by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, namely that the expansion of the universe means each of us through the ages have been ‘dealt’ a new cosmos or that each of our subjective co-ordinates in relation to the edge of the universe has evolved over the epochs, means that we have all in essence witnessed different skies, different horizons. As explored by Maria Popova, ‘eating the sun’ was the pastime of blind French resistance fighter Jacques Lusseyran who lived an extraordinary life of light despite the darkness of his physiological reality. I suppose in light of this, sunsets do not have to be- as they …
Under the Belly of the Sea, a Victor is Born
Ink was my saviour I drank it by the gallon. It poured into me then engulfing all the writing that others had defined me by pages and pages surrounding my liver unwritten by gushing blackness down my throat it went strangely willing me to write my story to tell my truth. At daybreak we witness. This night we must fathom. Under the belly of the sea a victor is born. K.Y. Djassi is a poet and writer based in the UK.
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