Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

A book of texts on modern art in the Arab world is causing a furore. It has been put together by the New York Museum of Modern Art. Now it has been launched – and discussed – in Beirut. By Lena BoppMore

Ostinato Recordsʹ latest release, "Two Niles to Sing a Melody", is not only a collection of sixteen songs from the peak period of the country’s popular music era, the 1970s, it also contains fascinating first-hand accounts from a variety of musicians who survived the purges during the subsequent clampdown on popular culture. By Richard MarcusMore

Directed by Azalarabe Alaoui, the Moroccan film "Kilikis, the town of owls", though not a documentary, is based on the notorious Tazmamarat prison, where political opponents were incarcerated during the reign of the late King Hassan II. Time to face up to the past? By Ismail AzzamMore

Some time around 3200 BC, humans living in the ancient Middle East developed the first written language. George Smith presented fragments of the Flood narrative from the ancient Middle Eastern story of Gilgamesh at a conference in London in 1872 – and mankind’s first epic was rediscovered. By Melanie Christina MohrMore

The art of storytelling has a long tradition in the Arab world. Folk tales and historical events were passed down orally over many generations. Now the Sudanese author Lubna Isam has revived the tradition. Interview by Eslam AnwarMore

Lebanese-British satirist Karl Sharro, with his alter ego Karl reMarks, is a fast-rising star of online comedy. Now he has published his first book, "And Then God Created the Middle East and Said ʹLet There be Breaking Newsʹ". Interview by Susannah TarbushMore

Diali Cissokho left his native Senegal for North Carolina years ago. Raised as a griot, one of the traditional musical story tellers and historians of West Africa, he wanted to continue playing music in his new home. It may have taken a while to find the musicians he was looking for but, writes Richard Marcus, it was worth the waitMore

Lebanese novelist and critic Elias Khoury pays tribute to Alaa Al Aswanyʹs new novel as the only comprehensive literary chronicle of the January 2011 Egyptian revolution, charting the tragic fate of those who were killed, imprisoned and tortured against a background of the diabolical alliance between the Egyptian army and the Muslim BrotherhoodMore

Jeem is a new website for young, Arabic-speaking people, dealing with the topics "love, sexuality and society". The idea was first conceived in 2015, when the team at the Goethe-Institut in Cairo wanted to establish a digital project for youth in the region. This is an excerpt from an article by Afrah Nasser about four Yemeni artists who have been affected by war and displacementMore