I ran into Ashura celebrations in London today, in Piccadilly. Then I heard about this Ashura celebration in Karaj, Iran, with young women who marched with no headscarves. They were questioned by the police.

One week before @TheMarkazReview's double literary issue with short stories and creative nonfiction from Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Oman, Afghanistan, Iran, Algeria + memoir, diaries & graphic novels. Until then, go out:

Arid MENA, its natural resources and sun sucked up by the West, read Dismantling Green Colonialism: Energy & Climate Justice in the Arab Region by Hamza Hamouchene @BenToumert & @KatieSandwell @PlutoPress, reviewed by Richard Lim @TheMarkazReview :

Writers, artists, translators, cartoonists, editors in Iran & elsewhere all thrilled that our Woman Life Freedom anthology has been included in the 2024 shortlist for the Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing @Lighthousebks, @SaqiBooks.

Gaza, censorship, revolution, Syria, Arab Shakespeare on & off stage will be covered in tomorrow's @TheMarkazReview roundtable discussion on Middle Eastern theater at home & in the diaspora. Hosted by Iraqi playwright Hassan @abdulrazzak:

What it's like to be on stage hijab-less & breaking barriers in Tehran. In @TheMarkazReview theatre issue, #WomanLifeFreedom, #MahsaAmini:

Our anthology, Woman Life Freedom: Voices & Art from the Women's Protests in Iran made the shortlist for the 2024 Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing Thanks to #WomanLifeFreedom, #MahsaAmini, @KhiabanTribune. Way to go @SaqiBooks:

Forget about St. Louis, meet me in Venice.

Interested in how surveillance changed photography in Iran, subaltern perspectives in art, and edgy Persian visual arts? Join Sahar Saki, Vali Mahlouji @valimahlouji and myself tomorrow at SOAS for an illustrated lecture & discussion. @LinaKhatibUK @themarkazreview @SaqiBooks.

Today's Monday edition of @markazreview also features a critical art piece by West Bank curator Nadine @aranki_n on the resurgence of the Palestinian posters. #StrikeForPalestine #Art #Palestine #Gallery #Zawyeh.

5th installment of Hossam Madhoun's Messages from Gaza NOW. Moving, frightening, can't turn away from, the theater-maker tells it like it is from this brutal war. People are starving; the death toll rising. Is anyone out there listening or cares?

On #WomanLifeFreedom, protest art, graffiti @KhiabanTribuine & surveillance in Iran, the art of anthologizing and labels, with the ever inquiring @dalchodha for @tenderBOOKS Chat

Hear women's voices from Iran like you've never heard them before. Woman Life Freedom anthology @SaqiBooks #womenlifefreedom finally available in the US. Zoom into the book launch @CityLightsBooks in San Francisco tomorrow night.

Earthquakes too, not just war, devastate cities. Short story by @SalahBadis2 recalls the 2003 quake along the coast east of Algiers and the ghostly detritus of lost, forgotten lives, in @TheMarkazReview's architect issue:

RT @TheMarkazReview: Our reviewer @EQuotah appreciated this collection of Arab poets: @zeinabeck @nathaliephandal @….

RT @AddieLeak: From @TheMarkazReview today, my translation of @H_Bustani's meditations on Amman--a city filled with people I desperately mi….

RT @sinanantoon: #Gaza #Palestine #Genocide

RT @TheMarkazReview: In our November issue, TMR 36 ARCHITECTURE, T.H. Shalaby maps out and questions architectural planning in Saudi Arabia….

RT @IndexCensorship: #Philippines: The horrific murder of #JuanJumalon demonstrates why the Philippines remains one of the most dangerous p….

RT @TheMarkazReview: In our October issue, @mannahattamamma argues that now is the time to reclaim the idea of the public intellectual at a….