Headed For Cairo

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been over seven years now since I was last a visitor to The Mother of the World (and, actually, that trip was itself my first for eight years. So you could say I was a little out of touch). A lot has happened since - Tahrir and all that for a start. I used to spend more time there than in Amman; we had an office in Garden City, the serene and beautiful area of old French colonial houses just off the Nile. I used to spend a great deal of my time shuttling back and forth. I was always fascinated by Cairo - its vicissitudes are the stuff of fairground rides: the highs and lows are never less than dizzying.

I remember being at Amman's QAIA, transiting on my way to Dubai back in the '80s, listening to a group of Christian tourists headed to Cairo. They were a snippy, ancient little lot and two or three of the men were jostling for dominance in the way only the English can: "With the greatest respect, Jolyon, I think we should be better rewarded worrying about quite where our luggage is..." and all that. They settled down to pray and I listened in, marvelling at their strange, Pythonesque faith. "Oh Lord, take care of us as we set out for Cairo, particularly Phyllis who is having trouble with her feet. Let us not have our bags stolen or drink anything with ice in it or otherwise get upset tummies."

Not that the risk of the latter is anything to sneer at. I have been miserably ill thanks to Cairene food, which is (unless something has changed in all those years) almost always 'interesting' at best. My constant travelling companions were always Immodium and Buscopan. I remember one Comdex Cairo a chap out from the UK who had brought an attaché case (I kid you not) of Jacob's Cream Crackers which, together with bottled water, is all he would allow past his lips for fear of The Cairene Revenge. All went swimmingly until the last day of the show when he injudiciously allowed a business partner to buy him a Pepsi. It had ice in it.

BLAM. He went down faster than a goat hit by a Pajero.*

I'm going back at the end of the month, thanks to a kind invitation to attend a conference taking place at the famed Townhouse Gallery, 'MENA. Online. Literature. Today.' The nice chaps at Townhouse seem to be under the misapprehension I have something to do with literature, can string together a coherent sentence in public and won't burn the place down.

They're clearly in for a terrible shock.

The conference aims to review the state of Middle East publishing, from the structure of the current publishing market to disruptive effects such as self publishing, small presses, ebooks and online publishing platforms. It'll also look at areas such as online governance, activism and censorship. It's a fascinating initiative and I, for one, am looking forward to encountering the various players and their viewpoints at the event.

I'm looking forward to it tremendously, wondering quite what I'll find compared to the city I knew and loved/loathed way back then.

* You might think that's a strange, Dan Brown-like choice of metaphors, but I have hit a goat with a Pajero and can assure you they drop fast, baby.

Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature Fun

(Photo credit: IsaacMao)

Saturday the 8th March will see me once again pretending to be an author at the LitFest. As well as my usual moderatin' and likely some radio stuff as well, I'm on a panel, "Of Spies, Conspiracy and Censorship", which promises to be a fascinating experience.

There are three inky-fingered teasers of prose in all - myself, Rewa Zeinati and Ibrahim Nasrallah. And we are being joined by Juma Alleem, who is director of media content at the National Media Council. It is he wot is responsible for the people responsible for reading my books and passing them 'suitable for printing' in the United Arab Emirates.

This is going to be particularly interesting for me as I have now faced two instances of censorship in regard to my participation in the festival - both utterly trivial, but then all the more perplexing for it. I have never had any of my writing knocked back in the UAE for moral, social or cultural reasons before. So I'm going to enjoy exploring the nature and purpose of censorship with my fellow panellists. You never know, we might even get around to some spies and conspiracy too!

Here's the session blurb:

Are there specific challenges associated with the context in which an author lives? As writers, are we guilty of self-censorship or are there real obstacles to writing about certain topics and people? What responsibilities do writers have and what role might central guidelines play?

I must confess to being particularly fascinated at the idea writers have responsibilities in regard to censorship. Is a 'responsible' writer merely subservient and compliant? I'm minded of Bulgakov's wicked, hilarious revenge on the fat cats of the Moscow writers' union.

The session's linked here if you want to sign up for it. The LitFest will relieve you of Dhs65, but that's the price of a scrambled egg on toast and coffee at The Archive, so you'll just have to skip breakfast one day this week.

I'm also moderating the session with Simon Kernick & Deon Meyer, 'Criminally thrilling' which looks at techniques for keeping readers glued to the page as your novel flashes around the world like a careening, mad and out of control juggernauty thing. That one's linked here.

A New Performing Arts Venue For Dubai? It's Up To You!

I give over the blog today to a guest post from Aflamnah's Vida Rizq. Aflamnah is a crowdfunding platform that aims to help innovators in the arts, humanities and science raise the funds they need for their projects...

The Courtyard Playhouse project on Aflamnah is just 9% away from reaching its target but only has one day to go. You can still get involved by buying one of the fantastic rewards on offer and seeing the project to a successful start.

As of last night, the project had raised $16,801 through 73 supporters. Whilst you can make a contribution of $10 (and you can remain anonymous too), the most popular reward has been to have your name engraved on one of the theatre seats. Front row seats are going for $400 each with only two remaining. Back row seats where you get a plaque on the wall were recently added as a new reward and are on offer for $500.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of crowdfunding: it’s is a very simple idea that allows people to raise funding by collecting relatively small amounts of money from a large number of people generally through the Internet. In return, the Aflamnah model means that the idea owners offer contributors rewards for as little as $10.

The Courtyard Playhouse aims to create a more contemporary, alternative performing art space where local talent is nurtured in Dubai. Husband and wife team and co-founders of Drama Dubai, Kemsley Dickinson and Tiffany Schultz have almost realized their goal to put the Courtyard Playhouse, a unique grassroots venue, on the map. They invited the community to get involved to help complete the project through their crowdfunding campaign on Aflamnah. They're taking a bold and costly step to convert what was once a partitioned office space into a working studio theatre and workshop space.

“We’ve gone as far as we can” said Kemsley as the campaign launched in October, “now we need help from the community to complete the project and realize our vision of a vibrant theatre space created for Dubai, by Dubai.”

After years of struggle to find practical and affordable performance spaces for their acting workshops, improvisation classes and local theatrical productions, the couple decided to run a campaign on the Aflamnah.com website. Individuals donate what they can in return for ‘rewards’ to help achieve the financial goal and ensure an official opening night before the end of the year. The project is still in need of lighting, changing rooms and washrooms to complete the renovations.

“We’ve put together some truly exclusive rewards” says Tiffany, some of these are:

• to have your name engraved on one of the auditorium seats 
• have an improvised play staged about your life 
• private tuition in photography or as part of an acting workshop 
• a Dramatic Photoshoot featuring you styled and costumed as the actor or character of your choice 

If you would like to be a part of their project as an individual or a corporate sponsor, visit www.aflamnah.com/en/play-your-part-the-courtyard-playhouse/ to watch their fantastic video and see how far they have come in transforming the space. And do save the date for their Xmas horror themed event on 13th December for a night to remember!

The project is linked here.