My friends in Philly made it my second home. Provided warmth and advice, and a shoulder to lean on. My final film in philly was simply a camera pointed towards them. Its my way of showing gratitude.
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PHOTOGRAPHY: AZIZ ALFRAIH
My friends in Philly made it my second home. Provided warmth and advice, and a shoulder to lean on. My final film in philly was simply a camera pointed towards them. Its my way of showing gratitude.
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PHOTOGRAPHY: AZIZ ALFRAIH
NOURA
My Grandmother used to put Jasmine in my hair
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JOHARA
The day before Eid, my great grandma would mix her own henna and put it on our palms before we slept. Back then, I hated it because it burnt my hands and I thought it was for old people, but now, I wish she was around to do them every Eid. Allah Yirhamha (May she rest in peace).
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We'd water the plants and then go in for afternoon tea and biscuits and she'd tell me all kinds of stories.
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My grandad taking us gardening with him. He got us gardening clothes like the ones he wears, and we'd get FRESH apples.
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Watching abdelhalim movies with my tea, following judo around the garden with a lil bucket for the cucumbers & tomatoes we'd pick.
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She used to put (basil) on her bed, and it smelled so good.
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My grandma always used to boil hot water and put some Vix in it and cover my head for me to inhale it whenever I had the flu.
When I had long hair, I used to always go to my grandma to braid it, because she used to give me hella tight braids that I loved.
My grandma's remedy for everything ever is korkom and mill7 for anything. I remember when she taught me how to do it when I was 13 - 14.
My grandma likes putting henna on her feet frequently. Since I was 12, she would draw outlines and I'd fill 'em with a spoon.
My grandma can't read or write, but since I was a kid, she'd make us sit and teach her numbers so she can write down phone numbers down.
My other grandma is hilarious, she had to start wearing glasses recently and she wears them over her burqa, she looks so badass.
She used to make me teach her Quran (she couldn't read) she'd ask where the verse would start and end to trace it with her finger.
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My grandma used to sing to me and play with my hair while I laid my head on her lap. My mom used to do the same to us a long time ago, but she stopped after she died.
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She got me a fake nose piercing when I told her I wanted to pierce my nose. She couldn't convince my mom, so she improvised my rebellion.
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My grandma and I used to collect jasmines from the trees on the roadside in damascus and put 'em in a bowl of water as air fresheners. He sister who lives in Jordan still does this in the summer. It really is, the entire living room smells like jasmine for days.
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They're not safe for twitter, my taita had a potty mouth.
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My sitee (grandma) used to construct a bed for me out of mattresses and pillows to lie down near her when she told me bedtime stories. She told stories her own grandma told her. Her stories still put all I've read to shame.
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COMPILATION: NOURA ALZUBI
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MUSIC: iiWAVES
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ART: RANA ALHAMMADI
Umar’s sirwaal is ever-baggy. Pick it up, mama would say, waryaa you look like a street boy on heat.
He would argue, until the reach of her hands proved fatal. Looped each finger inside a denim buckle, lifting upwards. The sky hoisted up on the seventh day. Pull up your pants and they won’t shoot. Pull up your pants, turn Mohammed into Mo. Remind him he is no longer boy. Was never, will never be boy enough, small enough.
Yallah!
A sky is a hole within a hole. A trail of hair shaped into a singular tear, finer than sugar refined, back home it’s bigger than a fist
bruises the bottom of a glass, its lip, my lip. His skin burns at her gaze, holds the tip
of a bomber jacket close. Camouflage.
The kind of green you want to hide in only exists in fairy-tales.
His indignant breath rising and falling, her lined hand flattened against a back.
Bear with her. This, the only thing she can straighten out. His belt now linear, a careful underline.
Be rigid, for now. Make the bridge of a spine your very own siraatul mustaqeem.
Lauryn sang it, straight from the book. Shot it straight from the hip.
Do it for us.
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TEXT: MOMTAZA MEHRI
These pictures slide by like salt
saturated on steak and water.
Cholesterol is monotone
and every cigarette is a smoke signal
asking my ancestors to stop
sending me genes
and photographs.
I can’t use.
Frankly, I watch black and white screens
and swear to my mother her hair looks better silver
than pitch whatever it is
the remaining patriarchs think is appropriate for age.
Again, I don’t like talking about how
August is just a number,
but I’ve numbed nothing if not clocks
and my father’s watch;
waiting on my wrist for an older man
to set it right.
Settle in the time frame sans plight
and indicted memories.
Sans my language and lore look at that damn bird these distractions sell well and weddings wreak hell on budgets so I’m saving up,
saving my luck-
ridden birth certificate sins are handed over like good food
on the first and last day of Ramadan.
Remember this when you’re but pixels too.
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TEXT: HAZEM FAHMY
AUDIO: NAWAF ALJAHDALI
DO NOT DRINK
STRICTLY FOR
SUGARCANE
juice stands on every corner
i walk up to the stand
the juicer behind him is covered in
asab
a cup is tethered to the bowl
in it goes and juice flows out
he hands the cup to me
the juice is murky white
like linen
i sip
tomorrow i will get mango
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TEXT: ALLIE ELKHADEM
ART: SANDRA
hang the elephant for remembering you called it an elephant.
the kids at school called me fat and then got mad that i never forgot
& later, that i knew my own strength.
mama tells me i remember everything. all the things people say
that they don’t mean or don’t remember saying so they must not mean
& then i fashion them into knives & then i know just where to swipe them
& when & i guess she’s not wrong. i guess i always thought this accountability.
but accountability shouldn’t be as strategic. as kept warm in the pocket for next time
next time i’ll have the best comeback. all my sources cited. they’ll see.
read something somewhere once. a tender thing:
an elephant will rarely offer its head
upon your lap. feel special when it does.
you were something extra. feel warm.
feel nothing. they will bring
their whole skull down
& crush you.
he wants to play with my hair now. wants to feel how soft
like that soft doesn’t remember the first name you gave it.
yeah it’s fine. come closer.
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TEXT: JESS RIZKALLAH
MUSIC: HALA AL-EMADI
The first time I came to you I was met with dust,
so thick that I could barely see my hands.
And all I heard were faint cries of pain and help,
which I could not offer you.
The first time I came to you
I saw the pain you carried on those shoulders since you came to be.
And all I could envision was the fractured bones and broken ribs
and the broken spine
and the bruised lips,
you had to endure.
The first time I came to you, you spoke in broken English,
which cut your insides with every syllable uttered
as if your tongue was made of glass –
because I did not understand you the way you desired me to.
And all I saw was the blurred streets
as my glands could not keep the tears from falling.
The first time I came to you I felt like I was not accepted for I was neither you or them;
as I did not speak like you or them;
as I did not behave like you or them.
And all that came to mind was the feeling of pain
from a thousand needles slowly kissing the pores I left open for you.
I swallowed the years I had not seen you
And wept.
Oh, you who screamed until the sun had waned, come back.
Oh, you who played without care until the sun had waned, come back.
Oh, you who protected your brother until the sun had waned, come back.
Oh, you who helped your sister, until the sun had waned, come back.
I will not pay heed to the screaming and fighting, the bickering and crying,
and I will not ask you to be quiet.
I will not ask you to halt your plays so that I can sleep.
Play until you cannot move a limb,
scream until your voice disappears
and bicker amongst yourselves until you cannot find a fault.
Oh, you who felt scorned, come back.
Oh, you who heard words that should not have been spoken, come back.
Oh, you who was left behind, come back.
I speak to the moon everyday to let him know of my wishes.
He knows all that my heart feels, and all that my mind thinks.
He knows of the pain I feel knowing you have left,
and he knows of the sadness that lies in my heart.
Oh, you who was hit by the crane, come back.
Oh, you who gave up because of our selfishness, come back.
Your disappearance left us yearning for the warmth of your touch.
And the delicate voice that is on the verge of breaking.
I am asking you to come back though I do not know if my words will fall onto deaf ears.
Oh, you who the sun waits for, come back –
because she will not wane until she hears your laughter again.
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TEXT: ALI MERZA