The Queer Arabs

We are so excited for this episode!  We guarantee you’ll love getting to know Andrea through this.  We’ll give you all a heads up when their book is available (set to come out Jan. 2019)! Andrea Abi-Karam is an arab-american genderqueer punk poet-performer cyborg, writing on the art of killing bros, the intricacies of cyborg bodies, trauma & delayed healing. Their chapbook, THE AFT...

Samya Abu-Orf, Palestinian-American poet, joined us today for an epic episode.  Prepare yourself – the strength, the boldness, the directness, the humor, and the validation of our shared realities will leave you stunned in the best of ways.  We had a great conversation, and she was also generous in sharing several pieces during this episode.  We are thrilled to have this amazing woman on thi...

We have been following Rozen. Art on Instagram for quite awhile, and it was amazing to have a conversation with him on this episode! Refael is an artist in Israel who brings the queer MENA elements of his identity to the pieces in a powerful, gorgeous way.  Follow him on Instagram and/or Tumblr; his Tumblr is: pynksecretscene.tumblr.com felix d’eon is the artist Refael mentioned who he&#8217...

.معكم الحلقه ٨ من برنامج الميم العربي – الجزء الثاني مِن اللقاء من أنس. تكلمنا عن الحياه في كندا و أشياء اخرى

This episode, we spoke to artist Caitlin (KT) who is Coptic Egyptian-Irish, and is a total badass who is creating space for the mixed identity.  We talked about being mixed and having parents from two different parts of the world; we also talked about KT’s art and what is inspiring her pieces.   This episode means a lot because the experience of being mixed does not get highlighted as its ow...

(معكم الحلقه ٧ من برنامج الميم العربي – الجزء الاول من اللقاء مع أنس (شاب مثلي سوري يسكن في كندا

We had the honor of speaking with activist and artist Abdullah Al Busaidi, who is from Oman and currently lives in Germany.  Abdullah needed to resettle in Germany unexpectedly, and he shared with us his experience with the asylum process and the overall adjustment to life there.  He also shared his discovery of his love for creating art; tune in to hear how this painting came to be and what it me...

Our episode that we recorded during Yallapunk is here. We absolutely loved our time there. Enjoy! Check out/follow: Yallapunk: https://yallapunk.com Builders podcast: https://anchor.fm/betaworks-builders 1 on 1 projects: https://www.1on1projects.org Mark for Redaction: https://www.markforredaction.com Hello Psychaleppo: https://hellopsychaleppo.com Tarab NYC: https://tarabnyc.org

.”معكم الحلقه ٦ من برنامج الميم العربي – مقابله مع مديره صفحه “خرابيش نسويه

(This photo is a screenshot of our hangout with each other and our cats during the recording of this episode.) We had an incredible guest named Nadia Khayrallah on; she is Lebanese-American and based in NYC.  Nadia is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and writer; she also sometimes works on filmmaking.  We had a great conversation with her about representation of queer MENA folks in media (spoile...

On this episode, we talk about our experience at YallaPunk – the episode we recorded with YallaPunk participants will be published on the 14th!

We loved talking to our friend Elias on this episode.  On this episode, we discussed some topics with them related to being non-binary; we really appreciate Elias taking the time to talk with us and to help bring reminders and awareness to folks about some of the experiences that go along with being non-binary.  Not only does society as a whole need to step it up in understanding and accepting peo...

!معكم الحلقه ٥ من برنامج الميم العربي – مقابله مع الناشط الحقوقي جوزيف عون من لبنان. جوزيف عون يشغل منصب مدير المساحات الامنه في منظمه حلم Arabic Episode 5 of the Queer Arabs podcast: An Arabic language interview with Joseph Aoun Joseph is an activist and the manager of Helem’s safe spaces in Lebanon!

Hadi Damien is the director of Beirut Pride, and Joy Stacey of Queer Narratives Beirut connected us with him.  We asked them both to be on an episode together, and we had a total blast.  Tune in to hear Hadi talk about his experience with Beirut Pride and more; Joy talks about what led her to start the podcast Queer Narratives Beirut. Check out Queer Narratives Beirut at: http://www.queernarrative...

The word helem means dream in Arabic.  In this episode, we had a very informative and meaningful conversation with Joseph Aoun, who is the coordinator of the Helem Community Center in Beirut.  Helem is a Lebanese non-profit working on improving the legal & social status of LGBT folks. Helem is the first LGBT advocacy group in the Arab world.  We thank Joseph for talking to us and for the impor...

معكم الحلقه ٤ من برنامج الميم العربي. الجزء الثاني من اللقاء مع ضيف البرنامج عبدالله البوسعيدي من عمان

On this episode, we talk with our wonderful friend Sadie.  Sadie talks about the dynamics of being queer, Muslim, and black, and the compartmentalization that society tends to impose on a person who has multiple parts of their identity that are marginalized.  It is always vital to ask oneself: What is unconditional acceptance?  Full acceptance of a person’s identity means just that: acceptin...

We were honored to have Ahmad Danny Ramadan as a guest!  Danny is a Syrian-Canadian novelist, public speaker, columnist, and queer refugee activist.  Danny is the author of the novel The Clothesline Swing, a beautiful tale with multiple interwoven narratives speaking to the queer refugee experiences (balancing individual voices with the shared identities that come from such experiences).  We thank...

The four of us are all finally in one episode together! We thought it was about time to introduce the English side of our podcast to the Arabic side.  Kilian Colin and Ahmed are the co-hosts of the Arabic language episodes of this podcast.  So far, two Arabic episodes have been published, and we have already seen from the listeners that there is quite a need for this.  We are so grateful to have A...

On this episode, The Queer Arabs talk to two members (Liane and Tamim) of Queer Arabs of Halifax!  It was so much fun talking to our Arab-Canadian friends; we had a blast.  Queer Arabs of Halifax is a group that was started by Liane, and this group has become a family for queer Arabs in Halifax.  They have fun (dance parties – can it get better than that?) and they also address important iss...

This episode was not supposed to happen, but due to unfortunate circumstances, it needed to.  In this episode, we discuss the importance of the Me Too movement, and what has led us to talk about it this week.  We are grateful to the woman we know who started the conversation in this case, as this has revealed so much that we, and many other women, needed to know.

In this episode, we talk about the latest decision by the U.S. supreme court regarding the travel (or, in other words, the Muslim) ban.

                                                                  Meet Allison Washington, a journalist living in Cairo.  We had an absolutely wonderful time talking with her.  During this episode, Allison speaks about what it is like for people on the queer spectrum in the Middle East, her writing, what brought her to Cairo (in addition to the plane) and more.  Allison’s writing is absolute...

Meet Amara!  We had a fantastic time with her on this episode.  We talked with her about her research of the Muslim punk scene and women’s mosques, and she told us about her experience of coming out as trans to her family – both her Mexican side and her Pakistani side.  We touched on the common issue with communal/family-oriented cultures: finding that balance between being oneself wit...

In this episode, we give an overview of what has been happening in Yemen regarding the Saudi-led coalition intervention & the genocide that has occurred due to everything that has been going on over the past 3 years or so.  As mentioned in the podcast, here is a documentary that we suggest as a resource to learn more: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/fight-for-yemen/ Other resources are...