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 AFTERMATH (Commune Editions, 2016), attempts to queer Fanon’s vision of how poetry fails to inspire revolution. Simone White selected Andrea’s second assemblage Villainy for forthcoming publication with Les Figues. They toured with Sister Spit March 2018 &…

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 this podcast, and we can’t wait for you all to hear her power. To connect with and/or follow Samya: Instagram: samyaabuorf Facebook: Samya Abu-Orf Email: [email protected] Samya referenced some poets she loves; here is the link to…

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’s inspired by; his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felixdeon/ Gehennam is the visual novel Refael referred to: https://gehennamgame.tumblr.com/

.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 own identity very often. An upcoming exhibit where people can see the piece Coptic Babe Coptic Dyke will be at Mark for Redaction in New York, which details can be found…

(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 means to him. Thank you all for listening! For anyone who also speaks Arabic, we encourage you to listen to Abdullah’s episodes in Arabic (episodes 3 and 4).

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 (spoiler alert: there needs to be more of it)! We are excited to have gotten connected with her. You can check out her work and connect with her here: http://nadiak.tk/ https://nadiainherownworld.wordpress.com/ https://www.instagram.com/nadiainherownworld/ She also shared…

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 people who are NB – queer folks need to be paying attention and rethinking biases/ignorance re: NB folx as well. Here are the links to their website & the article…

!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.queernarrativesbeirut.com & on social media! And as Joy mentioned, send in your voice notes to the podcast at [email protected]. Beirut Pride’s website: https://www.beirutpride.org Thank you for listening!

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 important work he has been doing! Follow Helem on social media for updates on the org! Here’s the hotline Joseph mentioned: +96171916146 To donate: https://rustinfund.org/2018/04/14/helem-afe/

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: accepting a person fully. We loved our conversation with Sadie. Our one regret is the sound quality (we had some acoustics problems while being “on the road”/mobile as a podcast crew). However, we think you all will love…

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 Danny for his wonderful representation of, and contribution to, the MENA queer community. Listen in to hear some of Danny’s story, as well as a special surprise that he reveals! Thank you all for listening. Check out this wonderful writer’s…

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 Ahmed and Kilian, and it makes the podcast feel much more complete. In this episode, Ahmed & Kilian talk about growing up in the Middle East,…

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 issues, such as pinkwashing. Some additional info related to that topic is here: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/08/against-pinkwashing-israel-201489104543430313.html Tamim mentioned Queers Against Apartheid in the episode, and you can find out…

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 absolutely mesmerizing, compelling, and informative. We were honored to have her on our…

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 within the LGBT sphere while also maintaining that connection to family/culture. Thank you for listening! As mentioned on the episode, here’s her email address if you’d like to get in contact: [email protected]

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 discussed in the episode. Thank you for listening; let us know if you have feedback or clarifications you feel we need to make in the future. We forgot to say all this in the episode at the end like…

This week, we decided kind of last minute to do a fun, light-hearted episode instead of the episode we’d been planning to do (probably going to table that one for next Friday). This week, since this episode drops on June 1, we talk about Pride! We tell our fun stories from Pride festivals, and to end the episode, we each give our accounts about the first day we met each other. It was a fun conversation and we kept it super casual and not planned out. Next week will be a more serious and researched topic. For now, though: Happy…

We spoke to Mekhi Adams (he invites you to email him at [email protected] if you have questions/feedback). Mekhi is one of the many individuals who has seen the impact and manipulation caused to many by Rabi’a. Some points from this episode: -Rab’ia is a supposed “ally leader” but abuses her position. -She consistently misrepresents herself, her position and the positions of those around her using her respectability as a minority leader as a sword and shield. -She turns questions of her credibility into arguments over race and religion. She creates situations where people are pitted against each other for their…

On this episode, we speak to Aditi, whose parents traded India for Indiana. Aditi talks about growing up in the Midwest & her experience growing up American while being consistently exposed to Indian culture. We covered many topics during this conversation, such as cultural appropriation (please make sure to listen to the intro of the episode!), gradual growth in diversity in makeup, communal cultures and how wonderful and also overwhelming that can be, and much more. Aditi also talks about the cool work she is doing or will be doing in the near future! Take a listen! Below are links…

Our guest on this episode is the fabulous Naushaba Patel, a Pakistani American who embraces themself in a beautiful, genuine way. We spoke about their navigation toward accepting every part of themself and living an honest life (as we can all relate to in various ways). It was an absolutely lovely time with Naushaba. Listen to this episode to hear about all of the important work Naushaba has been doing. Pakistani and Arab cultures have many commonalities, and we discussed that too. Thank you for listening, and thank you to Naushaba for being on our 10th episode (yay – we’re…

This week, we spoke with Cherine! Cherine talked with us about her experience growing up as a child of Egyptian immigrants in the United States. Cherine also shared her experience being bisexual, and that got us talking about bisexual visibility and how the “B” in “LGBT” often gets overlooked. We also spoke about mental health and the stigmas against the topic within many Middle Eastern cultures. Oh, and Cherine gave us an idea of how into metal she is (listen to see how many CDs she has)! Also, as mentioned in the episode, Against Me! is the band that we…

Photo credit: Trish Badger Join us for this very fun & meaningful conversation with Miriam Hakim, lead singer of the punk band Giant Kitty. We talk to Miriam about many things: music, her Syrian-American identity, forming our own communities, and so much more. We had such a blast during this episode and we hope our listeners will enjoy listening to this great discussion. As mentioned at the end of the episode, we made Spotify playlists! Miriam talked about how she and her friends used to make mixed CDs for each other, and she suggested we each make a playlist for…

This week, we had an amazing guest on the show: Shiyam Galyon, a Syrian American activist. We both learned a lot from this episode, and we hope you all do too! Shiyam gave some important information about the Syrian conflict, how the UN has been responding, and more. Further, Shiyam touched on the parallels between queer activism and conflict resolution activism and how the two need to merge more than they have. We feel very fortunate to have had Shiyam on our podcast and are very grateful for her invaluable contribution! Links to resources with information related to what Shiyam…

Content warning: This episode includes a brief reference to abuse/assault; it also includes slightly graphic details re: the effects of mental issues. If these topics will be emotionally difficult or harmful for you, we suggest you refrain from playing this episode. On this episode, we discuss our dealings with mental imbalances, how those things have affected us, and the measures we’ve taken (and are still trying to take) to get through life with those cards we’ve been dealt. We both share our coming out stories, and it gets pretty personal. We found it pretty therapeutic to record this episode, and…

On this episode, we talk about listener feedback we’ve gotten and how we intend to implement the suggestions we’ve received! Then, Ellie starts explaining the complexity that is Lebanon, and Alia explores the factors that have led Saudi Arabia to be such a closed society. Both of us are reminded just how daunting these topics are, which makes it clear how important it is to keep learning and talking about these topics over many episodes in the future. During this episode, we point to a wonderful Facebook post that our friend brought to our attention; with the permission of the…

Woo! Episode 2 is here and we talk about a variety of topics. Saudi Arabia, an upcoming Arab Netflix show, and cat baths are just a few of them. Enjoy! Like with episode 1, we apologize for the annoying sound quality. This is something we’re working to improve (better equipment is coming)!

On this episode, we introduce ourselves, explain what inspired us to finally start this podcast, and we have some fun beginners' level echoing issues (sorry about that - we're taking measures to improve the sound quality).