Statement on the Assassination of Lokman Slim Statement We are deeply shocked and saddened by the death of writer, activist and film director Lokman Slim. Lokman had gone missing Wednesday evening in South of Lebanon and was found murdered in his car this Thursday morning. A friend and partner of the Heinrich Böll Foundation for many years, Lokman Slim and his wife Monika Borgmann founded and managed the Umam Research and Documentation Center in Ghobeiry, a southern suburb of Beirut where exhibitions, discussions and installations took place in its hangar.
Crises Trigger Creativity Exhibition now online With the development of the Arab Spring across the neighboring Arab nations, such as in Syria and Egypt, and with the inescapable consequences and repercussions on the Lebanese political scene, a new wave of protests against the Lebanese politicians has arisen, particularly following the government’s failure to resolve the mounting garbage crisis. One of the most interesting aspects of these demonstrations is the involvement of numerous Lebanese artists who are using the protests as a space to address their political views. For this purpose, they use different kinds of artistic expressions, such as music, paintings, graffiti etc. in order to convey messages to a larger public and to attract a bigger number of protestors and activists.
Lebanese hip-hop artists (and everybody else) rapping about corruption Even though the diversity in Arabic-language hip-hop might make generalizations difficult, journalists seem to find it fairly easy to celebrate the music’s role in the perceived Arab march for Western democratic values. Titles such as “Is hip hop driving the Arab Spring?” from the BBC, and “Palestinians In Lebanon Find A Political Tool In Hip-Hop” from NPR, are indicative of the potential attributed to this musical genre. By Muneira Hoballah
