Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Twelve blazing stars
ON 24 January the Rotary Club will hold a "festival of honours" in the Salamlek Hotel in Montazah, Alexandria. During the event, 12 artists will be awarded the festival's "gilded mermaid" in recognition of their lifetime's achievement in various media: actors Magda, Nadia Lotfi, Mervat Amin, Pousi, Hussien Fahmi, Kamal El-Shinnawi, Mahmoud Yasin and Samir Ghanem; the multi-talented media figures Samir Sabri and Safaa Abul-Su'oud; screenwriter Wahid Hamid; and cartoonist Mustafa Hussien.

The literate Maghreb
STARTING on 23 January, the sixth international book fair of Morocco, to be held in Tangiers, will go on for a week. Operating under the slogan "Writing and the Palestinian resistance," this round will focus on the Intifada, while incorporating seminars on modern Moroccan literature in Arabic and French. Topping the list of guests of honour is Mahmoud Darwish, the poet laureate of the Palestinian resistance; Darwish, who has not visited Morocco for many years, is eagerly awaited in the Maghreb. Also participating are the Syrian poet Adonis (Ali Ahmed Said) and the Lebanese writer Ismail Kadari.

Calligraphy's farewell
THIS week the death at the age of 77 of Kamel Ibrahim, the pioneer calligrapher and professor of Arabic calligraphy at Alexandria University, marks the end of the golden age of Arabic calligraphy in Egypt. Ibrahim represented Egypt throughout the Arab world as well as in Italy and Germany. He received the highest honours from late Tunisian President Al-Habib Bourqiba and has a permanent exhibition in Tunis.

On a small scale
THE PLASTIC Arts Department's "Exhibition of Small Works" opened on Saturday at the Akhenaton Galleries, Zamalek. Small works should never imply small numbers, however. This year alone 460 artists are participating, Fatma Ismail, the general commissar of the Exhibition, announced. Participants, she added, represent the various generations of artists working in Egypt today.
The Department has organised an appropriately busy cultural activities programme to go with the event: seminars on the progress of the arts, poetry readings and documentary film screenings -- all related to the participants and their work.
Ahmed Nawwar, the head of the Department, announced the names of those who won Exhibition prices in a press conference on the same day: Ahmed Fouad Selim, Hamdi Abul-Ma'ati, Abdel-Mon'im El-Hayawan, as well as Jihan Soliman, Ibrahim El-Desouqi, Mo'taz Bahaaeddin, El-Sharnoubi Mohamed and Fatma Abdel-Rahman.

Statues galore
STATUES of major cultural figures are being commissioned for display in Giza's main squares, Governor Mahmoud Abul-Leil announced earlier this week. A statue of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz will be placed in Sphinx Square as part of the celebrations of the writer's 90th birthday. One of Taha Hussein will also be placed at Galaa Square. Furthermore, Gamal El-Siggini's Maternity will be placed at the intersection of Al-Batal Ahmed Abdel-Aziz and Gami'at Al-Duwal Al- Arabiyya streets in Mohandessin.

Operatic unity
LAST Wednesday and Thursday the Opera House saw a "national unity festival" comprising an operatic rendition of the story of the Holy Family's stay in Egypt. Directed by Nabila Eryan, the show brought together the Coptic Theatre Choir, the David Band and the Children of Heliopolis Churches. Present were Pope Shenouda III, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Al-Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel and Ministers Safwat El-Sherif, Farouk Hosni, Mamdouh El- Beltagui, Youssef Boutros Ghali as well as several other Christian figures.

Belated redress
LAST week Minister of Information Safwat El-Sherif presided over the launching of a new Egyptian-British collaboration to be undertaken by the Media Production City in conjunction with British production companies, writes Hanan Sabra. An $80 million project recounting the infamous Dunshwai incident -- Egyptian villagers were hanged after a brawl with British occupation forces -- the film, to be shot in Media Production City studios, will bring together Egyptian and British actors. Of the Egyptians involved Omar Sherif, Yousra and Mona Zaki are worth mentioning. The British script writer has announced that he will try to maintain an objective historical perspective, avoiding bias.

Playing in Kuwait
THE KUWAITI annual Al-Qarin Cultural Festival began on 12 January. This year's keynote speaker is Ismail Serageddin, director of the Alexandria Library, who will give a speech on the library and its cultural role.
Also participating from Egypt is the National Theatre's Al-Nas Illi Fil-Talit, written by Osama Anwar Okasha and directed by Mohamed Omar.

Prose poetry, again
THE LATEST episode of the debate concerning the validity of Arabic poetry in prose concerns the appearance of a new literary magazine, Shi'r (Poetry) in Cairo this month. The debate had centred on the poet Ahmed Abdel-Mo'ti Hegazi, who last year set the cat among the pigeons by declaring prose poetry an abortive and futile endeavour and attacking the Egyptian Generation of the Nineties poets who have championed it. Under the supervision of the Nineties (Lebanese) poet and critic Karim Abdel-Salam, Shi'r professes a direct and "practical" confrontation with Hegazi, evoking the name of an illustrious predecessor, "the Biertruti Shi'r 1957."
The first issue of this new Shi'r is "crammed full of manifestoes," in the words of commentators. The magazine, according to the editorial, "arises in an atmosphere of official sterility... after the prose poem was confronted by negation and denial, based on ignorance and stupidity..." The issue includes an article by Abdel-Salam in which he delineates the necessity of "imitation," arguing against the current "excess of innovation" as well as poetic texts and translations.
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

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