Nehad Selaiha reflects on the political underpinnings of cultural encounters at the Silk Road 2004 theatre festival in Mulheim

The Arab guest-of-honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week elicited a range of feelings on the part of Egyptian participants. Rania Khallaf gauges out the responses of six representative writers

Unearthing skeletons in her family cupboard, writes Gamal Nkrumah, a great granddaughter stumbles on a chanteuse whose songs were darker than the blues

Watching Ramadan television this year, Hani Mustafa finds himself imbibing a higher dose of politics than he has banked on

The Spanish band Radio Tarifa gave their second Egyptian concert in the new open-air theatre at the Citadel last Thursday, writes Lina Mahmoud