E508 | The modern history of Beirut has been defined by periods of intense construction, destruction, and reconstruction. In this episode, we explore the layers of history in Beirut's cityscape through a walking tour with Rayya Haddad. We chart Beirut's transformation from its rise as a late Ottoman capital through the expansion of the port during the French Mandate period, its golden age as a commercial center in independent Lebanon during the 1950s and 60s, the long civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990, and the postwar reconstruction carried out by the company Solidere. We also explore the history of Beit Beirut, a unqiue building designed by Youssef Aftimus--Beirut's foremost architect of the late Ottoman and French Mandate period--from its Mediterranean revivalist origins to its redesign as a sniper's haven during the war, ending with its rescue and renovation by activists in recent decades. We conclude with some thoughts on what this layered history of the city means for the new layer of destruction and reconstruction created by the explosion in the port during August 2020.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2021/07/beirut.html

Now based in the U.S., Rayya Haddad carries her camera, and her passion for dance, percussion, Mother Nature and food with her wherever she goes. She has created interventions, performances, photographic projects and installations that illuminate alternative possibilities to the limitations and restrictions placed on so many based on race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration or social status, gender and sexual identity, and more. With commercial photography her work is primarily focused on the following 3 subjects; product ranging from jewelry to the culinary arts; music, dance, theatre and performance art, and family portraiture. She received a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago after her studies of sociology in New Orleans, Louisiana.

CREDITS

Episode No. 508
Release Date: 29 July 2021
Recording Location: Beirut
Music and sound elements (by order of appearance): Nasri Shamseddine - Samhina; BBC - بيروت مدينة منكوبة; Karawan - Ya Ganna; This Week - The Agony of Lebanon; Azar Habib - Ya Rayeh; Eudet Kaado - Mowasheh El Rabiy; Soapkills - Aranis; Prof. Elia Baida - Yalli Hajarti Habayeb; Soft and Furious - So What?
Sound production by Chris Gratien
Additional thanks to Sam Dolbee

Layers of History in Downtown Beirut | Rayya Haddad

Tír Na Nóg - Land der ewigen Jugend

Piano Fantasy 

Enioy !

Tír Na Nóg - Lass uns gehen

DISCLAIMER: music and video belong to their respective owners and is not owned by me.

Poem By David Whyte For John O'Donohue, music Secret Garden, voice M.J. Hummingway

Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli: Sonata Terza, La Melana

EGG Ensemble
Ingrid Rohrmoser, Baroque violin
Dominic Eckersley, Harpsichord

Harpsichord: after Hieronymous Bononiensis, 1521
Voicing: European Hooded Crow
Pitch: a'=415 Hz
Temperament: Lanfranco,1533
Recorded: The EGG Box, Berlin 2014
© EGG Ensemble 2014

G. A. Pandolfi Mealli: Sonata Terza, La Melana

Cover of the original jazz standard.  Music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ5sA6oP1hY

Autumn Leaves Collaboration- Jordan Baccheschi and Eva Schubert

In a conversation that occurred just a year after "The Name of the Rose" was published in English—and in the midst of its international bestsellerdom—Susan Sontag and Umberto Eco discuss Eco's turn to fiction and other topics. They begin with their mutual interest in Roland Barthes and his works and move on to such subjects as interpretation, post-modernism, popular culture, Parsifal, Sherlock Holmes, the power of badly written novels, and much else, as one might expect from a discussion between two famed intellectual polymaths.

Conversations with Distinguished Authors: Umberto Eco and Susan Sontag, 10/24/1984

Passenger

05 O Sleep

‘Look No Further’ from Suuns new album ‘Felt’ out now on Secretly Canadian

Purchase / Download: suuns.lnk.to/felt

Suuns - Look No Further

koorinosei - Piano Day 2019

harold budd pensive aphrodite

Departures

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.  Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.


Conversations with Distinguished Authors: Umberto Eco and Susan Sontag, 10/24/1984

PEN America

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