The Brooklyn Rail

FEB 2023

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FEB 2023 Issue
The Miraculous The Miraculous: Music

40. 1937-1973, Egypt

On the first Thursday of every month for nearly 40 years, a singer’s live performances, often lasting five hours or more, are broadcast throughout the Middle East. These programs become so popular that during them streets empty, stores and restaurants close, and politicians avoid scheduling any speeches or press conferences. Millions of people thrill to her brilliant improvisations. Famously, she never sings a line the same way twice. Seeking to convey to the non-Arab world the enormous scope of her reputation and the uniqueness of her talent, an American scholar later writes: “Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt, and the audience of Elvis.”

(Umm Kulthum, Virginia Danielson)

Contributor

Raphael Rubinstein

Raphael Rubinstein is the New York-based author of The Miraculous (Paper Monument, 2014) and A Geniza (Granary Books, 2015). Excerpts from his recently completed book Libraries of Sand about the Jewish-Egyptian writer Edmond Jabès have appeared in BombThe Fortnightly Review and 3:AM Magazine. In January 2023, Bloomsbury Academic will publish a collection of his writing titled Negative Work: The Turn to Provisionality in Contemporary Art. Since 2008 he has been Professor of Critical Studies at the University of Houston School of Art.

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The Brooklyn Rail

FEB 2023

All Issues