- Playing
- Poetic Port of Entry
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- Eve Abrams
Meena means "port of entry" in Arabic -- a fitting name for the journal of poetry, art, and literature produced in the ports of New Orleans, Louisiana and Alexandria, Egypt, whose purpose is to create an entryway into two languages and their cultures. The journal reads left to right, in English, but flip it over, and the same poems and stories appear right to left, in Arabic. The two texts meet in the middle, and the symbolism of this structure is clear. Meena’s editors, New Orleanians Khaled Hegazzi and Andy Young, created the journal so that their respective languages could be heard in a context of creativity and art, rather than war and conflict.
Meena enables established American writers (e.g. James Tate, Charles Simic, Dave Eggars, Andrei Codrescu) to speak directly to the Arabic-speaking world, devoid of an intermediary, governmental voice. Likewise, Meena’s pages are a conduit for the work of many well regarded Arabic writers (e.g. Naguib Mahfouz, Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis, Alaa Khaled) to speak in their native tongue and translation. Told from a city often regarded in black/white terms, Andy and Khaled’s journal (not to mention friendship and marriage) offer a sweet anecdote to simple assumptions.
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New Orleanians reflect on their lives in the three years since the failure of the Federal Levees resulting from Hurricane Katrina
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A New Orleans Way of Life: Costuming, Volume I
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Step inside the transformative world of costuming -- adult play time in New Orleans
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Living in New Orleans is like pushing a boulder up a hill
Are we moving yet? (The men of the Fulton Fish Market)
(00:06:40)
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New York City's Fish Market, and its move to the Bronx, from the voices of those who work there.
In Praise of New Orleans Brass Bands
(00:06:00)
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This oral essay sings the praises of one of New Orleans' greatest gifts to the world: brass bands.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Meena means "port of entry" in Arabic -- a fitting name for the journal of poetry, art, and literature produced in the ports of New Orleans, Louisiana and Alexandria, Egypt, whose purpose is to create an entryway into two languages and their cultures. The journal reads left to right, in English, but flip it over, and the same poems and stories appear right to left, in Arabic. The two texts meet in the middle, and the symbolism of this structure is clear. Meena’s editors, New Orleanians Khaled Hegazzi and Andy Young, created the journal so that their respective languages could be heard in a context of creativity and art, rather than war and conflict.
Meena enables established American writers (e.g. James Tate, Charles Simic, Dave Eggars, Andrei Codrescu) to speak directly to the Arabic-speaking world, devoid of an intermediary, governmental voice. Likewise, Meena’s pages are a conduit for the work of many well regarded Arabic writers (e.g. Naguib Mahfouz, Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis, Alaa Khaled) to speak in their native tongue and translation. Told from a city often regarded in black/white terms, Andy and Khaled’s journal (not to mention friendship and marriage) offer a sweet anecdote to simple assumptions.
