DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Edward Said described his native city as the city of death – a grim town of pilgrimage, fanaticism and unbearable provincialism. This portrayal was reinforced by a large number of visiting luminaries, including Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad), Falih Rifki (Zeitundagi, 1915) and Selma Ekrem (Harim Days). Yet in the work of native writers like Serene al Husseini, Khalil Sakakini, and Wasif Jawhariyyeh we see an alternative Jerusalem – a libertine and even hedonistic city of jois de vivre and abandonment.

Jawhariyyeh in his two volume memoirs (released in English lately as The Storyteller of Jerusalem and co-edited by Dr. Issam Nassar) introduces us to the city of the carnivalesque. It includes the syncretic religious celebrations of Nabi Musa and St. George; the religious ceremonials of Holy Saturday and the Virgin Mary; the bordellos of the old city and the garçonnières of the bachelor patricians; the musical bands and theatrical groups; and the literary cafes fashioned after the Vagabond Café of Is’af al Nashashibi and Khalil Mutran. Dr. Salim Tamari will examine these features of the ‘grim city’ and try to answer the question as to why libertine Jerusalem has been camouflaged, ignored or repressed in the majority of writings by social historians and travel literature.

Event details: http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/50582