Nelly Chinn survived German/Vichy French occupation during World War II to become, in later years, knighted by the French government. In this collection of her memories, which spans from the 1930s through 2001, Nelly shares her experiences during historic events as well as, often amusing, everyday moments from her idyllic childhood in Casablanca, her later life in England, and her travel adventures. What was she doing under a car? What do a mushroom, and egg and a Speedweave have in common? Which celebrities did she meet? What was the incident in Quebec? How did her long-awaited visit to Fontainebleau turn out to be such an adventure? Find the answers in Memories from Morocco and Beyond.
LANDSCAPES: BETWEEN THE DESERT AND THE SEA Morocco is a vast country, offering a multitude of breathtaking landscapes, from the lush Rif region in the north and the Atlantic coast, dotted with blue and white villages, to the vast expanses of the south, with its immense Atlas mountains and burning desert sands. Nestled against this impressive backdrop are the imperial cities--Fez, Meknes, Rabat, and Marrakech--whose splendor bears witness to the magnificence of the sultans of yesteryear. SOUKS: A FEAST FOR THE SENSES The souk--the market at the heart of every medina--is a world unto itself, where enchanting colors, sounds, scents, and materials rouse the senses. Narrow, labyrinthine streets are lined with stalls and shops offering the finest in Moroccan craftsmanship: the carpets, pottery, ceramic tiles, lanterns, and ornate woodwork that are all part of the country's rich heritage. INTERIORS: ORIENTAL REFINEMENT The most impressive Moroccan interiors are to be found in the protected world of "riads" and "dars," Their high outer walls barely hint at the inner splendors hidden within: this is a realm reserved to a select few. Sumptuous rooms lead onto terraces, built around an inner garden or courtyard filled with orange trees and fountains. Herein lies the Orient's timeless image as a Garden of Eden. RENDEZVOUS: "DARS," "RIADS," AND LEGENDARY HOTELS One of Morocco's charms lies in its unique hospitality, which views every visitor as a special guest. Whether you choose to rent a "riad" to experience Morocco as a resident, opt for the elegance of a celebrated hotel, or prefer a more discreet stop in an oasis at the edge of the desert, you will discover the magic andromance that are an integral part of the uniquely generous Moroccan way of life. From its spectacular mountain ranges to its boundless stretches of amber desert and beautiful coastline, Morocco offers an unparalleled panorama for the greedy eye. The intense peacefulness of the country's natural environment contrasts sharply with the bustle of its cities, which overflow with street-life: the "red city" of Marrakech, enchanted Fez, the Atlantic ports of Rabat and Casablanca . . . These different sights, seemingly worlds apart from each other, are all masterfully captured by the camera and brought together in this richly illustrated volume. "Living in Morocco" also takes the reader beyond the imposing walls of medinas and citadels, through labyrinthine streets where traditional "souk" markets are held, and into the homes and hidden gardens of some of the country's most illustrious inhabitants. In these private oases, one can take in the sweet scent of orange trees while sipping a glass of the freshest mint tea and indulging in gourmet delicacies .
Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.
A soulful chef creates his first masterpiece What Mourad Lahlou has developed over the last decade and a half at his Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant is nothing less than a new, modern Moroccan cuisine, inspired by memories, steeped in colorful stories, and informed by the tireless exploration of his curious mind. His book is anything but a dutifully “authentic” documentation of Moroccan home cooking. Yes, the great classics are all here—the basteeya, the couscous, the preserved lemons, and much more. But Mourad adapts them in stunningly creative ways that take a Moroccan idea to a whole new place. The 100-plus recipes, lavishly illustrated with food and location photography, and terrifically engaging text offer a rare blend of heat, heart, and palate.
Women Mobilizing Memory, a transnational exploration of the intersection of feminism, history, and memory, shows how the recollection of violent histories can generate possibilities for progressive futures. Questioning the politics of memory-making in relation to experiences of vulnerability and violence, this wide-ranging collection asks: How can memories of violence and its afterlives be mobilized for change? What strategies can disrupt and counter public forgetting? What role do the arts play in addressing the erasure of past violence from current memory and in creating new visions for future generations? Women Mobilizing Memory emerges from a multiyear feminist collaboration bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, artists, and activists from Chile, Turkey, and the United States. The essays in this book assemble and discuss a deep archive of works that activate memory across a variety of protest cultures, ranging from seemingly minor acts of defiance to broader resistance movements. The memory practices it highlights constitute acts of repair that demand justice but do not aim at restitution. They invite the creation of alternative histories that can reconfigure painful pasts and presents. Giving voice to silenced memories and reclaiming collective memories that have been misrepresented in official narratives, Women Mobilizing Memory offers an alternative to more monumental commemorative practices. It models a new direction for memory studies and testifies to a continuing hope for an alternative future.
This anthology brings together the voices of both new and established Arab American writers in a compilation of creative nonfiction that reveals the stories of the Arab diaspora in styles that range from the traditional to the experimental. Writers from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, and Syria explore issues related to politics, family, culture, and racism. Coming from different belief systems and cultures and including first- and second-generation immigrants as well as those whose identities encompass more than a single culture, these writers tell stories that speak to the complexity of the Arab American experience.
As issues of history, memory, and identity collide with increasing frequency and intensity in the classroom and society, the timing is ideal to investigate the impact of these forces on twenty-first-century students. Relying on the theory of historical consciousness, this book presents the results of a comprehensive study conducted with over 600 French Canadian students that examines their narrative views of the collective past. The authors offer new evidence on how young citizens from various regions and ethnocultural groups in Quebec and Ontario think about their national history and what impact education, historical culture, and the “real-life” curriculum of meaningful experiences have on the formation of narration, identity, and historical consciousness.
Can we remember other people's memories? The Generation of Postmemory argues we can: that memories of traumatic events live on to mark the lives of those who were not there to experience them. Children of survivors and their contemporaries inherit catastrophic histories not through direct recollection but through haunting postmemories--multiply mediated images, objects, stories, behaviors, and affects passed down within the family and the culture at large. In these new and revised critical readings of the literary and visual legacies of the Holocaust and other, related sites of memory, Marianne Hirsch builds on her influential concept of postmemory. The book's chapters, two of which were written collaboratively with the historian Leo Spitzer, engage the work of postgeneration artists and writers such as Art Spiegelman, W.G. Sebald, Eva Hoffman, Tatana Kellner, Muriel Hasbun, Anne Karpff, Lily Brett, Lorie Novak, David Levinthal, Nancy Spero and Susan Meiselas. Grappling with the ethics of empathy and identification, these artists attempt to forge a creative postmemorial aesthetic that reanimates the past without appropriating it. In her analyses of their fractured texts, Hirsch locates the roots of the familial and affiliative practices of postmemory in feminism and other movements for social change. Using feminist critical strategies to connect past and present, words and images, and memory and gender, she brings the entangled strands of disparate traumatic histories into more intimate contact. With more than fifty illustrations, her text enables a multifaceted encounter with foundational and cutting edge theories in memory, trauma, gender, and visual culture, eliciting a new understanding of history and our place in it.
A clear explanation of what racism is and how to recognize it when you see it. As tough as it is to imagine, this book really does explore racism. But it does so in a way that’s accessible to kids. Inside, you’ll find a clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens. Covering themes of racism, sadness, bravery, and hate. This book is designed to help get the conversation going. Racism is one conversation that’s never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction on the topic for kids aged 5-9. A Kids Book About Racism features: - A friendly, approachable, and kid-appropriate tone throughout. - Expressive font design; allowing kids to have the space to reflect and the freedom to imagine themselves in the words on the pages. - An author who has lived experience on the topic of racism. Tackling important discourse together! The A Kids Book About series are best used when read together. Helping to kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups through beautiful and thought-provoking pages. The series supports an incredible and diverse group of authors, who are either experts in their field, or have first-hand experience on the topic. A Kids Co. is a new kind of media company enabling kids to explore big topics in a new and engaging way. With a growing series of books, podcasts and blogs, made to empower. Learn more about us online by searching for A Kids Co.