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Tag: queerarabs

Episode 148: Sivan Battat

Published February 9, 2021

Photo by Dasha Landa

Sivan Battat (she/they) is a queer Iraqi-Jewish artist & organizer based in New York City, focused on new play and new musical development, and Arab-Jewish cultural organizing. Sivan’s work is across genres – in the theatre, in community, in ritual celebration, and beyond.

Our conversation with Sivan was so rich, we decided to make it a two-parter! This week’s episode focuses on Sivan’s recent work organizing ancestral storytelling workshops and what it means to connect to our (biological or otherwise) ancestors as queer people. Sivan also discusses her process of finding community across intersecting identities.

https://www.sivanbattat.com/

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Episode 146 [in English]: Yalla Bye Bitch

Published January 23, 2021

With Donald Trump finally out of the White House, Ellie, Alia, and Nadia took this episode to look back on the flurry of damages he’s caused over the last four years, particularly with regards to immigration and LGBTQ rights. (Not lost on us was the irony of Trump using a vague notion of “gay rights” to justify the Muslim ban, while persistently rolling back actual protections for queer and trans Americans.) Many of his executive orders were eventually struck down in court, but not without inflicting serious harm and leaving us psychologically drained. 

We also discuss our tentative hopes, concerns, and criticisms surrounding the new administration (it’s definitely not a quick fix for our prison-, police-, and military-industrial complexes). But as a start, we’re so relieved to see the orange fucker gone!

Thank you to Ellie for the policy research in this episode!

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