IS AL MUTANABBI STREET, OUR STREET?

Organisation: Al Mutanabbi Street Coalition

Time: 01 August 2011 10:00am - 27 August 2011 8:00pm

Place: Westminster Library, 35 St. Martin's Street, London WC2H 7HP

The Al Mutanabbi Street Coalition Presents

IS AL MUTANNABI STREET, OUR STREET?

Al Mutanabbi Street, named after the 10th century Arab poet Abu’ Tayib al-Mutanabbi, has been known for centuries as the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community. A winding street lined with booksellers and bookshops, it was an important meeting place for people to hunt for books, debate and share ideas. Scholars, poets, readers, writers and artists often spent their days drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee in the Shabandar Café, which opened in 1917. On March 5, 2007, a car bomb was used to destroy this crowded book market as well as the Shabandar Café. More than thirty people were killed and over a hundred were injured.

The bombers not only destroyed the lives of those who died and their families, they also attacked the concept, which the street represented – of freedom of thought. In response to this attack Beau Beausoleil, a poet and bookseller in California, set up a coalition of poets, writers, readers, artists, booksellers and printers – not just to remember those who died, but also as a response to the cultural implications of the attack on ideas. In this case the attack was in Baghdad but it could have been any street, anywhere.

The Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition sent out a call to letterpress printers to contribute a personal response to the attack – to produce broadsides which would protest and commemorate the bombing on Al-Mutanabbi Street

These broadsides are now touring the world and, through exhibitions such as this, provoking thought and discussion about the implications of this attack on the idea and expression of freedom.

Dr Gillian Partington - Researches critical theory and contemporary culture, with a particular focus on 'texts and technologies'. Current work explores the impact of new media on narrative forms and reading/writing practices. Published articles discuss the work of media philosopher Friedrich Kittler, and the theorisation of technology and culture.

Maysoon Pachachi - Worked for years as a documentary and fiction film editor in the UK and has taught film directing and editing in Britain and Palestine. She produced and edited ‘Voices from Gaza’, a Channel Four documentary that won a Red Ribbon Award in San Francisco. In 2004, together with Kasim Abid, another British-based Iraqi filmmaker, she founded the Independent Film and Television College, a film training centre in Baghdad.

Photo: Raya Asee - Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, where she studied textile design and worked as a theatrical costume designer. She also worked in radio, television, and as a print journalist. In 2007 she was granted asylum in Sweden and is waiting for her 13 year old son, Bashar, to be allowed to join her.

‘And the best place in the world is on the back of a running horse’ ‘And the best companion to sit with is a book’ Abu’-Tayib al-Mutanabbi (915-965 CE / 302-352 AH)

Access to information is at the root of any participatory democracy. Al Mutanabbi Street held not just one bookstore, but many, and that great gathering of books, their physical (the space they occupied) even tactile qualities, made people "think" even before a single purchase was made at the start of any given day. Beau Beausoleil

Private View and reading with Film Director and Producer Maysoon Pachachi. Introduction by Dr Gillian Partington

Thursday 25 August, 19:00 - 21:00

To book a seat for the reading please email rblack1@westminster.gov.uk

Open Monday - Friday 10:00 - 20:00, Saturday 10:00 - 17:00

Westminster Reference Library
35 St. Martin's Street
London WC2H 7HP

Free Exhibition

For press images or more information:
Salli Yule-Tsingas
syule_tsingas@msn.com
07760207004