The Queer Arabs

Amina Shareef Ali is a trans, Oakland-based singer-songwriter, therapist, mom, and punk of Egyptian, Turkish, and Filipino descent. She discussed the challenges of retracing cultural heritage lost through her father’s passing and her mother’s assimilation, and the complex pressures of passing identity to the next generation. We also discussed lies we’ve been told about “making it” as an artist under capitalism, the audience base she found after embracing her queer, trans, and mixed-brown identities, what it means to be (folk)punk, and more! Amina’s new album ‘In the Dark (Awake Of Course)’ is coming out Monday March 29! Follow her on…

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,…

Photo credit: Jenna Hamed (IG: @j7md) Michael Zalta is a queer Syrian-American Jewish writer, researcher and playwright interested in the intersections between Media Theory, Biopolitics and Decolonial Aesthetics. His recent play “Who the Fuck is Ahmed” is about the psychosexual misadventures of an American-Jewish couple who moves to Haifa to raise a family, when a metaphysical ghost from historic Palestine drives a wedge through the relationship. Michael discussed growing up in Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community (and the deep similarities he saw in David Adjmi’s memoir), and becoming a “Foucault Fuckboy” at NYU to overcompensate for the particular myopia of his…

Aram Ronaldo is a Palestinian-American organizer invested in anti-colonial land justice across geographies.  They joined us to discuss solidarity organizing between Indigenous, Black, and Palestinian movements, and the duality of being both displaced people and settlers.  They discuss their current project, The Lalime Ohlone Transfer Project, which involves transferring their family business’s land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust,* the Bay Area’s prominent Indigenous women-led community organization.  We also talked about their first time visiting Palestine, the foods that keep us connected to our cultures, the importance of imagination in activist/organizing work, the origins of “philistine” as an insult, and…

For this episode, we’re inviting you to hang out with us at brunch, featuring charcuterie by Adam Elsayigh. Adam walks us through his journey as a charcuterie artist and his near-religious obsession with Trader Joe’s. Cristian joins us to talk about the queer scene in Puerto Rico and the struggles common in too-tight-knit queer communities in anywhere. We also analyze our personal tendencies with giving, receiving, and seeking out compliments and criticism on our work. This one’s a bit of a mixed plate, but it just might suit your taste.                 Here is…

RIDIKKULUZ  (aka Samer) is a Jordanian-American artist (with Egyptian, Palestinian, and Syrian roots) visualizing identity through painting, sculpture, performance, and video. He is also part of the NYC ballroom scene, as a member of House of Xtravaganza.  This episode was recorded from Samer’s apartment, where he showed us some of his artwork and talked about finding ballroom/vogue as part of gaining confidence in visible queerness. He mentioned how his cultural upbringing, with an emphasis on knowing one’s history and predecessors, has translated into seeking out queer community and mentors.  We also discussed whether we believe in accidents, ghosts, horoscopes, and…

Rime Salmi is a singer-songwriter whose work channels the fusion between her Moroccan heritage and Canadian upbringing. She sings in French, English, Spanish, and Arabic, weaving in rhythms from across the African continent and diaspora. Directed by Reda Lahmouid, the video for her cover of Warda’s “Batwanes Beek” features well-known dancers in the Montreal LGBTQ scene making the city their catwalk.  Rime joined us to discuss staying connected to her roots through music, becoming a more conscious ally to queer people in the MENA, releasing music in times of crisis, her upcoming tracks, and more.

Sheyam Ghieth is an Egyptian-American artist exploring themes of language, liberation, queerness and exile through illustration, hand lettering, pattern making and graphic design. Her “QUEER in Arabic” and “Nonbinary in Arabic” T-shirt designs have raised relief funds for queer and trans Muslims and Arabs since Ramadan 2020.  Sheyam has created graphics for Netflix, Hulu, A24, HBO and FX; and has designed for shows such as Orange is the New Black, The Americans, and Ramy. Born in Cairo, she has lived all over, including Rome, Zimbabwe, Sudan, NYC and, most recently Portland. She is a former bus driver and an ex-journalist.…

Neda (@hijabilusciousis on IG) is a Persian-American nurse practitioner, pole dancer, and generally cool person. She discusses her recent work performing COVID tests, getting COVID herself, and which precautions she wishes more people were taking. She also describes both the hate and support she has encountered on her journey into pole as a Muslim woman in hijab. She highlights the importance of respecting how sex workers have shaped the discipline of pole dance without homogenizing the genre as necessarily sexual. Tune in and stay sanitary bitches!

This week we have a personal catch-up episode with Ellie, Alia and Nadia. We discuss Ellie’s one-year-anniversary since surgery, Nadia’s gender feelings surfacing in quarantine, bizarre barriers to entry in every job market, and where we want to take this podcast next (hit us up if you’re a SWANA person in Latin America, a QPOC gamer, or anyone else who wants to chat).  We also talked about how we maintained our mental health during election night (it involved reenacting the Mean Girls script and playing Marry/Fuck/Kill instead of checking stats). If you want to join in on our questionable entertainment,…