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After several months off from podcasting from Morocco, I’m back with a bonus episode of Why Morocco. I’m chatting with my friend and author Adrienne Chinn about her two books The Lost Letter from Morocco, set in Morocco and The English Wife, set in Newfoundland, Canada.

Adrienne began developing her latest historical fiction novel The English Wife at my dining room table in Marrakech back in 2018 and the book was released on the 24 June 2020. The time-split historical romance is set between Norwich, UK and Newfoundland, Canada and follows the tale of an aunt and her niece who end up in Newfoundland. Or so we think. I won’t say anymore. But rather, just grab a copy.

For a bit of air chair travel, her first novel, The Lost Letter from Morocco, was a real page-turner as the characters set out in locations around Morocco including Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, and even to coastal Essaouira for the Gnaoua Festival.

Listen in as Adrienne and I chat about her novels, writing style and approaches and why she too is so inspired and filled with creative energy when visiting Morocco.

To find out more about Adrienne at: http://www.adriennechinn.co.uk/ 

Find her books The English Wife or The Lost Letter of Morocco on Amazon or your preferred bookstore.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For final episode of Why Morocco’s second season, I chatted with one of the people I’m checking in with weekly and that person is my life coach, Ray Beach from Drift and Design. I credit her and our weekly coaching sessions for helping me to live my best life in Marrakech, Morocco. Ray and I have been working together for over a year during which time she has coached me through various exercises and techniques to help bring balance to my life, but also move forward ideas and work through personal issues.

When I sat down to record this episode, I wanted this to be an honest and open conversation between Ray and I to let listeners know that others may also be struggling, despite putting on a strong front.

But what I want listeners to know that I believe that coaching or any other one to one development work such as counselling, therapy or mentoring are personal decisions and may even require professional advise. So while life coaching has worked for me and some of the exercises can, as Ray says in the interview, be used in group or organisational settings, I think each of us are unique. So it’s about finding what works for us, when the time is right.

Listen in as Ray and I chat about her approach to coaching and what exercises I’m working on to help me through these unexpected and unknown times.

To get in touch with Ray, email her at [email protected]

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For this week’s episode I chatted with MoroccanTapes.com founder Amino Belyamani. Amino, who grew up in Casablanca and now lives in Brooklyn, created the site that brings Moroccan tapes of various musical genres, which are typically only available for purchase in Morocco and in regions where the musicians hail, to the world.

With music in his blood – both his father and brother are musicians – Amino is an accomplished musician himself having co-founded the band Dawn of Midi. He’s also is involved in Innov Gnawa, a group known for their traditional Moroccan trance emsemble and their track Bambro Koyo Ganda was nominated for a Grammy in 2018 in the best dance recording category.

Listen is as Amino talks about Moroccan Tapes and his plans for the site, what he thinks listeners should be listening to when it comes to the tapes already available and Moroccan music in general.

To listen or learn more, visit: https://moroccantapes.com/

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

With the third edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair kicking off on 20 February 2020 in Marrakech, I chatted with fair founder Touria el Glaoui by telephone in the lead up to the event. The fair is designed to provide exposure to artists from the 54 countries that make up the continent. Touria talked about the changing landscape and dialogue surrounding African contemporary art since she began researching the idea for an African contemporary art fair about ten years ago. Touria launched the first 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in in London in 2013 before travelling to New York in 2015 and finally to Marrakech in 2018. And today, the fair is one of the highlights of my social calendar each year.

With galleries openings, studio visits, talks and roundtables, and meetings with artists planned throughout the four-day event, the programme is rich!

Listen is as Touria talks about the fair, the contemporary art industry, and what visitors can expect during the third edition of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For the thirtieth episode of Why Morocco, I reached Lonely Planet travel writer Helen Ranger by telephone from my studio in Marrakech. Helen is a friend and colleague, concierge, a fellow Morocco lover albeit one who prefers to call Fez home, and has recently submitted a chapter about Morocco’s rural Middle Atlas Mountain region for the forthcoming Lonely Planet Morocco guidebooks.

In our chat, Helen talks about two of the national parks in the region, trekking options, the Sidi Harazem baths, caves, and what you’ll want to know for planning a Middle Atlas getaway.

With nearby waterfalls and caves, nature reserves, a brutalistis thermal bath complex, village markets, and festivals to enjoy, I don’t really understand why more people don’t take advantage of a short-haul long weekend in the Fez countryside. And with all the tips that Helen provides for planning a trip to the rural Middle Atlas region, Fez could double as a base for exploring the old city and a getaway in the countryside. After all, the city is served with international flights to leading European destinations.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

With a new year and a new decade upon us, I sat down with Meryam Demnati, an Amazigh activitist, to chat about a little-known New Year celebrated in here in Morocco – Yennayer – the Amazigh New Year for the latest episode of Why Morocco. Celebrated on 12 January by the native peoples of North Africa, Yennayer marks the shift from extreme cold and milder temperatures and is celebrated by Amazigh (sometimes referred to as Berbers) communities not only in Morocco, but throughout North Africa. Interestingly though, January 1 and the Islamic New Year are observed here in Morocco with official bank holidays, but Yennayer is not.

As an activist, Meryam also talks about the status of the Amazigh language and Tifinagh alphabet in Morocco, recognition of the Amazigh culture, and the causes the Amazigh movement has and continues to work on since post-independence in Morocco.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For this week’s episode,I chatted with architect Aziza Chaouni in her Toronto office by telephone. I first learned about Aziza and her work when she was featured in Brownbook magazine, a publication I used to write for. I knew immediately that I needed to meet her given that we have swapped home countries. Aziza lives between Toronto, Canada where she works as an architect but is also a tenured professor at the university of Toronto and Fez, Morocco where her architecture firm is located.

But it was after a recent feature in the New York Times about the Sidi Harazem thermal baths restoration project that I finally reached out to Aziza. The thermal baths, near Fez, not only have healing properties, but the complex that Jean-Francois Zevaco designed in 1960 is done in brutalism style. Her credits also include transforming a slaughterhouse in Casablanca in to a cultural space, working on the restoration of the oldest existing university in the world – al-Qarawiyyin University in Fez and more. In fact, in the interview she shares details about a project she’s wrapping up in southern Morocco this month.

Listen in as Aziza talks about post-independence architecture, her past and on-going projects, the role of the architect and the state of architecture in Morocco.

Find out more about Aziza Chaouni Project: http://www.azizachaouniprojects.com/.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

For this week’s episode I met with Nadir Bouhmouch, the filmmaker behind the documentary Amussu. In the film, Nadir takes a collaborative approach to telling the story of the villagers of Imidir peacefully protesting against Africa’s largest silver mine, located in the region, that led to water scarcity in their oasis and their right to land. Beautifully shot, the film included images of the oasis when water was scarce and its impact on agriculture, stepped inside homes to interview local residents and captured video of daily village life.

I first learned about Amussu as it premiered at the 2019 Toronto Hot Docs festival. I happened to catch the film when it made its Marrakech premiere this autumn. Following the release, I met with Nadir to chat about the protests that have been dubbed the Movement on Road 96 and his collaborative approach to telling this tale. But also the peaceful approach the locals took to bring about change when they’d had enough.

So let’s listen in as Nadir talks about sharing the tale of a village that, while the struggle is not over, succeeded in shutting down one of the water pipelines, thus bringing some life back to this oasis in southern Morocco.

Find out more about Amussu and latest news and screenings, follow on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/amussufilm/.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @mandyinmorocco.

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For this week’s episode I met with architect Imad Dahmani in Casablanca for an architecture tour of some of the modernist buildings throughout the city. Imad works in Casablanca and also the president of the MAMMA Group, an organization that aims to protect modern architecture in Morocco. You may remember that I interviewed Lahbib El Moumni, also from the MAMMA Group, on episode seven of Why Morocco about brutalist architecture. Well now, the organization is gearing up to launch the Modern Casablanca Map with fifty residential, commercial, government spaces throughout the city included. Each Modern Casablanca Map comes with a little booklet with more details about the building, some of which are open to the public and others that can be viewed only from the exterior. The map will be available throughout Casablanca following the launch on the 8 November 2019 for self-guided architecture tours of Casablanca.

Listen in as Imad talks about exploring beyond the art deco downtown to find the modernist gems throughout the Casablanca.

Find out more about MAMMA Group at: https://mammagroup.org/.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include:

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For this week’s episode I travelled to Casablanca to meet Justina Tulloch, the Aussie and one half of the duo behind Bondi Coffee Kitchen. A little known secret – I was terrified of Casablanca for years, but when this restaurant opened in 2015 I knew I needed not only a flat white, but to give the city a second chance. So I finally did in 2016 and I stopped by Bondi Coffee Kitchen for lunch. Justina, along with her husband Aziz Mrabet, have created a space with fresh eats and some of the best coffee in town. But on the podcast she also talks about launching a concept that was quite new in the city at the time of opening. And as residents of this coastal town, Justina shared some of her tips to dispel rumours that there is nothing to do in Casablanca except visit the famous mosque.

Listen in as Justina talks about setting up the restaurant, the philosophy and concept behind Bondi Coffee Kitchen and why you need to add Casablanca to your Morocco itinerary.

To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.

For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair

My other projects include: