October 20, 2022
Alessandra Ciucci
An Elegy for the Crossing: Nass El Ghiwane’s "as-Səmṭa"
SNF RENDEZ-VOUS
Reid Hall | 4, rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris
Free and open to the public
This lecture discusses the opening section of "as-Səmṭa" (The Belt), a song by the celebrated Moroccan group Nass El Ghiwane, as a contemporary vernacular marthiya.
The choice of discussing this prelude as an elegy is motivated by my wish to contribute to recent debates that seek to problematize the idea of the Mediterranean as a site of flows, mobility and exchange, and question a central narrative of the region as producing music that expresses so-called shared traditions. In making audible what has been excluded in celebrating particular ideas about the Mediterranean, I call attention to the need to listen to a different experience of this sea and, in turn, to inquire into the very idea of listening to the Mediterranean through Nass El Ghiwane.
Read more about Alessandra Ciucci.
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