Six cool things about Morocco

 As most readers of the blog know, Issandr and I spent the summer visiting and reporting from Morocco. What follows is a belated, personal and haphazard list of some cool things I discovered there. 

1. Music. Hindi Zahra, a Berber-Moroccan-French singer-songwriter. 

Hindi Zahra - Stand Up
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2. The online magazine Mithly, the first Arabic magazine by and for gay men (Click here to hear my interview with the editor).

3. Casablanca's new "culture factory"--the city's old abandoned colonial-era slaughter-house, which has been taken over by a collective of artist and cultural professionals. Although the government is dragging its feet in recognizing and funding the space, it's already amazing. 

4. The Cinematheque of Tangiers. This movie theatre--beautifully restored and lovingly run by photographer Yto Barrada--has been around from some time, and remains one of my favourite spots in the country. 

5. Abdel-latif Laabi. The Moroccan poet and 2009 Goncourt prize winner is immensely talented; his poems pull you back and forward between the lyrical and the ironic, the poetic and the mundane. 

From his collection Mon Cher Double, a poem called "Matin gris" ("Gray morning"):

Matin gris

Images marquées au fer rouge

d'un autre matin gris:

rictus d'un fauve

juché sur ta poitrine

bourrades

te mettant les tripes à l'envers

insultes pleuvant

sure le sexe et la religion 

de ta mère

loque sanguinolente de ton corps

trainée, jetée dans un debarras

couche à meme le ciment

pain sec en guise d'oreiller

Nuit succédant aux nuits

plus de matin

meme gris

et nul sauveur

nul témoin

I can't translate this poem, which seems to be about someone homeless, the victim of violence--but the last lines read: "lay flat on the cement/dry bread for a pillow/night following upon nights/no more morning/not even a gray one/and no saviour/no witness." You can read Laabi's poetry in French at his own site and others. Unfortunately, he has been little translated into English. 

6. Did I mention music? This song ("Schizo Country"), by the well-known group Hoba Hoba Spirit. The video is also very cool.