Lebanon’s literary and art journal
We had the pleasure of meeting Rima Rantisi, creative and academic writing teacher at AUB’s English Department, co founder and editor in chief of Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal. This project, led by a team of teachers and students at the American University of Beirut, is the first of its kind in Lebanon. A …
Summer is still on!
If you think summer and festival season is over. Think again. September has lots of great music events in store for you.
This coming Saturday, leave the chaos of city life, come enjoy the beautiful shore of Batroun and attend the annual Wickerpark festival, featuring a great line up of lebanese bands.
A great way to encourage and discover local talent in a laid back, sea side, grassroot environment. This year, the festival is taking place on a Saturday so that you won’t need to fear traffic and rush back to Beirut.
This edition will feature performances by well-established bands as well as newcomers: The Wanton Bishops, Interbellum, LUMI, Filter, Happier, Safar Music, ETYEN, Loopstache, Kid Fourteen, and DJ sets by Jack the Fish, Ziad Nawfal and Rami O.
On Wednesday September 14th, Liban Jazz brings you the incredibly captivating Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara. She is the famous voice of the musical “Kirikou” and the talent behind the soundtrack of the internationally renowned movie “Timbuktu”.
On Sunday September 18th, Beirut Jam Sessions are heading to Gardenstate to present the unique Estonian artist NOËP, whose real name is Andres Kopper, “an electronic-pop act whose music has been described as a delicate and infectious blend of indie, electro and pop accompanied by distinctive vocals”. This not-to-miss concert will also feature local talents; CODE O preforming his solo tracks and a DJ set by musician and producer ETYEN.
See you there!
Free fashion school
It’s the story of Sara Hermez who opened a free school in fashion design, Creative Space Beirut that provides education to talented design students who lack the resources to study. These students come from all over the country including refugee camps. The Parsons School of Design graduate, with the help of her former professor Caroline Simonelli, wanted to put her creativity …
Turn waste into resource
At Beirut’s Bright Side we are concerned with the environment and strive to promote eco friendly and green initiatives. In the past year, we have shared the stories of wonderful people working hard towards building a safer, cleaner and healthier country, for generations to come. We recently came across an interesting Interview (by Middle East Eye) with Ziad Abi Chaker, CEO of Cedar …
7 rooms 7 artists
“7 Rooms 7 Artists – Beirut Conversations” is a unique initiative where 7 artists revived an old abandoned traditional house in the middle of the busy Mar Mikhael neighbourhood. These artists have one thing in common, they are non-Arab, non-Lebanese, and chose to live and work in Beirut. That is yet a reminder of how beautiful and inspiring …
Beirut Jam Sessions celebrates 4 years
Beirut Jam Sessions has been nurturing the live music scene in Beirut for 4 years now. 4 years of hosting great live shows with local and international acts. 4 years of promoting lebanese talents and helping them share their music with a wider audience. 4 years of striving to make our local music scene a vibrant and …
Cyclist of Life
Micky Chebli is a #cyclistoflife. He is turning 50 this year and hopes to fulfil his dream. Riding from Paris to Beirut in one month to raise money for 3 lebanese NGOs.
Today is the big day. This morning Micky embarked on his long journey and aims to cycle 4000 km in the next 36 days. He will cycle from France to Italy, then to Greece and Turkey. He’ll then take a boat to Lebanon and cycle back to Beirut on July 2nd.
His goal is to raise 300 000$. These funds will cover the following:
For les Petits Soleils “Free Health Care for all Children in Need” : $100 000 will cover 10 hospitalizations with surgery, 1000 specialized consultations, 1000 vaccinations, 1500 X-rays, and 500 laboratories explorations.
For Myschoolpulse “Bringing Schools to Hospitals” : $100 000 covers the education of 100 children undergoing treatment for life-threatening diseases in six hospitals.This money will also cover one-on-one tutoring, computer courses and art therapy
For Oum el Nour “Drug Prevention and Rehabilitation”: $100 000 will cover one year of in-patient treatment and social reinsertion for 10 young men and women and design of prevention and social awareness programs
With his passion and motivation Micky is an inspiration to all of us.
Follow his journey, support his campaign.
Let’s help him help others.
Curious about Beit Beirut?
Some years ago we were lucky enough to visit the Barakat building in Sodeco and witness a contemporary dance performance. The iconic yellow building near Sodeco square has been saved from demolition and transformed into a museum. "Beit Beirut" is the name and our friends at the Beirut Report have taken a tour and shared a bunch of nice photos including a quick video walk through. We really look forward to visiting the building ourselves and recommend you add it to your to-do-list.
Read the full story here...
We recommend // Rock n Roll Pizza Party!
BBS had a sit down with Lazzy Lung front man Allan Chaaraoui for a Q&A about the RRPP that are staring to come to life in Beirut again.
How do you see the music scene in Beirut?
It goes without saying that Beirut is flooded with EDM / House music/ top 40 commercial and everything else under the sun – and that continues to be “ “ popular demand. I’d like to think people are ready for something a little different.
Tell us about a few of the challenges you faced as a musician?
Back in the day it was hard enough getting gigs especially for “original bands” let alone bands that play Rock music. At the time there were no Wicker Parks or Beirut Jam Sessions or Beirut Open Stages out there – so we had to be crafty. My band didn’t want to have to wait for the AUB Outdoors /Fete De La musique / to step on a stage.
What’s up with the Pizza party?
This was something that originated in my Hometown of Ottawa Canada – a staple club night in the city (at least it used to be) held every Thursday (Free entrance and Free pizza) as a perk they’d dish out a couple of pizzas at the end of the night. Unfortunately they stopped throwing them – but they were legendary. A lot of my favorite bands sprung up and performed at these events.
I wanted to carry that tradition on – only here in Beirut!
Who played your RRPP events back when you guys started them?
The RRPP was hosting and performing events with local rock bands and heavy hitters like (Lazzy Lung /Who Killed Bruce Lee / Scrambled Eggs/ Beirut Scum Society/ Passive Standouts and even managed to host The Black Lips).
Now what?
There’s a new Rock Pub / Biker bar (Fuel Garage Bar) in Mar Mkhayel that just fit perfectly with the RRPP Vibe. Across the street there is new pizza place opening (By The slice) and the pizza tastes awesome!
It just made perfect sense – to put everything together and start throwing parties again.
What’s the deal?
Free Entrance – Free Pizza – Every Thursday
How are you promoting this party?
#punch4punch is how we launched our campaign and is now a staple element of the RRPP – you can see hilarious clips of our friends and family getting decked in the face in slow-mo. Take a Punch in the face for A Free Punch Cocktail (aka Rock n Roll Pizza Party Punch)
Are you thinking about the community when you throw these parties?
YES! Our Pizza Sponsor is doing this brilliant initiative (Pay It forward Pizza) to help the needy
We hope that we can manage to get more people taking part and giving back to the community through the RRPP.
When do you shut down the party?
We hope to keep throwing parties so long as the drinks pour cold and the pizza comes out the oven…our parties go on till the cops show up. We just want give as much as we can to build and strengthen the rock music community in Lebanon -which has been somewhat neglected other than the efforts of the Jim Beam Rock festival.
What about the future?
Eventually if the parties keep doing well – we are looking to Shut down the street and host block parties with Live Bands and the whole 9 – still staying true to our concept of Free Entry a few free pizzas.
Visit Beirut now
Award winning celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain recently talked about his fascination for Beirut. In an interview with Bon Appétit Magazine, he was asked “Where should I travel now?” and this is what he had to say:
“Beirut. The food’s delicious, the people are awesome. It’s a party town. And everything wrong with the world is there. Hopefully, you will come back smarter about the world. You’ll understand a little more about how uninformed people are when they talk about that part of the world. You’ll come back as I did: changed and cautiously hopeful and confused in the best possible way. Travel at its best defies expectations. Yes, it’s divided. There are Shia neighborhoods, Christian areas—but they all go to the same restaurants. You can go from bikinis by the pool to Hezbollah in an 8-minute cab ride. They all coexist in a weird way. That’s part of the thing that makes Beirut so interesting.