Again and again, music communities in Lebanon have embraced mutual aid and spoken out through activism and in their art. That’s been true from experimental music labels to the Beirut Synthesizer Center initiative. They’re getting results. It’s time for the international music scene and press to do more.
Read moreMusic and sound are not action — at least, not normally. But sound can recenter you, rewire your brain, and let you catch your breath before that action. So I find myself returning to this eight-hour broadcast by London’s Sister Midnight FM, which includes Palestinian artists who have long been featured on CDM, including Muqata’a, bint mbareh, and Dakn.
We’ve followed musicians in Palestine for years. Now the situation is an emergency. Palestinians are facing forced starvation. There’s not much to add beyond this message from Ahmed Muin of Gaza Birds Singing: the music stops. Let food in now. Ahmed’s silence is a call to end our own.