POSTS
Elham event: culture, digitized
By hisham
Last night I, along with bloggers Ayesha Saldanha and Deonna Kelli Sayed, was invited to participate in a special Elham event regarding the role of blogging in cultural development, with particular emphasis on the literary aspect of online writing. I read several of my posts and answered some very interesting questions from the attendees.
This was my second Elham participation (I participated in the first Elham gathering in November of last year.) As usual, Deonna Kelli Sayed, Phoebe Boswell, Al Riwaq Gallery and of course Ali Al Saeed (who unfortunately couldn’t make it as he was abroad,) did a wonderful job of organizing it.
Thanks to all who attended, including one venerable blogfather. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Continuing tonight, Al Riwaq will host a discussion on language, translation, and expression. The event will feature poet Ali al Jallawi and translations read by Ayesha Saldanha. Hameed al Qaed will moderate.
For the record, here’s a transcript of what I started off with last night before my post readings:
Culture is not created by governments, kings, queens or presidents. It’s not created by corporations either. Culture is you and me. And in today’s world of fleeting electrons, culture is not about ceremony, there’s no need to speak or wax eloquent as was done in days past in order to define ourselves, or to gather traditions of a pedantic nature. All we need is a keyboard and a willingness to share our experiences to make them part of our culture. Be it in the arts, literature or the humanities in general, blogging enables each and everyone of us to contribute in an almost instant way to the cultural development of our own peoples.
When I write something, it invariably embeds itself in the culture from where I’m coming from. It becomes part of it. Part of Bahrain. Tonight there are several bloggers here. For instance, who’s to say that Mahmood’s Friday garden posts are not part of Bahrain’s culture? I for one think it a cultural exercise to go to his site every Friday and check out the latest offerings from his beautiful garden.
Culture is not strictly relegated to historical manifestations or traditions. Culture is enabled, and evolves by giving people breathing space. To speak and to express themselves in a manner that rings true to who they really are. And with such thought, I’d like to begin by reading a post I’ve written during the time of one particular scandal in our little island of hope. This one’s called Oh, She’s Just So Embarrassed, and it has to do with that bottleneck of cultural exploration and evolution: censorship.