Graphic Fiction by Donia Maher and Ganzeer

Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette

This excerpt from a longer work, described in Arablit as a "a fabulous noir poem," takes place entirely inside an apartment in downtown Cairo's Bab el-Louk neighborhood.

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Definitions

Bab el-Louk: A neighborhood in downtown Cairo.
mishmisha: "Apricot" in Arabic; sometimes used as a name for a pet.

First published in English in Words Without Borders' February 2014 issue, International Graphic Novels: Volume VIII.

for The Apartment in Bab el-Louk
https://wwb-campus.org/literature/the-apartment-in-bab-el-louk

Donia Maher

Donia Maher is an Egyptian artist and writer. In 2010, she received a production award from al-Mawred al-Thaqafy (Culture Resource) for The Apartment in Bab el-Louk. She lives in Cairo.

Ganzeer

Ganzeer, a graphic designer since 2005, has been involved in contemporary art since 2007 with a variety of exhibitions between Cairo, Germany, Holland, Poland, Italy, Brazil, USA, Emirates, and Amman. He has become most known outside of the typical art sphere for his street art and activism efforts throughout 2011. The Guardian of London has described Ganzeer as a major player in an emerging "counter-culture art scene on the mainstream radar," and Al-Monitor.com has placed him on a list of fifty people shaping the culture of the Middle East today. Art In America's C. Viveros-Faune has associated Ganzeer with today's "New Realism," a label attributed to an art-form responding to a host of global challenges connected to the majority of people outside the standard art bubble.

Elisabeth Jaquette (translator)

Elisabeth Jaquette is a writer and translator. Her translations of Arabic literature have been published in Jadaliyya and Asymptote and are forthcoming in Portal 9. She has also worked as a translator for the Palestine Festival of Literature. From 2007–13 she was based in Cairo, where she ran a monthly bilingual literary salon, and she is currently the Arabic reading group chair for UK publisher And Other Stories. Jaquette was a CASA fellow at the American University in Cairo in 2012–13, and is currently a graduate student in anthropology at Columbia University.

Links available online only

Meet the Artist

Ganzeer, wearing a t-shirt with the sticker design for which he was arrested during the Arab Spring. Cairo, Egypt, 2011. By Gigi Ibrahim for the Egyptian Liberal.

Find out how Ganzeer went about creating this story in his interview with the arablit blog: "Ganzeer on the Visual Language of 'The Apartment in Bab El-Louk'."

Then, watch Ganzeer talk about his generation of young artists in his TED Talk, "Intellectual Liberation of Cockroaches for Advancement of the Egyptian State."

Finally, read an interview in which Ganzeer compares street art in Egypt and the U.S.

Meet the Author

Visit Donia Maher's Facebook page, with many examples of Egyptian comics (mostly in Arabic.)

Meet Translator Elizabeth Jaquette

Visit Elizabeth Jaquette's website, where you'll see images from this story and find out about one of her non-translation-related interests.

Hear the Names

Listen to pronunciations of the Egyptian Arabic terms in this story, read aloud by Noor Naga.

(Listen on SoundCloud.)

Get the Rest of the Story

To understand where "The Apartment in Bab el-Louk" fits within Egyptian literature, and find out how it ends, read "The Case of the Arabic Noirs" from the Paris Review.

See More of Cairo

Look through a 21-year-old photographer's "cinematic" images of Cairo.

Then, look at photo-portraits of Cairo residents: In Cairo, a Painterly Cast of Characters.

Get Background on Egypt

To learn more about Egypt's history, read the BBC's timeline of key events from 7000 BCE to 2018.

Or, find out about current events in the newspaper The Egypt Independent.

Links available online only

More from Ganzeer

Watch a music video directed by Ganzeer, with a similar color palette to the book.

(Watch the video on Vimeo.)

Next, visit Ganzeer's website, where you can look at comics, or read his online graphic novel The Solar Grid ("An ailing Earth. A superior Mars. And two orphans who will change everything.")

Egyptians will never give up the struggle for freedom and democracy. By Alisdare Hickson, 2013. Mural by Ganzeer and volunteers.

Finally, watch a video on Ganzeer’s project “All American.”

(Watch the video on YouTube.)

More from Translator Elizabeth Jaquette

Recent books include Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous, and many more, linked on her website.

The Elusive Cairo Apartment

Watch a New York Times documentary in which a Cairo woman searches for an apartment: "She Wants Independence. In Egypt, That Can Be Dangerous."

More Unsettling Graphic Literature*

Try "Sharing," a story from China, or the graphic reportage of "Slaves of Moscow."

*For Teaching Idea 1

More Shaped (or Concrete) Poetry*

If you enjoyed the shaped poem on page 9 of this story, take a look at John Hollander's OI/Cat poem, on page 98 of this 1984 issue of Poetry Magazine. Poetry Magazine also published "Five Shaped Poems" by Hollander in 1966.

To learn about shaped (or "concrete") poems from Brazil and other parts of the world, read Concrete Poetry: A World View.

For classic examples, read Lewis Carroll's "Mouse's Tale," from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or George Herbert's "Easter Wings."

Interested in more? Take a look at the Poetry Foundation's collection of concrete poems.

*For Teaching Idea 2

Reading Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11 and up

Background Resource
1. Images that Unsettle
2. Shaped (Concrete) Poems

To access these Teaching Ideas, please register or login to WWB-Campus.

The Apartment in Bab el-Louk

Note: If you have trouble reading the text within the images, you can find the same text in the boxes beneath the page navigation buttons.

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Proud Beggars - Graphic Fiction

Tetsu of the Yamanote Line - Graphic Fiction

Sharing - Graphic Fiction