I made a rukmini vijaykumar edit. This one still has some remaining editing to do like the text and all but tumblr has a 100 mb limit I guess so here you go
A boy is born in Swansea on a cold spring day in March, 1960. He’s named John for his father’s father, Rémus for his mother’s — hold the accent aigu. After all, the Jews of Morocco name their children for the living, not the dead.
Remus John Lupin grows up speaking Welsh at home and English at school and Haketia with his ma whenever they damn well please. He has his father’s tawny hair and his mother’s thick curls and olive-gold skin, and by the time he’s done growing he’ll be taller than either grandfather ever was. His mother teaches maths at the local uni and his father works on assignment for the Ministry of Magic, capturing boggarts and banishing lethifolds and dueling against spirits of all kinds. Ma still thinks she’s got the more exciting job.
When he’s four, he survives an attack.
He survives.
He survives.
There’s a part of the boy that no one can know about, not even his new school friends. If they find out, he’ll have to leave. He’ll be driven away, out of fear and ignorance and an unwillingness to learn that there’s a breadth of experience outside of one’s own sphere. Little boys, after all, don’t grow up on stories about monsters by accident. Their parents want them to know that in the darkness, there be dragons, so they'd do best to stay close to the light.
No one can know. Dad reminds him of that all the time, in the summer before he goes to school. He needn’t bother. Remus was raised on stories of refugee ancestors fleeing Valencia massacres for Moroccan shores, grew tall on days celebrating Esther and Yehudit’s necessary deceptions. He knows how to hide what others fear without making a single part of himself small.
In Morocco, young women are reclaiming the centuries old art of Gnaoua by bringing a new and inclusive energy to the spiritual musical repertoire that gained worldwide popularity after it was listed by UNESCO as intangible culture heritage in 2019.
"Tagnaouite has gained worldwide recognition with its UNESCO listing. Why shouldn't a woman play the guembri? Why shouldn't women be part of this dynamic? Women were at best simple members of Gnaoua groups, but never leaders. And the day I had the opportunity to play the guembri and succeeded in playing this instrument, I didn't hesitate for a second," shared Asma Hamzaoui, frontwoman of the all-female "Bnat Timbouktou".
The 26-year-old Casablanca native is one of the first women to perform Gnaoua, which blends African rhythms with spiritual chants and poetry. Her father, a Gnaoua master, initiated her into the art form at a young age. "I've accompanied him to his evening gatherings since I was seven years old," recounted the young woman, who in 2012 formed the group "Bnat Timbouktou", or The Girls of Timbuktu. "I gradually learned to play the guembri, a three-stringed lute made of camel skin. My father made sure that I learned as much as possible before I flew solo."
The all-female ensemble wowed the festival-goers -- with Hamzaoui on vocals and the guembri, and four musicians on qraqeb steel castanets.They played alongside the Amazones d'Afrique, another all-female group, from Mali. This young woman’s ambition empowered many others such as Hind Ennaira to explore their passion for the traditionally masculine art form, which blends African rhythms with spiritual chants and poetry. Gnanoua is also an ensemble that goes beyond just music, it also impacts clothes.
Feeds the spirit
"I started in 2016 and the idea of putting a group together was born in 2018. I put together a traditional ensemble made up of men with myself alone as the female leader, I tried to change the concept (of all-male Gnaoua groups)."
Originally practised by enslaved people and dating back at least to the 16th century, Gnaoua has gone from being practised largely in private gatherings, where therapeutic rituals accompanied the music, to public events such as concerts and festivals.
The Gnaoua festival held every summer in Essaouira has been promoting Gnaoua culture worldwide since 1997.
Jimi Hendrix StyleYousra Mansour, the frontwoman of the band Bab L'bluz ("The Blues Gate"), which fuses Gnaoua, rock and blues, also encountered challenges entering the music scene.
"There were two constraints for me: first, the fact that this field is usually reserved for men, but also how we interpret traditional music," explained the musician."It is not very accepted or even tolerated by some of the stricter individuals."We replaced the bass with the guembri and the guitar with the awisha (a small guembri) and created a kind of 'power trio' in the style of Jimi Hendrix with reimagined traditional instruments," explained Mansour.The 32-year-old vocalist passionately defends women's freedoms, saying that "as a woman, I have not had an easy life".
"There was a lack of women in this field. When I see Asma Hamzaoui or Hind Ennaira, they are magnificent," she said."It is not easy to evolve in a predominantly male universe, but we see changes emerging."
I have my bharatanatyam exam this Thursday and luckily I had my dance class today to do the final prep for the things the examiner will ask
Which made me realize that I do get nervous for dance questions despite knowing the answer but if someone asks me casually about types of abhinaya or the beats in a taal I can then confidently answer them???
Anyway I have odissi classes for the next 2 consecutive days with my bnat exam in the evening and odissi classes are tiring for the body like my feet hurt for one day but I guess that's because of irregular practice.
Also tomorrow is janmashtami and I have to look up for the bhog to make tomorrow morning. I guess it will be slightly busy because I have to cook, practice dance items, attend class and then do the puja
Cassie becoming principal Boleyn is the most welcome wonderful surprise for me. I always thought she’d be principal Howard first over her other covers.
It was very unexpected but I'm not complaining. @sixcostumerefs and I had been talking about her potentially becoming tour principal at cast change for a while. It just felt like a natural next step from the things she had been saying in the past few months. And then her final alt date was announced suddenly, specifically said final alt date and it was both soon and matched the expected BNAT rehearsal start. It was very obvious. We just tought she would be Howard too. First role, that she played very often felt obvious too. It just wasnt and now we get both Cassie as principal and Alizé return. Mo complains in here.
@primalfears tagged me in the url song challenge n so abt a week ago i spent a shift at work v distracted n doing it. And retooled today bc i wanted no English somgs but then i narrowed it down to only north african artists
For a while we have been guessing multiple returns for this cast. I mean cassie suddenly announces leaving right around BNAT cast change rehearsals starting felt pretty obvious. But this is both very unexpected and like half the new cast wishlist.
Elisabeth and I have been guessing Kelly Cleves and Cassie Howard and Kristina return felt very possible but we coulldnt figure it out because I was set onParr and Adriana is staying but she said principal Aragon for a while. Cassie B, Kelly S was unexpected on a great way.
Then Danielle and Alize who were high on our cruise people we want to come back list (also Elisabeth has been saying Danielle would be a great Cleves for forever). And the rest are all in Elisabeth's dreamcast list, I'm not super familiar with US actors but what she has sent from them sounds really exciting.
In general I'm going to miss the current cast but also really excited about the new one.