Guest Feature: Jameela Elfaki

We’re back after a one week break! Catching up on the last couple of weeks, all of the stories listed below are what I’ve read over that time.

I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy! And we’re a month away from 2022, isn’t that wild?!

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Let’s get right into it, my friends. I am so excited to introduce this week’s guest feature: Jameela Elfaki!

Jameela is a British (English/Sudanese) photographer, filmmaker, creative director, and DJ. Jameela is the Founder and Editor in Chief of independent magazine, platform, and creative agency, AZEEMA. Her multidisciplinary work celebrates diversity, beauty and identity with a focus on the representation and inclusivity of marginalized women. With her projects, Jameela aims to empower, represent, inspire and bring people together.

If there’s anyone out here consistently doing it for the culture, it’s Jameela. The work she puts into all of her projects, particularly with AZEEMA, truly brings out the richness of the humanity of women. And, as a fellow DJ, I loved learning more about some of her go-to songs:

1. What is your favorite song right now?

Isii Nafta - “More Than My Life”

Need I say more? What a legend.

2. What’s your go-to song for all your feels?

Currently, this would have to be “Goodbye My Love” by Jungle featuring Priya Ragu. I just love the melody of this song, It's just beautifully simple and sweet, you can't help but sing along to it.

3. Name a song that reminds you of home.

“Haboba” by Nada Algalaa, which was recently used as inspiration for a shoot in the new issue of AZEEMA, and this song always reminds me of Sudan and my Dad's side of my family.

4. Name a song you know all the words to.

Kate Nash’s “Foundations” or “Stronger” by Sugababes. These are 00's classics! It would be weird to not haha.

5. Name a song that gets you really hype and ready to go.

“Leih Beydary Keda” by Ruby or “Gosh” by Jamie xx. 

Two very different vibes here, both are great. One is great for getting ready for a night out, and the other is amazing for getting hyped to do some creative work. 

Big shout out to Jameela for joining and sharing her song selections! Most of Jameela’s songs are available on Spotify and will be included in this week’s playlist, so be sure to take a listen. Definitely go follow Jameela on Instagram, check out her website, and keep up with the amazing work happening at AZEEMA!

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What I’m Listening To

Full Playlist

🎧 Flows by Middle Eastern, North African, & Diaspora Artists 🎧

• Balash Ana - Flipperachi featuring Carmen Soliman

• Elly Zaker Zaker - Dalia

• Ahla Wahda - Disco Misr featuring Aziz Maraka

• Arab Female Cypher - Big Hass featuring TaffyRaps, Little G Fresh, Rann, Medusa TN, Nayomi, and Intomymind

• Bruno - Arsenik featuring Batistuta

• Ya Delali - DYSTINCT featuring Bryan Mg

• Sucré Salé - L’morphine

• Mesaytara - Lamis Kan

• GLOOM - Dounia

• 3allamni Ellil - Cheb Bachir featuring Artmasta

🎤 Vibes by Latinx & Hispanic Artists 🎤

• Another Day in America - Kali Uchis featuring Ozuna

• Made of Gold - Ibeyi featuring Pa Salieu

• Súbelo - Anuel AA featuring Myke Towers and Jhay Cortez

• Instinto - YEИDRY featuring J Balvin

• $payforhaiti - KAYTRANADA featuring Mach-Hommy

• Flow Romántico - Las Villa

• Vamos a La Boti - Santaferia

• Pastelitos De Guayaba - Lilly Yan

• Contigo - Afro Legends

• Llora, Llora - Tego Calderon featuring Oscar D’León

🎼 Other Good Music 🎼

• 1 of 1 - Lily Rayne

• Skata - Jess ETA

• Right Here - Blaq Jerzee featuring Gyaki

• SHOW ME THE WAY - Jon Batiste featuring Zadie Smith

• Fix You - Kacey Musgraves

• Donuts - Isaiah Rashad featuring UMI

• Talk Quiet - Ama Lou

• Kufuli - Nandy featuring Marioo and Tboy Daflame

• Millions - Tierra Whack

• 2010 - Earl Sweatshirt

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What I’m Reading

🇱🇧 Lebanon 🇱🇧

• In tumultuous Lebanon, a bright spot in . . . gin-making - Chloe Cornish, Financial Times

  Amid civil and economic turmoil, small distilleries are creating subtle, flavourful brands.

• Campaigns against child marriage in Lebanon rising amid parliament’s inability to amend law - Tala Ramadan, L’Orient Today

  Campaigners have been trying to raise awareness of the risks of early marriage, including health issues, and pushing for a civil law that sets 18 as the minimum age for marriage. 'Lebanon lags far behind other countries in the region who have made significant advances in protecting girls from the horrors of child marriage,' Human Rights Watch told L'Orient Today.

• The Health of the Lebanese: Another Victim of the Economic Crisis - Charbel Khoury and Nour Mokhdar, Daraj

  The sight of over crowded private doctors’ clinics, with over booked appointment lists for consultation or follow up is a thing of the past. The cost per consultation now ranges between LBP200,000 and LBP300,000. This has forced many patients to seek treatment in public sector clinics or healthcare centers where the consultation fees don’t exceed LBP20,000.

• Rhythms from the rubble — the battle to keep Beirut’s music scene alive - Charles Shafaieh, Financial Times

  Lebanon’s musicians have banded together to keep creating after civil war, economic crisis and last year’s port blast.

• 'Ballot stronger than the bullet': Lebanon's civil society groups seek to oust political elite - Nada Issa, The New Arab

  As Lebanon’s dysfunctional political set up has resisted change, many wonder whether the elections set for 2021 will finally bring about an alternative to the long-established political class.

🌍 Middle East, North Africa, & Diaspora 🌎

• Cop27 is in Egypt next year … but will anyone be allowed to protest? - Ruth Michaelson and Fiona Harvey, The Guardian

  Green experts and human rights activists are concerned the hardline Cairo regime will suppress any civil society action.

• ‘The war crushed our dreams’: Displaced again and again in Yemen’s Marib - Mohamed Ghazi, The New Humanitarian

  “We couldn’t take everything, but we took our livestock and whatever we could carry.”

• Pro-Palestine activists brave smear campaigns at US universities - Zainab Iqbal, Middle East Eye

  Students risk being listed on websites for their activism, with some stepping back as a result.

• The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe - Ian Urbina, The New Yorker

  Tired of migrants arriving from Africa, the E.U. has created a shadow immigration system that captures them before they reach its shores, and sends them to brutal Libyan detention centers run by militias.

• An Iraqi food truck owner is giving Afghans a little taste of home on their first nights in Des Moines - Andrea May Sahouri, Des Moines Register

  The Des Moines metro lacks Afghan restaurants, so the Iraqi food Ahmed Aldoori makes — traditional halal dishes like rice and meat, kabobs, shawarma and more — may be the closest taste of home Afghan refugees can find. 

🎶 Music, Arts, & Culture 🎶

• Oh, to Be Mentored by Virgil Abloh - Anna P. Kambhampaty, The New York Times

  The designer made it his mission to foster the talents of young Black creators.

• The teens who hated Abercrombie are the adults shopping there now — and they can’t believe it either - Jessica M. Goldstein, The Washington Post

  The store still smells the same, but what’s inside has changed a lot.

• ‘SNL’ nearly squashed Natasha Rothwell. Then ‘Insecure’ helped her find her voice - Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times

  “I think a lot of people are like, ‘overnight success,’ but I’ve been at it for a while,” she says. “I just never knew that this was in the cards." 

• Adele: 'It Fucking Devastated Me' - Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone

  How she turned heartache over her divorce into her most honest album yet

• King Richard and reclaiming Richard Williams’s legacy - Alex Abad-Santos, Vox

  In King Richard, Venus and Serena’s dad is the hero. The media didn’t always treat him that way.

📚 Other Reads 📚

• ‘Welcome to our world’: Muslims see disparities and dangers in Jan. 6 probe - Hannah Allam, The Washington Post

  Communities that faced persecution in the “war on terror” say the Jan. 6 investigation highlights inequalities in how Muslim suspects are treated.

• Cafecito and presidential sightings: A landmark Miami restaurant turns 50 - Carmen Sesin, NBC News

  “There’s nothing like Versailles, especially for Cubans. This is kind of their ground zero," says Nicole Valls about the place her grandfather built —now a world-known local and tourist hub.

• What the Arbery and Rittenhouse Verdicts Couldn’t Tell Us - Sarah Lustbader, The New York Times

  "Beyond the futility of hope, looking to the criminal system — which was heavily influenced by slave codes and still serves to reinforce racial hierarchies — further centers it in our moral discourse"

• Struggling in Limbo - Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela, In The Thick

  Maria and Julio are joined by Rowaida Abdelaziz, national reporter for the HuffPost covering immigration and Islamophobia, and Ali Latifi, Kabul correspondent for Al Jazeera English, to talk about the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. They discuss the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the impact on Afghan women and the latest with refugee resettlement.

• Remembering Kobe Bryant’s final game: Five years later, five untold stories about the Lakers legend’s 60-point night - Bill Oram, The Athletic

  The Athletic asked five people who were closely involved in Bryant’s final game to share their perspective through their own unique lens.