Literature in Translation

Shahadat is a  monthly online series designed to provide a platform for experimentation and promotion of short form writing on the web.  These stories, vignettes, reflections and chronicles, written by young or underexposed writers from the Middle East and North Africa, are published here  in translation and the original.

Exploring Popular Literature Series

 Hip Hop, edited by Rayya ElZein

This edition of Shahadat's Exploring Popular Literature Series is a special issue on hip hop. The issue functions as liner notes to an album filled with radical potential, and features translations of sixteen hip hop tracks by artists from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, and the Arab diaspora. Ranging from the highly political to the contemplative, these songs offer listeners and readers insight into the hopes and critiques of a generation of contemporary Arab hip hop artists. More