Fehras Publishing Practices 'Fayrouz: On musical production in 60s Lebanon'

Set within a scenography inspired by Fayrouz’s musical theater productions, the two-hour session takes listeners on a journey through her repertoire from the 1960s. This is interwoven with stories from the collective’s archives—gathered from booksellers, street libraries, private collections, and fan networks—that trace the history of Afro-Asian cultural production. This form of archival hospitality sheds light on Fayrouz’s work and its significance for the political and cultural upheavals of her time.

The session takes up Susan Buck-Morss’s (* 1942) idea that “if the present is understood not as the completion of the past but rather as its rescue, a radical pedagogy practices this gesture in the form of historical reappropriation”—a reflection cited at the beginning of Natascha Sadr Haghighian’s book *What I Do Not Recognize Yet,* Now at This Very Moment (2023). Against this backdrop, Fayrouz’s voice brings us together in a turbulent present to listen collectively, allowing her journey to appear as a mirror of our own experiences.

• The listening session will be recorded and will subsequently be available as a stream on Refuge Worldwide.