Tips from the culture desk: A great week for puppetry!

Three events recommended in last week’s tips are actually happening tonight — Hassan Khan’s mobile-phone focused improv music at Balcon Heliopolis, Cimatheque’s Dinner at the Movies at Eish wa Malh and a performance of Carl Orff’s dramatic choral piece Carmina Burana at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in Tahrir Square — and Palme d'Or winning Belgian film The Eighth Day screens at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo tomorrow.

But there are also plenty more exciting arts events happening this week, and not just in Cairo.

Rubayat El-Nil Shadow Puppetry tour — starts Sunday

Rubayat El Nil uses shadow puppetry to comment on the effects of urbanization, climate change and pollution on Nile-side farmers. Directed by Nini Ayach and Hany Hommos, the touring performance focuses on farmers’ displacement from their land through stories that “attempt to capture a snapshot of the lives of victims of climate change in Egypt's Nile Delta, conveying a mix of frustration, persistence and optimism.” Each of the eight performances — scheduled in Cairo, Alexandria and Fayoum between Feburary 7 and 26 — will be followed by a discussion around the show and its themes.

The duo have several puppetry performances and projects under their belts, including the Bakaboza’s presidential campaign, El Kousha Puppets projects and Armenian folk-inspired shadow puppetry show Patarikner. They are joined by puppeteers Amira al-Mallah, Houssam Saeed and Mohanad al-Sangary, with music and sound design by Adham Zidan of The Invisible Hands.

The first performance is on February 7, 7.30 pm at Room Art Space, 10 Etehaad al-Mohamin, Garden City, Cairo. The rest of the tour dates can be found here.

Book discussion with Reem Bassiouney — Sunday

AUC Press is holding a discussion with award-winning author Reem Bassiouney about her recent novel, Mortal Designs, at CSA Maadi. An Oxford University linguistics graduate and a professor of sociolinguistics at the American University in Cairo, Bassiouney has written many academic books, including Functions of Code-Switching in Egypt (2006), Arabic Sociolinguistics (2008), and Arabic and the Media (2010), in addition to several short stories and novels in Arabic, including Dr. Hanaa, which won the Sawris Foundation Literary Prize for Young Writers in 2009. Barnes & Noble describe Mortal Designs as a contemporary Egyptian romance of “rare grace and wit, played out by characters trapped in their attitudes towards class and gender.” 

February 7 at 10.30 am, Community Services Association, 4 Road 21, Maadi, Cairo. Seating limited, RSVP at [email protected]. Facebook event here.

People watching other people — Tuesday 

Two exciting short films from 1972 are being screened at the Contemporary Image Collective on Tuesday: Egyptian filmmaker Ateyyat al-Abnoudy's The Sad Song of Touha (1972, 12 min) and Tunisian filmmaker Ridha Béhi's Seuils interdits (1972, 33 min). They are followed by a discussion about the acts of seeing and watching, and about artistic film experiments in the Arab world in the early 1970s, led by artist duo Raphaël Cuomo and Maria Iorio in English and Arabic.

February 9, 7 pm, at the Contemporary Imge Collective, 22 Abdel Khalik Tharwat, downtown Cairo. Facebook event here.

The Nile Project in Aswan, Alexandria and Cairo — starts Wednesday

In its fourth gathering of African musicians from Nile Basin countries, the Nile Project creates a musical camp for collaborations on new and existing projects that reflect the sound and hopes of the region. The residency is followed by several performances, university programs and workshops on the social, cultural and geopolitical realities of the Nile Basin.

This year’s residency featured 34 great musicians from 11 countries, directed by Danny Mekonnen, whose projects explore Ethiopian folk and jazz fusions. This year’s musicians include: Asia Madani (Sudan), Dina El-Wedidi (Egypt), Roza Kifle (Ethiopia), Msafiri Zawose (Tanzania) and many more.

February 10, 6 pm at the Fawzy Open Air Theater in Aswan; February 11, 8 pm at the Bibliotheca, Alexandria, and February 18 at Cairo's Club Mohamed Ali. Later in the month they will hold performances in Nairobi and Addis Ababa. See Facebook page here.

Puppetry & visual artist Nagy Shaker talk — Thursday

Renowned for designing the puppets for the iconic puppet show Al-Leila al-Kebeira (The Big Night), Nagy Shaker is an energetic, veteran visual artist, filmmaker and set and costume designer. This Thursday, the recently opened and very active Garden City cultural space Osiris is hosting a talk with Shaker, where audiences can ask him questions about his expansive career. Having consistently worked in the performing arts, Shaker has also dabbled with painting, sculpture and cinema — Zawya cinema screened his Italian-produced avant-garde film Summer 70 in 2014. 

February 11, 6 pm at Osiris Cultural Center, Seid al-Din building, 1 Hassan Mourad Street (off Qasr al-Aini Street), Garden City (same building as Tseppas Patisserie). Attendees are advised to come early to ensure seating.