Stories Of Our City

Nasser Shorbaji, aka Chyno, is a bit of an anomaly. The son of a Syrian-Filipino couple from Damascus, Chyno—whose mother tongue is English— works as a hip-hop artist based out of Beirut, Lebanon. His feeling as a sort of outlier in the various environments he has found himself in throughout life is what originally drew him to hip-hop. Hear Chyno share about the genre’s rich diversity, its power to express self and reflect one’s environment, and how the Syrian hip-hop scene’s freedom of expression has expanded since the Syrian revolution.   All the music featured in this episode comes from Chyno’s debut solo effort, entitled “Making Music to Feel at Home.”

For some, cross-stitch may conjure up images of sewing circles in the olden days or of simple patterns stitched using five shades of the same color. Elif (pronounced "a-leaf"), a native of Turkey, is seeking to challenge that traditional image of stitching by creating pieces that appeal to younger generations. While comfortable being a self-proclaimed 'old-soul', through her artwork Elif is serving as an advocate and agent for the evolution art must take to captivate and express each unique culture and generation.

Life can be very dangerous for Iraqis who have worked with the United States Army during the Iraq War. Even for those who leave their Iraqi homeland, in many cases, their families and relatives left behind still remain vulnerable. Such is the case of Noor, who has since immigrated to the United States, leaving her family behind in her motherland. Now in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen, Noor has come to feel at home in her new country. But one thing is missing: her family. Though Iraq has been removed from Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, which affects residents of six Muslim-majority countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East, the process for Iraqis applying for entry visas into the United States can still be arduous and quite time-consuming. Listen as Noor shares about her journey, her struggle, and the continuing desire to one day be reunited with her family on American soil. Please note that the subject’s name in this week’s story has been changed to protect her identity.

When Eddie, a young native of Seville, Spain, got tired of his homeland and caught the travel bug he decided to move to Paris on a whim. Without a job awaiting upon arrival, the obvious question haunted him: ‘Will I find a job before I run out of money?’ 

For Omar Ibrahim, art is an extension of existence and self. As a Syrian, he cannot escape the imprint of the ongoing Syrian war upon his life, his family, and his mind ... and, therefore, ultimately on his art. It is a reality he reluctantly embraces, while at the same time bravely seeks to change through his artwork and life.

American sitcoms first turned Meriç, a Turkish college graduate, on to life in the United States when he was a teenager. A trip to New York a couple summers ago further piqued his interest in the American Dream shared by many worldwide. Even given the current political climate in the U.S., Meriç keeps hope that he will one day be able to live out his dream on American soil.

Like rock n’ roll before it, hip-hop started mainly as a cultural movement decades ago that spread worldwide, affecting even the far reaches of the earth. The Middle East is no exception. In this week’s podcast hear two members of Lebanon’s live hip-hop band Fareeq El Atrash share about their beginnings as a musical group and about their contribution to the still fairly nascent, but highly promising, Middle Eastern hip-hop scene. All the music featured in this episode comes from the band’s second full-length album.

Miral is an Algerian native studying in Jordan who is seeking to be a catalyst for changing the lingua franca of her homeland from the long-standing French language. Learn the motivation behind this young woman’s dream and how she seeks to help fulfill it.

Middle Easterners are some of the biggest football fans in the world—football as in soccer. But Hussam Al-Yaseen, a pre-med student who founded the Jordanian American Football League (JAFL), hopes to see American football become just as popular in his Arab homeland. Learn how he came to discover and fall in love with the sport and how he is helping to spread football culture in Jordan.

Musician couple Martin Watkinson and Cherita Meadows met at a party in Portland, Oregon, years ago and now play music together as part of the group Gaea, the namesake of the Greek goddess. Hear how a tragic house fire pushed them back out on the road to share their music with the world and how music has helped in the healing process.

Moroccan culture, generally speaking, is a high-context culture with a rich tradition and age-old customs. Listen as Mariam shares about why she loves being a Moroccan and how Moroccans really love to celebrate and practice hospitality through weddings.

Peggy is a native of Iran attending business school at the University of Texas and helping to run her family business. Listen as she shares the story of her family’s move to America from Turkey and about the adjustments and people that made their mark in her memories.

Ivo is an avid lover of life and nature from the majestic mountains of Switzerland. Learn how he succeeded as a bar owner in his small village’s nightlife scene and what eventually brought him out of the party lifestyle.

Jeffrey Zie, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, was down on his luck after getting fired from his job and owing court fees while on probation. Desperate for quick money to avoid a foreboding jail sentence, he resorted to his old game of selling weed, which landed him six months in prison—28 days of which he spent in solitary confinement. What happened in that eight by eleven foot cell changed the course of his life forever.

“If I die today, what impact have I made on this earth?” Listen as Thread Life founder Efua Mensah-Brown shares how her journey to find purpose led her to discover the world of unethical fashion, and ultimately to the creation of a company that is impacting lives around the world.

Have you ever had to do something that seemed impossible to achieve? Learn how Maryam creatively managed to overcome a challenging school assignment … and how she helped others do the same in the process.

When one thinks of Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower often comes to mind. But in the hip-hop world, Paris is known for its strong beatbox community. Among them is K.I.M.—an acronym for Killer Inside Me—a jolly, full-bearded Frenchman who won the French Beatbox Championship in 2011 with only four years of experience under his belt. In this week’s podcast the talented beatboxer talks about the strength and camaraderie of the French beatbox scene and how he got into the craft, which has now taken him all over the world. (This podcast includes a portion of K.I.M.'s performance showcase from the 2016 Jordan Beatbox Championship in Amman, Jordan.)

Hip-hop and bread. These are seldom spoken in the same breath. But for Abood Aladham, who works in a bakery by day and beatboxes by night, these are life. Hear Abood’s heart for Jordan’s hip-hop community—particularly for younger up-and-coming beatboxers—how he founded the Jordan Beatbox Championship, and about his dreams for using his passion for beatboxing in less conventional ways to impact the community around him.

In Episode 141 we shared the story of Gaith, a twenty something businessman who quit a successful job in the insurance business to pursue a love for books. In this week’s story, learn more about the vehicle—quite literally—that drives Gaith’s Books on the Road mobile bookstore initiative: a 1974 Mercedes 200 named Nancy.

After graduating college, Gaith Jann became a successful insurance risk analyst in his native Jordan. But after only a few years he became jaded by the business world, which left him hungering for a more meaningful life. Enter a love for books. Follow Gaith’s journey from a twenty something businessman to an unorthodox street librarian who sells books from his 1974 Mercedes.