Performing ‘L-ʿalwa’: a sacred and erotic journey in Morocco

‘L-ʿalwa’, a sung poem whose text recounts the pilgrimage to a saint’s shrine in Morocco, is celebrated for its ability to convey images and emotions stirred up by the sacred journey. As part of the repertory of ʿaita—a genre of sung poetry from the Moroccan plains and plateaus traditionally performed by professional female singer-dancers [shikhat] and nowadays categorised as popular music [shʿabi]—‘L-ʿalwa’ presents an interesting case study through which it is possible to analyse the porosity between local constructions of the sacred and the secular in relation to a genre which is not explicitly associated with the sacred or with sacred performances. My analysis of salient moments of a performance of ‘L-ʿalwa’ at a wedding celebration in Morocco explores how the shikhat move across the sacred and the secular, and the central role that eroticism [ghram or mshka] plays in the porosity between these categories in performance

EMBODYING THE COUNTRYSIDE IN AIṬA ḤAṢBAWIYA (MOROCCO)

ʿAiṭa–a genre of sung poetry from the Moroccan Atlantic Plains and its adjacent territories—is regarded as the quintessential expression of the identity of the region. If it is possible to analyse the poetic language of ʿaiṭa in order to understand its significance among these populations, it is also critical to examine how the affective power of ʿaiṭa is determined by particular ideologies about the voice of its female interpreters, the shikhat (professional female singer-dancers). Their voice, in fact, is judged in accordance with a number of aesthetic requirements that are commonly described as embodying the countryside. The article examines in what way(s) a voice which is said to express “peasant life” may be shaped and which aesthetic requirements it must satisfy. In so doing I’m interested in identifying and analysing what is considered to be the central aesthetic requirement that such a voice must satisfy and which parameters are used to judge its affective power; exploring how specific qualities express a theory about the voice of a particular style of ʿaiṭa; and examining how the timbral entity of the voice of the shikhat relates to the ways in which the voice functions as a culturally created symbol. It is in this context that I also examine how issues concerning sung poetry and its relation to women’s voices and the Moroccan nation are played out

Les musiciennes professionnelles au Maroc

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the professional musical activities of women in Morocco allows us to contextualize the shikhat, to identify their uniqueness or likeness to the other performers and consequently reach a better understanding, at least in a musical context, of the reasoning behind their disreputability

"The Text Must Remain the Same": History, Collective Memory, and Sung Poetry in Morocco

The article explores why a particular group of Moroccan musicians conceives of different performances of a sung poem titled “Kharbusha” as unchanging despite variables arising from the dynamics of performance practices. To this end, I explore the seeming discrepancy between discourses about “Kharbusha” and its performance, and what this discrepancy may tell us about why these performers—and by extension the audiences who hire them and whose expectations the musicians must meet—do not perceive change. Because “Kharbusha,” like other qasidas (odes) of the ͑aita, is considered to be embedded in history, I will, through a formal analysis of this poem, explore the role of the ͑aita in expressing a history that is critical to the communal memory, identity, and consciousness of the population of the Atlantic plains and plateaus. In this context, perceptions of the unchangeability of “Kharbusha,” rather than reflecting the fixity of the poem per se, indicate how it allows for the participants to invoke and reenact a vision of history and of the past on each occasion of performance. Th e continuity of “Kharbusha,” therefore, appears to depend upon the conservation of memory/history through constant updating; the medium remains intelligible to each generation while the message remains the same through generations

Performing l-ḥrig: music, sound and undocumented migration across the contemporary Mediterranean (Morocco–Italy)

Based on ethnographic research that is part of a larger project on the role of music and sound among migrant Moroccan men in Italy, this article focuses on ‘L-ḥərraga’, a song that narrates the voyage and the experience of undocumented migration that ends with the tragic death of a young Moroccan man crossing the Mediterranean. Through ‘L-ḥərraga’, a song which belongs to ʿabidat rma – a musico-poetic genre whose ‘rough’ sound is particularly meaningful for Moroccans from the plains and plateaus – it is possible to reflect on burning political questions concerning a geo-cultural zone where historically determined differences between North and South are increasingly acute: the Mediterranean. Expanding on earlier writings about music and sound in the context of contemporary Maghrebi undocumented migration in the Mediterranean, informed by contemporary debates about mobilities in reference to Islam, and drawing on concepts that emerged during fieldwork, this article attempts to explore ‘L-ḥərraga’ as a sonorous account of a hazardous crossing in which migration is presented as an ethical horizon

Una panoramica delle musiciste professioniste in Marocco

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the professional musical activities of women in Morocco allows us to contextualize the shikhat, to identify their uniqueness or likeness to the other performers and consequently reach a better understanding, at least in a musical context, of the reasoning behind their disreputability

15-Deoxy-Δ12,14-prostaglandin J2 induces apoptosis in human malignant B cells: an effect associated with inhibition of NF-κB activity and down-regulation of antiapoptotic proteins

AbstractCyclopentenone prostaglandins are potent inhibitors of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), a transcription factor with a critical role in promoting inflammation and connected with multiple aspects of oncogenesis and cancer cell survival. In the present report, we investigated the role of NF-κB in the antineoplastic activity of the cyclopentenone prostaglandin 15-deoxy-Δ12,14-PGJ2 (15d-PGJ2) in multiple myeloma (MM) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) cells expressing constitutively active NF-κB. 15d-PGJ2 was found to suppress constitutive NF-κB activity and potently induce apoptosis in both types of B-cell malignancies. 15d-PGJ2-induced apoptosis occurs through multiple caspase activation pathways involving caspase-8 and caspase-9, and is prevented by pretreatment with the pan-caspase inhibitor ZVAD (z-Val-Ala-Asp). NF-κB inhibition is accompanied by rapid down-regulation of NF-κB-dependent antiapoptotic gene products, including cellular inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP-1), cIAP-2, X-chromosome-linked inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein (XIAP), and FLICE-inhibitory protein (cFLIP). These effects were mimicked by the proteasome inhibitor MG-132, but not by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) agonist troglitazone, suggesting that 15d-PGJ2-induced apoptosis is independent of PPAR-γ. Knockdown of the NF-κB p65-subunit by lentiviral-mediated shRNA interference also resulted in apoptosis induction in malignant B cells with constitutively active NF-κB. The results indicate that inhibition of NF-κB plays a major role in the proapoptotic activity of 15d-PGJ2 in aggressive B-cell malignancies characterized by aberrant regulation of NF-κB. (Blood. 2005;105:1750-1758

The Study of Women and Music in Morocco

Panorama of scholarly work on women and music in Morocc

Nonlinear machine learning pattern recognition and bacteria-metabolite multilayer network analysis of perturbed gastric microbiome

The stomach is inhabited by diverse microbial communities, co-existing in a dynamic balance. Long-term use of drugs such as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), or bacterial infection such as Helicobacter pylori, cause significant microbial alterations. Yet, studies revealing how the commensal bacteria re-organize, due to these perturbations of the gastric environment, are in early phase and rely principally on linear techniques for multivariate analysis. Here we disclose the importance of complementing linear dimensionality reduction techniques with nonlinear ones to unveil hidden patterns that remain unseen by linear embedding. Then, we prove the advantages to complete multivariate pattern analysis with differential network analysis, to reveal mechanisms of bacterial network re-organizations which emerge from perturbations induced by a medical treatment (PPIs) or an infectious state (H. pylori). Finally, we show how to build bacteria-metabolite multilayer networks that can deepen our understanding of the metabolite pathways significantly associated to the perturbed microbial communities