Al Hannouneh's 5th Festival, Amman

Al Hannouneh society's fifth annual festival,
 which concludes on Thursday, featured song
and dance performances by Jordanian,
Palestinian and Egyptian troupes
(Photo by Dana Al Emam)
Source

Al Hannouneh festival celebrates Jordanian, Palestinian heritage

by Dana Al Emam  Jordan Times Apr 24, 2013 

AMMAN — In celebration of Palestinian and Jordanian heritage and folk songs, Al Hannouneh Society for Popular Culture held its fifth annual festival this week.

The festival is aimed at deepening Al Hannouneh's role in preserving the national heritage by bringing it to life for the younger generation, according to Nimat Saleh, the society's secretary.

The festival, which was supposed to mark Palestinian Land Day on March 30, was postponed due to a delay in Al Hanouneh Troupe's tour in the United States.

"On this day, we renew the need to hold on tightly to our land and heritage," Saleh said.

Land Day marks the anniversary of 1976 demonstration against the Israeli occupation in northern Palestine that ended in violence, resulting in the death of six Palestinian protesters at the hands of Israeli forces.

The festival, which opened earlier this week at the Royal Cultural Centre, featured song and dance performances by Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian troupes.

Participants included the Culture Ministry's troupe, the Palestinian band Wallaat, Al Mahabish, Al Aqaba Band and Al Hannouneh Troupe.

The festival also included an exhibition that showcased Palestinian culture such as paintings and traditional dresses.

Al Hannouneh Band concludes the festival on Thursday with a performance at the Palace of Culture at Al Hussein Youth City.

Al Hannouneh society organises a number of events and initiatives that aim at preserving Palestinian heritage and raising awareness on the history and geography of Palestine by broadcasting videos of live tours from the Palestinian territories.

People we'd like to invite to morning tea: Iain Banks

Iain Banks
Source: courtesy The Independent

Here on the Palestine Costume Archive's staff blog we have a post category for "people we'd like to invite for morning tea". These are people we admire, who'd we'd like to spend some time with. From queens to celebrity chefs, over the years we've invited lots of people to take us up on our invite and come join us for our tea break, we even promise to share some home made cakes.  Today we'd like to invite Iain Banks.

As we wrote on Facebook today:

"We were sorry to hear the attached news about Iain Banks, an author who's science fiction novels have brought great joy to our lives. He is also one of the good guys politically, calling in 2010 for a cultural and educational boycott on Israel following its raid on a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. Banks wrote in a letter to the Guardian newspaper that he had instructed his agent to turn down any further book translation deals with Israeli publishers: 

"Appeals to reason, international law, U.N. resolutions and simple human decency mean — it is now obvious — nothing to Israel... I would urge all writers, artists and others in the creative arts, as well as those academics engaging in joint educational projects with Israeli institutions, to consider doing everything they can to convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation, preferably by simply having nothing more to do with this outlaw state" 

"See his Wiki page for more details. We send our love and prayers to Iain and his family, and thank him again for his political courage and for writing magical novels that challenged and delighted us :)"

Now we know Mr Banks is no longer taking on any public commitments, but that doesn't mean we still can't send out an invite for him to join us for a cyber cuppa in our little corner of the interweb.  And if he can't attend, well no matter, we'll still raise a toast to him. Because his science fiction books especially have brought great joy to our lives over many years, including during some dark moments after the last Gaza trip.  We'd like to reassure him that we will share The Culture with each new friend and new generation. And to promise him that Wiki's List of Culture ships/ names will never stop making us smile.

Iain Banks: thank you :)

For more info:

• An article that explains why Iain Banks tore up his passport :)
• Iain Banks Wiki page
• The Culture - Wiki page
• Full April 2013 statement by Iain Banks
• Iain Banks - Small step towards a boycott of Israel