Michael Toler I don't yet have the picture of the smiling women who were handed their diplomas yesterday, but here's a diploma of someone who missed graduation day (click on picture to enlarge.) My favorite "graduate" wasn't even at the end of her program. But our teacher gave her a diploma as a sort of "Ms. Congeniality" … Read more Graduation Day Is When You Can Read Your Diploma
Now that it's almost over, I finally get around to writing about Tarab Tanger, a five-day long festival of traditional world music that is now in its third edition. For a discussion of the meaning of tarab, Oudman has a very thoughtful piece. From the looks of it, this festival, one among the many in … Read more Tarab Tanger: Traditional Music From the World Over
Peindre la Légation It all started with this observation: the art collection at the Legation Museum barely had any images of the Legation building itself. The Tangier American Legation, given to the United States by Morocco's Sultan Moulay Slimane in 1821. America's oldest diplomatic building. It deserves to be the subject of Moroccan, American, and … Read more Paint the Legation
I had to look up "intermediality" when I was invited to this conference, but it's not so difficult. It's basically the nexus of theatre and performance with other media, including digital. Plays on the internet. Touch screens on stage. Films within a one-woman show. The sky is the limit for permutations on the theme. This … Read more Just Another International Conference in Tangier
The archives of the American Legation at Tangier record that 74 years ago the Sultan of Morocco, disturbed at the predatory methods of certain European Powers who looked covetously in the direction of Morocco and particularly Tangier, expressed the desire to turn over his entire empire as a protectorate to the United States. We were … Read more History Tantalizingly Within Reach
Recently I had to explain how it was that, despite Morocco's generally sunny, beneficent climate, we had to worry about such things as heavy rains, humidity, and mold here in Tangier. Location, location, location – we're on the Strait of Gibraltar, and there's a lot of water in several directions. So it's no surprise that … Read more Restoration, Renovation, Preservation: Keeping the Legation Whole
Happy International Museum Day. TALIM – the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies – used to have museum in its name: TALM – the Tangier American Legation Museum. Signs on our street reflect that history, and it is true that people from Tangier and tourists visiting the city know us best as a museum. … Read more TALIM – We Are Also a Museum
"My family arrived in Tangier in June 1947 and thanks to your blog, seven years worth of memories have come flooding back. Until we were able to get a space heater, the humidity and/or rain caused everything to mold–leatherbound books, shoes, even some cake flour sent by a relative in the U.S. We lived with erratic electric service and water turned … Read more TALIMblog – The Kindness of Readers
Banjo, oud, gimbri, mandolin, guitar, tambourines, and… chopsticks. Though the combination was unlikely, the result was anything but cacophony. The fusion was complete. "Bluegrass Maghribi" is the name of a pickup band of Americans and Moroccans, brought together by the cultural diplomats at the American Embassy in Rabat, and sponsored here by the American Language … Read more Appalachian Andalusian Berber Bluegrass – Fusion in Tangier
The setting is magnificent: the Palais des Institutions Italiennes, home to several Italian cultural institutes and NGOs (Elisa Chimenti, COSPE). A.k.a. the Moulay Hafidh palace, the venue is one of Tangier's most prestigious, and the arcades around an Islamic garden make for a perfect setting to browse the bookstalls. This year, for the first time … Read more Tangier’s Salon du Livre – Much More Than a Book Fair
