I like to call it the "poor box." It's the wooden box screwed to our door, with the hope that visitors to the museum will be moved to leave a token of their appreciation. Good thing tokens don't exist anymore. Or else we'd get them, along with wooden nickels, and other useless objects. Somebody once … Read more Legation Fund Raising: Insert Money Here
It has something to do with completing one's research before the end of the calendar year, so December turned out to be Tunisian month in Tangier for three AIMS Maghribi Scholars – two of whom ended their stays in Morocco with presentations at TALIM. Yesterday it was art and architecture with Wissem Abdelmoula; today it … Read more Tunisian Week at TALIM
TALIM gets its share of AIMS Maghribi Scholars (the American Institute for Maghrib Studies grant program for inter-Maghrib research). Actually, Morocco gets the lion's share of scholars from Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, and Libya. At TALIM, we get to meet these scholars, who all have interesting stories to tell about their specializations, from architecture to zoology. … Read more Wissem Abdelmoula Shares the Fruit of His Research
We like the new TALIM poster, which made its debut at the AIMS booth at MESA last week in San Diego. It has a nice '30s travel touch. Yes, we do hope you visit Tangier and TALIM. You can experience the '30s – both the 1930s and the 1830s. The Legation has seen it all. … Read more Visit Tangier, Send $ to Tucson
فوضى Pronunciation: Fwḑá Definition: chaos It's one of our favorite words, a way to smile at the confusion that sometimes swirls around us. Arabic teachers searching for that perfect visual aid to illustrate the fawda that can come to inhabit life in places like Algeria could do no better than show the hilarious opening sequence … Read more Mascarades: Fawda Was Never So Much Fun
Good publicity is almost as good as cash in the bank. So we were very pleased to be listed in the top 10 organizations to be highlighted in the upcoming "Summit" in Washington on Citizen Cultural Diplomacy. If it brings us much-needed funding, all the better. If not, well, we can bask in the glory. … Read more TALIM’s Moment In the Sun?
… is the title that State Magazine – the monthly magazine of the US Department of State – gave to my article in their September issue (click here for the interactive edition; my article is on pages 22-23). Here's a screen shot, with the text below for the nearsighted among you. – – – – … Read more Gem of Tangier
Right now it's Ramadan, and the month of August, so it's supposed to be quiet, right? The faithful are too tired, hungry, or thirsty to stay awake over books, and the un-Islamic or non-Muslim are expected to stay in Europe, perhaps awaiting better weather and the assurance of daytime food come mid-September. So why is … Read more The Scholars of Summer
Imagine this: you reach the age of, say, 35, and you’re driving down the expressway with the kids in the back seat. You get hopelessly lost a half hour from home. You decide, then and there, to sign up at the program offered by the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, TALIM. The course? … Read more Arabic: Speaking 5, Reading 0
When they arrived in Tangier to run the American Legation, Thor and Elizabeth Kuniholm knew they were embarking on an adventure. It was 1991, when the world was about to witness the fall of the Soviet Union, and Francis Fukuyama was drafting the End of History. In Tangier, history wasn't ending, it was just taking … Read more Tangier Bids Farewell to the Kuniholm Era
