Sowt Jameel brings you its second virtual event in collaboration with the Mahdoom podcast. The session, titled “Dishing Identity,” will be a discussion on the association between food, identity, the preservation of culinary heritage and forms of cultural resistance.

Moderated by Ibtihal Bakhti, host of Mahdoom, and in conversation with artist Mirna Bamieh, founder of Palestinian Hosting Society, and anthropologist Gida Hamam, the event takes place live on Zoom and will be conducted in Arabic on Tuesday, July 14 at 8:00 pm (GST) (7:00 pm Jordan time). Join the session and share your thoughts, comments and experiences during the live discussion to explore how food shapes identity and vice versa.

You can now listen to this session on your favourite podcast application, on Sowt’s website or by clicking here.

Mahdoom is a recently-launched podcast by Sowt, inviting Arabic speakers to explore the history and stories associated with regional dishes to uncover the intricate socio-economic dynamics of their communities.

Mahdoom’s first season is now streaming; Listen on your favourite podcast application or on Sowt’s website.

Sowt Jameel

In collaboration with Sowt, a leading Arabic language podcast producer, Art Jameel is organising a series of live podcast recording sessions, fireside chats and community events. The collaboration is an effort to create interdisciplinary, local and cross-regional connections, encourage innovation and explore creativity in our communities while promoting original Arabic-language content.

Gida Hamam holds an MA in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, and having studied and worked in the fields of art and anthropology, she enjoys combining the two areas. Gida’s research has been on subjects such as Palestinian displacement and the creation of an audiovisual oral history archive of the Nakba (Al-Rowat for Studies and Research) and the relationship between objects and memory (The Palestinian Museum). She is a lecturer at Al Hussein Technical University in Jordan, and the researcher behind Mahdoom.

Mirna Bamieh is an artist and chef with an art practice that often looks at the politics of disappearance, and memory production. Mirna creates artworks that unpack social concerns and limitations in contemporary political dilemmas, and reflect on the conditions that characterize Palestinian communities. In 2017, she founded Palestine Hosting Society, a live art project that explores traditional food culture in Palestine with a special focus on dishes that are on the verge of disappearing. The project brings these dishes back to life over dinner tables, talks, walks, and various interventions.