Identity in the Digital Age

artPost21’s founder, Omar Kholeif aka Dr. O was recently invited to join afikra founder, Mikey Muhanna, on the afikra podcast. Afikra began as a grassroots movement and is now a global media organisation that supports and interrogates the influence of Arab culture.

Donning their signature “Queen” brace and dressed in embroidered cloth by Les Benjamins, Dr. O teleported in via our cloud-based HQ, where they discussed a suite of artPost21-related projects including the much anticipated publication, Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s, Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs, and the concept of imagining otherwise.

Over the course of this playful hour of call and response, the duo interrogates the key cultural moments that have defined the recent present; the significance of pop culture in promoting social and political change, and the fragile nature of recent socio-political histories in what Dr. O still calls the so-called ‘Arab world’.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to be ‘Arab’ and how debates of Arabness intersect with broader popular cultural issues you will be please with this special broadcast.

Omar prefers to listen while doing other things, in which case you can listen here: https://afikra.simplecast.com/episodes/c-omar or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

For a visual interaction with the spiel, you can head over to YouTube here.

Happy end of summer, everyone!