Photo by Jack Morgan
It was January, and the Global Center staff was searching for arts and culture reporters to join our training team in our upcoming Mediterranean adventure: a two-day conference on arts and culture reporting in Lebanon.
Through a series of people-who-know-people-who-suggested-other-people, we were referred to Jack Morgan, an arts and culture reporter for Texas Public Radio in San Antonio. "Jack’s reporting, reputation, and his immediate interest and enthusiasm for our project made him an ideal candidate.” said GCJD’s executive director Kelli Arena.
And indeed, Jack presented the first session (a conversation on the difference between arts reporting and critiquing) at the two-day conference, jointly hosted by GCJD and the Samir Kassir Foundation. But beyond the conference, Jack had a curiosity about the art and culture of the city he was visiting. After the conference, Jack spent several days interviewing artists, speaking with people he met, and absorbing the rich cultural experience that is Lebanon.
The result is a 5-part series on the “state-of-the-arts” in Beirut, and a thought-provoking conversation on how war has influenced the artistic landscape in the most diverse country in the Middle East. The series just finished running on Texas Public Radio.
You can listen to all 5 segments here:
Part One: Rediscovering Arts & Culture After A 15-Year Civil War
Part Two: What the People Suffered Through
Part Three: How the Experience of War Shaped the Art