Djelloul Marbrook

The press often acts as if there isn’t much good news to report, but that has more to do with the press’s definition of good news than reality. Take the Arab world as a case in point. We hear about oil, about terrorism, about sectarian conflict, about the cultural chasm between that world and the West, and yet all along there have been instances on both sides of great courage and resourcefulness in bridging that chasm.

Here is one of those instances.

In earthquake-torn western Algerian in a city called Chlef, surrounded by mountains and lush orchards and beside Algeria’s largest river, a young poet has been struggling to sustain a bold endeavor to build literary and cultural bridges between speakers of French, Arabic and English. Amari Hamadene, the editor and founder, has published work from around the world, giving new voices a chance to be heard and familiar voices a chance to reach other cultures.

Arabesques Review, an online journal which has in the past published paper-and-ink editions and volumes of poetry, vanished from the web earlier this year as its young poet-editor strived to marshal new resources and energy to the task. Now it has reappeared. The mainstream media don’t know how to present such a story as news. They don’t even regard it as news. But they should, because it is idealism and resourcefulness like Amari Hamadene’s that change the world for the better, not recitals of catastrophe and political lies.

The poet-editor has not only managed to relaunch the beautifully designed Arabesques, but he is taking it to the West by going to Salon de la Revue in Paris, Oct. 10-13, sponsored by Ent’Revues, La Revue des Revues, where the European literati will have a chance to discover it and talk to this builder of bridges, a chance in fact to do something about improving East-West relations instead of helplessly reading about their deterioration.—DM

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