Commemorating the late Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm

CAIRO – 28 November 2017: El Sawy Culture Wheel will be hosting a concert to commemorate the revolutionary late Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm on the fourth anniversary of his death on Saturday, December 2, 2017.

The concert will be performed by the Elawla Belady band, an Egyptian band that covers the music sung by the political singer Sheikh Imam, whose lyrics were written by Ahmed Fouad Negm. The band was created in 2012 by Alaa el-Din Ibrahim, a student of Sheikh Imam, as part of Ibrahim’s goal of continuing his legacy and the revival and persistence of his politically charged music.

The band works with a specific kind of Middle Eastern orchestra called “takht” (bed), which uses traditional musical instruments in four main melodic sections: the oud, the ney (a kind of flute), the qanun (a string instrument), and the kaman (the European violin). There is also a main percussion instrument used.

According to their facebook page, Elawla Belady believes that serious music must be a tool for spreading messages and sharing ideas, just as Sheikh Imam and Ahmed Fouad Negm used their art to mobilize the Egyptian people.

Ahmed Fouad Negm is an internationally acknowledged poet whose work was concerned with the struggles of the Egyptian working class and often addressed the Egyptian government with his witty lines and strong messages. His outspoken views and the confrontational nature of his poetry led Negm to be put in prison for a total of eighteen years under the regimes of two Egyptian presidents.

During the 2011 Egyptian revolution, protesters chanted lines from his poems that fueled and inspired the people.