This just in! Here are some photos from the ongoing sit-in of intellectuals outside the swanky Ministry of Culture villa in Zamalek. For the last week or so, artists, writers, and the like have been occupying the new Brotherhood minister's office in protest of his revamping of the ministry and firing of the heads of key institutions (the Opera, the National Archives, etc.). The scene tonight was not huge but energetic and refreshing. There has been a constant stream of outdoor performances in the quiet residential street where the ministry is located, and most of the audience comes and goes. During the time we were there, we saw the tail end of a wild marimba performance, heard two poets reciting anti-Ikhwan pieces calling on Egyptians to come out for the June 30 protests, and listened to one of the Sheikh Imam tribute bands that had performed at the memorial concert a few days ago. In between poems and songs, the emcees and the crowd broke out into chants: Aish, horeya, isqat el ikhwangeyya, they shouted -- Bread, freedom, down with the Ikhwanis. And many of the popular refrains of the last year returned, such as Ana mosh kafer w ana mosh molhad (I'm no infidel and I'm no atheist), a response to MB accusations that liberals and intellectuals have corrupted with country and betrayed religion. (We're still not at the point yet where it's okay to publicly say you're a kafer or a molhad, but that's another story.) Unlike some of the other protest milieux I've been in here, no one looked at us strangely. It was okay that we were curious. I tried to imagine what a sit-in of intellectuals would look like back home, but I couldn't. In Egypt, everyone who is a part of this scene is concentrated in Cairo and everyone knows one another. Although most of the women there were unveiled and many of the men had a distinctively hipster quality about them, there is historically an association between artists and the working class, even fellaheen (farmers) -- a link evoked by many of the songs and rhetoric.
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