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Dear Reader:

Tahrir Square Voices were written as the events of the Arab Spring unfolded in Egypt during the winter of 2011. They are curious historical artifacts that are fun to read; offering enlightened insights into the dynamics of the Egyptian Revolution.

The 18 pieces were created to capture the fluidity of events and the contradictory impulses of the revolution as they played out over the course of 33 days culminating in the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. This allowed Egypt to hold an open democratic election that brought Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's agenda into office. The events in Tahrir Square also sparked the flames that led to the expansion of the Arab Spring movement throughout the region. Inspiring the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, the Shia uprisings in Bahrain and the Syrian Civil War. All of these events as well as the continued unrest in Egypt are yet to be fully played out.

The pieces in Tahrir Square Voices are raw structured narratives that seeks to capture the chaos and uncertainty of the ebbs and flows of the political situation as it unfolded on the streets of Cairo. It is tempting to go back and edit the pieces but the exigencies of the moment produced the response recorded in the pieces. A prolog and an epilog were also added. The prolog is one piece entitled Call Me Ishmael. The epilog is three pieces, the first Morsi’s Feet written on the day he was ousted in a coup d'etat.

The author intended to publish these pieces as a larger collection entitled Call Me Ishmael with an expanded epilog entitled Homage to Homs. The Homage to Homs section comprises a body of work at least as large as the 120 plus pages comprising the Tahrir Square Voices. The key piece missing from the epilog is a dialog concerning the incompatibilities and contradictions of Sharia Law and secular democracy. I hope to complete the entire section soon.

The decision to publish the Tahrir Square Voices was instigated by Morsi’s ouster from office. This event has returned Egypt back to the rule of the military oligarchs and the police apparatus that enforced Mubarak’s decades long reign. In a sense Egypt is back to square one if in fact any real fundamental change ever occurred as a result of Tahrir Square demonstrations. The author’s sympathies clearly lie with the secular democratic impulses of the revolution. As a westerner, my perceptions are colored with an allegiance to democratic republicanism. That said I tried to incorporate and articulate some of the historical and cultural impulses that propelled the events in Tahrir Square.

The pieces include:

Prolog

Call Me Ishmael

Tahrir Square

Police Day 1/25/11

The Dancing Jinn of Cairo (1/31/11)

Revolution and Repression in Cairo (2/2/11)

Blow Back (2/3/11)

Overheard in Tahrir Square (2/4/11)

Day of Departure (2/4/11)

On This Day of Allegiance (2/4/11)

Tahrir Square (2/4/11)

Revolution Slumbers in Liberation Square (2/6/11)

The Colossus Awakens (2/10/11)

The Tents of Tahrir Square (2/11/11)

Day of Expectation (2/12/11)

Mubarak Speaks (2/14/11)

Mubarak's Dream (2/15/11)

The Fifth Fleet (2/17/11)

Abdication Day

Cleaning Up The Square (2/23/11)

At The Tip Of A Bayonet (2/28/11)

Epilog

Morsi's Feet

Gaza

The Birds of the Nile

Tahrir Square Voices includes links to Youtube Music Videos that the author selected as appropriate for the subject of each poem.

The poems are all original pieces written and copyrighted by the author. Images and music used in this collection are not the property of the author whose use in this publication is in conformance with generally accepted fair use practices.

I hope you enjoy reading Tahrir Square Voices.

Risk Rapper

7/7/13