January 23, 2011

Broadcast Date: 
Jan 23 2011

Uprisings in Tunisia, political upheaval in Lebanon, and a changing Middle East; Angels in America influences a new generation of playwrights; plus Laila El-Haddad's new book, Gaza Mom

Episode segments
  • From Lebanon to Tunis: Changing Middle East
    International Politics, Middle East

    Helena Cobban is a writer and researcher on global affairs. A Contributing Editor of Boston Review, she wrote a regular column for The Christian Science Monitor, from 1990 through 2007, to which she still contributes regularly. She blogs at Just World News and is the founder of Just World Books.

     
    Marissa Brostoff and Kiera Feldman

    Hezbullah pulls out of the governing coalition in Lebanon; street protests in Tunisia lead to the fall of the Ben Ali government and his departure for Saudi Arabia.  Helena Cobban helps us understand what's happening.

  • Angels in America and A New Generation
    Theater, Arts & Culture

    David Zellnik is a playwright, screenwriter and lyricist.  His musical Yank!--about a gay soldier serving in WWII-- completed an Off-Broadway run at the York Theater Company last spring and is scheduled to open on Broadway this coming fall.

    Jordan Schildcrout heads the MA Program in Theater History and Criticsm in Ohio University's School of Theater in the College of Fine Arts.  He has written extensively about LGBT representation in theater.
    Marissa Brostoff and Kiera Feldman

    Tony Kushner's pulitzer prize winning two-part play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, will be at New York's Signature Theater through March 27th. We talk with playwright David Zellnik and theater scholar Jordan Schildcrout about the impact of this monumental work on a new generation of queer writers.

  • Living in Gaza
    Israel/Palestine, Arts & Culture, Occupation, Literature
    Laila El-Haddad is a Palestinian freelance journalist, writer, and blogger who divides her time between Gaza and the United States. She is the author of Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between (Just World Books) and a contributing author of The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict. From 2003-2007, El-Haddad was the Gaza stringer for the Al-Jazeera English website and the Guardian.  She blogs at Gaza Mom.com.www.gazamom.com
    Marissa Brostoff and Kiera Feldman

    Laila El-Haddad talks with Beyond the Pale about her experiences working as a journalist, blogger and parent living in Gaza under Israeli occupation, blockade and assault.