Today we'll be talking to Saleem Haddad. He is the author of Guapa, the director of Marco and a 2nd time guest on The Fire These Times.

Topics discussed:

What constitutes queer literature?; Muhammad Abdelnabi; Ocean Vuong;  James Baldwin; The Personal is Political; Pedro Lemebel; Israeli  pinkwashing; criticizing the so-called ‘gay international’ by Joseph  Massad; how ‘anti-imperialism’ and ‘post-colonialism’ is used by  authoritarian groups and regimes including Hezbollah and Assad;  Queerness in revolutionary settings (in the Arab-majority world);  Revolutionary feminism; LGBTQ liberation and the Syrian revolution;  being sensitive to authoritarian logic; queerness as a changing and  developing identity; understanding social constructs.

Books/Works Mentioned:

• In the spider’s room: a novel by Muhammad Abdelnabi
• On earth we’re briefly gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• Go tell it on the mountain by James Baldwin
• Manifesto (I speak for my difference) by Pedro Lemebel
• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
• Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
• The appointment by Katharina Volckmer

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Music by Tarabeat.