Café in Cairo. Photo by Patrick Donovan
WHAT? Discussion, in French, on Arab cafés in Montreal and North Africa
WHEN? 6pm, Sunday, November 4th
WHERE? The Gesù, 1200 Bleury St., near Ste. Catherine
HOW MUCH? Free!
I’ve always been fascinated by cafés and the unique social setting they offer. Even though they are, technically speaking, private spaces, they are nonetheless places of public interaction, in some ways extensions of the street, the neighbourhood and the city as a whole. This is especially true in the case of Arab cafés, which are part of a rich tradition rooted in North Africa and the Middle East and, in recent decades, transplanted to Montreal.
The socio-cultural dynamic of those cafés will be the subject of “Cafés, de Beyrouth à Montréal,” a discussion this Sunday, hosted by the poet Joseph Issaoui and the journalist, novelist and political scientist Mohamed Ourya, as part of the eighth edition of the Festival du monde arabe de Montréal.
Last month, Marie Lambert-Chan wrote anice preview of the discussion in Le Devoir. Looking at the cafés in Montreal’s Little Maghreb neighbourhood, which is centred along Jean Talon St. between St. Michel and Pie IX, she finds that they are “cultural refuges” for immigrant men from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
“Allez visiter le Petit Maghreb sur la rue Jean-Talon, entre les boulevards Pie-IX et Saint-Michel,” she quotes Ourya as saying. “À quelques différences près, vous y retrouverez le même comptoir, les mêmes tables, la même ambiance maghrébine qui nous fait sentir chez soi. La télévision dans le coin du café diffuse toujours un match de football. On y déguste un café en jouant aux cartes ou aux dominos. Et évidemment, on parle de choses et d’autres.”