Pulitzer Center grantee Ty McCormick covers Egypt's political transformation by talking with artists who are beginning to show their creativity after years of forced self-censorship.
Young Artists of Post-Revolutionary Egypt
Published January 20, 2012
Almost a year after the Egyptian Revolution, Pulitzer Center grantee Ty McCormick returns to Tahrir Square to report on the young artists, writers and musicians who are producing creative works after decades of self-censorship.
McCormick highlights the street artists painting the stories of the struggle against Egypt's military government and visits the studios of hip hop musicians who say they can now present their music to the public without need for government approval. The rap group Arabian Knightz told McCormick they can finally release political protest songs that were written four years ago. Using social networks once blocked by the government, they can bring their daring art and message to a much wider audience.
The Egyptian Revolution encouraged a new era of free expression, but with Islamists gaining power in recent elections, many artists fear that censorship may soon return.
If the Egyptian revolution had a soundtrack, it would be a hip hop album with a rap anthem.
Gateways
Grantee
Ty McCormick is a freelance journalist and graduate student at Oxford, where he is a Clarendon Scholar. He was on the ground in Tahrir Square for much of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and has since...
