Photo by Gregg Richards
Shirine Saad is a Beirut-born journalist, programmer and DJ focusing on culture and social change. They recently taught six courses in Arts Journalism and Criticism at Brown University, where they are the Founding Editor of a new multimedia arts journal, MOVEMENTS. They are a PhD candidate in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought at the European Graduate School. Their first academic essay on Arab feminist and queer art is forthcoming at Routledge.
Saad has worked as Interim Programming Director at music organization National Sawdust and runs the Gyal Tings! DJ learning series for BIPOC women, nonbinary and LGBTQ folks and Hiya Live Sessions, a platform for radical feminist SWANA artists. They have worked as a programmer for BAM, the Brooklyn Museum, The Brooklyn Library, National Sawdust, Soho House, The Rockaway Hotel, Miss Lily’s; launched the Rockaway Beach Reggae Jam, Gyal Tings Soundsystem and Hiya.
They have collaborated with media companies including Artnews, Elle, BRIC, Four Seasons Magazine, CNN, Hyperallergic, Le Figaro, L’Officiel, MTV, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Nowness, The National and Vice. They have also consulted for Absolut, Bed Head, Converse, Four Seasons, Glossier, Tag Heuer, Ralph Lauren, L’Oréal, Soho House, Swarovski and W Hotels.
Shirine has interviewed Adonis, Jean Paul Gaultier, Juliette Binoche, Bella Hadid, Marina Abramovic, Kehinde Wiley, Pierre Soulages, Gregory Crewdson, Jean Nouvel, Jim Jarmusch, Marlon James, Mickalene Thomas, Shirin Neshat, Virgil Abloh, Wangechi Mutu and many more. They have traveled from Lapland to Tunisia, Vietnam and Uruguay.
Their first guidebook, BOHO BEIRUT, is sold worldwide; they have also written the 2015 WALLPAPER* guide to Marseille.
Shirine holds degrees from McGill (B.A. in Art History and International Development) and Columbia (M.S. in Magazine Journalism; M.A. in Arts and Culture journalism) Universities.