Photo by Gregg Richards
Shirine Saad is a Beirut-born journalist, programmer and DJ focusing on culture and social change. She teaches Arts Journalism and Criticism at Brown University’s Arts Initiative, where she is the Founding Editor of an upcoming multimedia arts journal. She is a PhD candidate in Philosophy, Art and Social Thought at the European Graduate School. She 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.
Shirine has worked for 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. She has 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 Live Sessions. She has 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 Jean Paul Gaultier, Juliette Binoche, Bella Hadid, Marina Abramovic, Kehinde Wiley, Pierre Soulages, Gregory Crewdson, Jean Nouvel, Jim Jarmusch, Marlon James, Shirin Neshat, Wangechi Mutu and many more. She has traveled from Lapland to Tunisia, Vietnam and Uruguay and created stories on molecular gastronomy, conceptual art, ecological architecture, Reggae and poetry.
Her first guidebook, BOHO BEIRUT, is sold worldwide; she has also written the 2015 WALLPAPER* guide to Marseille. She is working on a book about Jamaican artists.
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.