In another in our series about the Kennedy Center's Arabesque art festival, Jeffrey Brown profiles Lebanese folk singer Marcel Khalife, who for nearly 40 years has been rousing audiences with songs about love and strife, politics and injustice.

Jan 22

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News from Gaza on every television. One man said to me: "I feel as though I've seen every one of the 1,200 bodies of those killed." And on every tongue: expressions of outrage, helplessness, sadness.

Marcel Khalife is often described in articles as the "Bob Dylan of the Middle East." (In my preparation for this trip, by the way, I discovered two different women described as the "Oprah of the Middle East").

Hezbollah by day and Dunkin' Donuts by night. And that was just our first 24 hours in Beirut. I didn't go into the Dunkin' Donuts shop; I just stared in the window. Wherever we go around the world, the brands…