Taktouka: Other people's music gives us new ways to understand the world, and to understand ourselves. We learn about how people deal with struggles, with displacement; about how we find meaning; about finding purpose and freedom. This music album illuminates the Arab cascade of catastrophes via old songs and tales: people seeking refuge in other countries, the recent revolutions. What does a refugee need from a country to lead a fulfilling life? How do we grapple with living in two worlds? The work redefines old Arab folk songs to both extend their cultural reach and to establish new and different interpretations. It is critical for us to carry this cultural music with us from the Arab world to New York, and to reinterpret it in ways that reflect our lives and the lives of those around us. We transformed Arabic folk with new ways of singing and performing; by challenging some misogynistic lyrics; and by bringing them to new audiences: to make them speak for women’s rights and to the lived experience of an oppressed people. Taktouka Band is made up of Alia Haju on vocals, Bashar Farran on bass, Daro Behroozi on woodwinds and synth, Calvin Lu on keys and synth and Jesse Chevan on drums, all New Yorkers with wildly different musical backgrounds.