In Khanaqin east of Iraq .. The first cultural cafe

Zaynab of Arcozzi-Khanaqin

Abdul-Majid Lutfi's cafe in downtown Khanaqin is the first cultural forum of its kind, a tent for lovers of culture, art and heritage, and a forum for intellectuals, writers and poets in the city of Diyala province in eastern Iraq.

When the visitor enters an old house, he finds himself in a place that was designed in a unique architectural style with "plaster and plaster". Its walls are decorated with paintings of artists and photographs that tell the city's features and features.

The place is filled with the sounds of Kurdish and Iraqi makamas, oud music, the sound of tea glasses and the smell of tobacco.

The Cafe Story
"The cafe opened on February 24, 2017 with two hugs. The idea came after some intellectuals there sought to re-energize the cultural movement, and when we found that the participants in these activities - which were held in limited halls in the city - They themselves are the same people interested in culture, we thought to establish a cafe to reach cultural activities to the public, and we chose an old cafe in the heart of the market and hired him from the owner.

Murad adds: "The cafe was named after the late writer Abdul Majid Lutfi Wafa and his literary achievements. He started various activities since his opening day. He received a number of literary, artistic and cultural delegations coming from outside Khanaqin, and for two years I spent on the cafe from my own account. The purpose of the occupation is from that place to a small area, until we find a new place on Doctors' Street. "

Murad points to the goal of establishing the café, saying it was an effort to raise awareness in society, as culture is the best way to achieve it.

"The crises in society are all due to the crisis of consciousness, so the means of culture are the most important message to be adopted at this time."

"Murad went out of the cafe a torch that included the districts of the city of Khanaqin, where I commend this role in the reading festival, which was held in the area of ​​Jalawla, and there is also a strong endeavor to start cultural activities in the area of ​​Saadia and in Hamrin also.

Art Forum
"The café conducts a monthly survey of professionals, crafts and jobs, one of them chooses each time, and asks its visitors and its audience to choose the best in two ways. Each time, the city's painter is charged with drawing the winner's picture and presenting it in the evenings organized by Khan Yunis "), which was founded in the cafe after one year.

The owner of the coffee shop for Al Jazeera Net says that there is a musical group called "Gel Gra", which was recently founded and they are trying to form a live band that preserves the original art and preserves the suffocating privacy.

"The walls of the cafe serve as a permanent exhibition for the artists of the city. They are free, hanging from paintings, and on the top floor there is a balcony overlooking the courtyard where young people sit and sing."

"We can not fail to mention that Abdel Majeed has succeeded in attracting women, and this is a precedent to be referred to in this city, although their presence is not yet as expected," Hatem said.

In 1946
"The history of this building dates back to 1946, an old house built by Mullah Shukr at the time, one of the largest wholesalers of foodstuffs, and Akima did not have a child," said Sirwan Al-Zahawi, the owner of the house. From his wife safe until he died in the early seventies. "

"We saw it turn into a cultural café. My colleague, the writer and poet Kanaan Hatem, asked me to move to the cafe. He renovated it to suit his function as a cultural café. The literary, cultural and artistic activities have moved to the new place since March 2019. The café has a role in many activities, Also outside. "

Norsen Library
Those who pass through that upper terrace at the cafe must visit the Norsin Library, which is full of books and offer readers of Khanaqin what they want.

"In 2019, I founded the Norsen Library with the help of a group of close friends, with the aim of increasing cultural awareness, encouraging reading, and the need for intellectuals to read books and sources. They contain a collection of books and there is a department for sale," said Ali Mahdi Moussa, a young man who pushed his ambition and love for books and reading. , And a section for borrowing, and of course can read inside the cafe as it did not some of the readers, as they like reading within the library or in any corner cafe.

The Literary Tent
"Abdel Majid Lotfi cafe is a place that contains a group of pioneers, thinkers, writers and activists, and considered it a tent for peaceful coexistence and cultural exchange, and a house that embraces talent and energies."

These words describe the civil activist Iyad Ali his relationship with the cafe, adding that "it has become a gateway for us and the gorgeous intellectual, where we can hold our cultural activity, and what distinguishes this cafe that it is not linked to any political party or party and away from ethnic discrimination and sectarianism and became a meeting of intellectuals, writers and poets , Where many of them from all over Iraq. "

"There are cultural gatherings in this cafe, including a committee for Khanaqin and other committees, and I rarely go out where we meet, discuss and discuss literary issues and matters of the city," he said.