life rattle show no. 1279

Presented on THURSDAY, October 24, 2013

Hosted by John Dunford

featuring

"I Am Brave"
and
"Brother"

by Rowan El Shabassy

tonight's Show

On tonight’s program, Life Rattle Number 1279, we feature two stories by new Life Rattle writer Rowan El Shabassy.

Rowan El Shabassy grew up in Cairo, Egypt, the first born in a comparatively liberal and very patriotic Egyptian family. She moved with her mother and younger brother to Canada in 2009 and enrolled in university where she managed to complete a double major with half her brain on campus and the other half focused on her home country.

Living between two cultures and countries has greatly influenced Rowan’s life. She explains that the experience has given her so much more to consider and so much more to express through her art making, whether writing a story, a melody, a song or working on a painting. Rowan El Shabassy believes in the arts, possibly more than anything else that she could choose to believe in.

It should come as no surprise that Rowan uses words to paint a picture—she is, after all, a visual artist. She wears her heart on her sleeve, unafraid to explore the tangled, conflicting emotions that make us human. She deftly weaves in and out of facts and feelings.

In tonight’s first story, “I was Brave,” our narrator, after a romantic stroll through a park with a young man, later speaks with him about the status of their growing relationship on Skype.

In tonight’s second story, "Brother," a daughter literally fills the hole between her brother and mother after a violent dispute over his report card.