Mashrou' Leila is an indie band based in Beirut. Their rousing, sensual electro-pop anthems about political freedoms, race, religion, LGBT rights, and modern Arabic identity have challenged the status quo of the Middle-Eastern pop industry. The band has self-released four albums to date and their most recent Ibn El Leil (2015) brilliantly  reimagines  the vibrant sound of contemporary Beirut with guitars, drum machines, samples, razor-sharp violin and Hamed's magnetic mercurial voice. For more information about the band, see www.mashrouleila.com.

Fred Moten is Professor in the Department of Performance Studies, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Moten teaches courses and  conducts  research in black studies, performance studies, poetics and critical theory. He has published a number of books, the most recent of which is a three-volume collection of essays titled consent not to be a single being (Duke University Press, 2017).