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After several months off from podcasting from Morocco, I’m back with a bonus episode of Why Morocco. I’m chatting with my friend and author Adrienne Chinn about her two books The Lost Letter from Morocco, set in Morocco and The English Wife, set in Newfoundland, Canada.
Adrienne began developing her latest historical fiction novel The English Wife at my dining room table in Marrakech back in 2018 and the book was released on the 24 June 2020. The time-split historical romance is set between Norwich, UK and Newfoundland, Canada and follows the tale of an aunt and her niece who end up in Newfoundland. Or so we think. I won’t say anymore. But rather, just grab a copy.
For a bit of air chair travel, her first novel, The Lost Letter from Morocco, was a real page-turner as the characters set out in locations around Morocco including Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, and even to coastal Essaouira for the Gnaoua Festival.
Listen in as Adrienne and I chat about her novels, writing style and approaches and why she too is so inspired and filled with creative energy when visiting Morocco.
To find out more about Adrienne at: http://www.adriennechinn.co.uk/
Find her books The English Wife or The Lost Letter of Morocco on Amazon or your preferred bookstore.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For final episode of Why Morocco’s second season, I chatted with one of the people I’m checking in with weekly and that person is my life coach, Ray Beach from Drift and Design. I credit her and our weekly coaching sessions for helping me to live my best life in Marrakech, Morocco. Ray and I have been working together for over a year during which time she has coached me through various exercises and techniques to help bring balance to my life, but also move forward ideas and work through personal issues.
When I sat down to record this episode, I wanted this to be an honest and open conversation between Ray and I to let listeners know that others may also be struggling, despite putting on a strong front.
But what I want listeners to know that I believe that coaching or any other one to one development work such as counselling, therapy or mentoring are personal decisions and may even require professional advise. So while life coaching has worked for me and some of the exercises can, as Ray says in the interview, be used in group or organisational settings, I think each of us are unique. So it’s about finding what works for us, when the time is right.
Listen in as Ray and I chat about her approach to coaching and what exercises I’m working on to help me through these unexpected and unknown times.
To get in touch with Ray, email her at hello@driftanddesign.co.uk
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For this week’s episode I chatted with MoroccanTapes.com founder Amino Belyamani. Amino, who grew up in Casablanca and now lives in Brooklyn, created the site that brings Moroccan tapes of various musical genres, which are typically only available for purchase in Morocco and in regions where the musicians hail, to the world.
With music in his blood – both his father and brother are musicians – Amino is an accomplished musician himself having co-founded the band Dawn of Midi. He’s also is involved in Innov Gnawa, a group known for their traditional Moroccan trance emsemble and their track Bambro Koyo Ganda was nominated for a Grammy in 2018 in the best dance recording category.
Listen is as Amino talks about Moroccan Tapes and his plans for the site, what he thinks listeners should be listening to when it comes to the tapes already available and Moroccan music in general.
To listen or learn more, visit: https://moroccantapes.com/
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
With the third edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair kicking off on 20 February 2020 in Marrakech, I chatted with fair founder Touria el Glaoui by telephone in the lead up to the event. The fair is designed to provide exposure to artists from the 54 countries that make up the continent. Touria talked about the changing landscape and dialogue surrounding African contemporary art since she began researching the idea for an African contemporary art fair about ten years ago. Touria launched the first 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in in London in 2013 before travelling to New York in 2015 and finally to Marrakech in 2018. And today, the fair is one of the highlights of my social calendar each year.
With galleries openings, studio visits, talks and roundtables, and meetings with artists planned throughout the four-day event, the programme is rich!
Listen is as Touria talks about the fair, the contemporary art industry, and what visitors can expect during the third edition of the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For the thirtieth episode of Why Morocco, I reached Lonely Planet travel writer Helen Ranger by telephone from my studio in Marrakech. Helen is a friend and colleague, concierge, a fellow Morocco lover albeit one who prefers to call Fez home, and has recently submitted a chapter about Morocco’s rural Middle Atlas Mountain region for the forthcoming Lonely Planet Morocco guidebooks.
In our chat, Helen talks about two of the national parks in the region, trekking options, the Sidi Harazem baths, caves, and what you’ll want to know for planning a Middle Atlas getaway.
With nearby waterfalls and caves, nature reserves, a brutalistis thermal bath complex, village markets, and festivals to enjoy, I don’t really understand why more people don’t take advantage of a short-haul long weekend in the Fez countryside. And with all the tips that Helen provides for planning a trip to the rural Middle Atlas region, Fez could double as a base for exploring the old city and a getaway in the countryside. After all, the city is served with international flights to leading European destinations.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
With a new year and a new decade upon us, I sat down with Meryam Demnati, an Amazigh activitist, to chat about a little-known New Year celebrated in here in Morocco – Yennayer – the Amazigh New Year for the latest episode of Why Morocco. Celebrated on 12 January by the native peoples of North Africa, Yennayer marks the shift from extreme cold and milder temperatures and is celebrated by Amazigh (sometimes referred to as Berbers) communities not only in Morocco, but throughout North Africa. Interestingly though, January 1 and the Islamic New Year are observed here in Morocco with official bank holidays, but Yennayer is not.
As an activist, Meryam also talks about the status of the Amazigh language and Tifinagh alphabet in Morocco, recognition of the Amazigh culture, and the causes the Amazigh movement has and continues to work on since post-independence in Morocco.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For this week’s episode,I chatted with architect Aziza Chaouni in her Toronto office by telephone. I first learned about Aziza and her work when she was featured in Brownbook magazine, a publication I used to write for. I knew immediately that I needed to meet her given that we have swapped home countries. Aziza lives between Toronto, Canada where she works as an architect but is also a tenured professor at the university of Toronto and Fez, Morocco where her architecture firm is located.
But it was after a recent feature in the New York Times about the Sidi Harazem thermal baths restoration project that I finally reached out to Aziza. The thermal baths, near Fez, not only have healing properties, but the complex that Jean-Francois Zevaco designed in 1960 is done in brutalism style. Her credits also include transforming a slaughterhouse in Casablanca in to a cultural space, working on the restoration of the oldest existing university in the world – al-Qarawiyyin University in Fez and more. In fact, in the interview she shares details about a project she’s wrapping up in southern Morocco this month.
Listen in as Aziza talks about post-independence architecture, her past and on-going projects, the role of the architect and the state of architecture in Morocco.
Find out more about Aziza Chaouni Project: http://www.azizachaouniprojects.com/.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For this week’s episode I met with architect Imad Dahmani in Casablanca for an architecture tour of some of the modernist buildings throughout the city. Imad works in Casablanca and also the president of the MAMMA Group, an organization that aims to protect modern architecture in Morocco. You may remember that I interviewed Lahbib El Moumni, also from the MAMMA Group, on episode seven of Why Morocco about brutalist architecture. Well now, the organization is gearing up to launch the Modern Casablanca Map with fifty residential, commercial, government spaces throughout the city included. Each Modern Casablanca Map comes with a little booklet with more details about the building, some of which are open to the public and others that can be viewed only from the exterior. The map will be available throughout Casablanca following the launch on the 8 November 2019 for self-guided architecture tours of Casablanca.
Listen in as Imad talks about exploring beyond the art deco downtown to find the modernist gems throughout the Casablanca.
Find out more about MAMMA Group at: https://mammagroup.org/.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For this week’s episode I travelled to Casablanca to meet Justina Tulloch, the Aussie and one half of the duo behind Bondi Coffee Kitchen. A little known secret – I was terrified of Casablanca for years, but when this restaurant opened in 2015 I knew I needed not only a flat white, but to give the city a second chance. So I finally did in 2016 and I stopped by Bondi Coffee Kitchen for lunch. Justina, along with her husband Aziz Mrabet, have created a space with fresh eats and some of the best coffee in town. But on the podcast she also talks about launching a concept that was quite new in the city at the time of opening. And as residents of this coastal town, Justina shared some of her tips to dispel rumours that there is nothing to do in Casablanca except visit the famous mosque.
Listen in as Justina talks about setting up the restaurant, the philosophy and concept behind Bondi Coffee Kitchen and why you need to add Casablanca to your Morocco itinerary.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
This week I’ve stepped out of the studio and sat oceanside with Shiraz Ksaiba, a London girl and creative I met while working together on the launch of her yoga retreat centre Tamazirt by Amayour near Taghazout in Morocco. Shiraz and I share a similar journey in how we ended up in Morocco. We both came out on solo holidays before eventually returning and setting up our own businesses.
As a former photographer and director of photographer in London, Shiraz has a real knack for designing beautiful spaces and attracting a cool clientele. Her first project, Amayour Surf is a top hostel in Taghazout and she’s known for the octopus tajine she serves guests on their picture-perfect rooftop terrace. Then last year she created one of my absolute favourite spaces in Morocco – Tamazirt by Amayour, a dedicated yoga retreat centre in the rolling Anti-Atlas Mountains with views of the Atlantic Ocean. I attended in as many yoga retreats my schedule would allow for and loved wandering through the argan forest that surround the house and meeting other creatives in between yoga classes in the rooftop shala.
Listen in as Shiraz talks about leaving her London life behind to live her dream in Taghazout, near Agadir.
Find out more about Tamazirt by Amayour yoga retreat centre and Amayour Surf hostel.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
This week I’m joined by Abderrazak Houdzi, owner of Ateliers D’Ailleurs, a company that encourages its clientele to roll up their sleeves and learn a Moroccan craft or trade in Marrakech. Through the workshops Ateliers D’Ailleurs organizes, I’ve had the chance to make a pair of traditional Moroccan slippers, piece together a mosaic tile and hammer a copper bowl during the three-hour sessions that take place in artists’ studios throughout the medina. But it’s about more than just the craft. It’s the opportunity to meet the maker and hear his or her story. To chat about his trade and understand how he became master. It’s the chance to meet the person responsible for the goods you might find for sale in the souks. It’s the opportunity to laugh and share a couple cups of tea in between producing something to take home. In fact, I always leave feeling so grateful for the opportunity to gain some insight in to local artisan life.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
This week I’m joined by Aida Alami, a journalist and contributor to the book Our Women on the Ground, Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World. Aida returned home to Morocco after completing her journalism studies in the United States and contributes to The New York Times, Middle East Eye and Al Jazeera. While she also works abroad, here in Morocco she reports on issues that give a voice to those who may not otherwise be heard, namely women’s rights and migrants.
I received a copy of Our Women on the Ground, edited by Zahra Hankir, just days after returning from Israel and Palestine and spent the next few days reading the captivating tales the women contributors told about their experiences reporting from their home countries. Reading the essays by the 19 female journalists, I realized how different the experience would be for women reporting in this part of the world versus in Canada where I’m from and have worked in public relations newsrooms. The essays are gripping and transport readers to the heart of the lands some of us only hear or read about in the news.
Buy a copy of Our Women on the Ground: Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World online or at your favourite bookstore.
Read more of Aida’s published worked on: http://www.aidaalami.com/.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
I’m back after a summer podcasting break and reached Richard Hamilton, author of Tangier: From the Romans to the Rolling Stones, by telephone to chat about his latest book. Richard worked as a North African correspondent for the BBC World Service and lived in Morocco for a year while covering the region. He had the opportunity to travel to Tangier for work and later returned to research the famous, and some forgotten, folks who’ve passed through this mythical town that would eventually make up his latest work. The book left me inspired to return to Tangier. But Richard and I agree in the podcast that you cannot do the city justice during a one-day visit, particularly given the storied past and innovation that came out of the city during its heyday around the time of Tangier as an international zone which Richard reveals in Tangier: From the Romans to the Rolling Stones.
Buy a copy of Richard Hamilton’s Tangier: From the Romans to the Rolling Stones online or at your favourite bookstore.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
On this week’s episode of Why Morocco, Rose Button, the first female, non-Muslim guesthouse owner in the holy town of Moulay Idriss near Fez, Morocco, sat down with me during her Ramadan stay to chat about visiting this often over-looked hillside village. We also talked about her guest house Dar Zerhoune, her initiative to help the donkeys, and slow travel in Moulay Idriss, a place where non-Muslims were unable to stay the night until the rules changed in 2005.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
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To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
Cris Martinus from boutique travel agency Sun Trails Morocco is back to chat planning a summer vacation in Morocco. Many travellers think it’s too hot to travel to Morocco in the summer, but Cris provides endless ideas that provide travellers with the opportunity to comfortably enjoy the best of Morocco, while experiencing the local culture as well. Think secret beaches where the sand dunes meet the ocean, festivals of all kinds – music, moussems, fantasias, coastal towns that are alive as locals escape the summer heat, and mountain villages for trekking. And an overall special festive ambiance takes over as life seems to slow down a bit.
To start planning your last-minute summer vacation, or family holiday anytime of the year, email Cris directly. Please let him know you heard him on Why Morocco.
But for now, let’s listen in as Cris chats about what he’s planning for the summer month in Morocco.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
Alice Morrison describes herself as an adventurer and she has just completed an 81-day trek along the Draa River in Morocco’s south. Palm groves, adobe houses, and kasbahs that dot the landscape, and of course the flowing Draa River make this region one of my favourite region of Morocco. Accompanied by a team of local guides, Alice witnessed the effects of climate change and learned about nomadic life and how to spot a well in the middle of the Sahara Desert. But what really fascinated me about her adventure was her discovery of a former village while sat atop a sand dune one evening.
Listen in to hear about Alice’s adventures in Morocco’s south.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
As we’re gearing up for Ramadan, I sat down with Assim, one of my valued Tasting Marrakech guides, to chat about travelling to Morocco during Ramadan. Many people tell me that they put off their trip if it coincides with the holy month, or that they cancelled it because they heard it wasn’t a good time to visit. But in fact, in my opinion, there simply is not a more special time to visit the kingdom than during the month of Ramadan. Sure one’s schedule may be interrupted slightly in certain areas, but in a city like Marrakech it’s the perfect opportunity to gain a unique insight in to an already welcoming and hospitable culture.
Two years ago I started fasting. I also switched up our evening Tasting Marrakech tours to provide guests with an opportunity to break fast in the square and enjoy the special Ramadan nights’ ambiance. We shared ftour together, while answering questions about the religion and culture in general. You see, I think through experiential travel we have an opportunity to break down cultural barriers.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
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To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
On this week’s episode of Why Morocco, my friend and fellow art-deco architecture lover David Packer stopped by in between the opening of his show at Anima Gardens and sending his book off to print. David is a trained ceramicist who came to Morocco in 2011 on a Fulbright Scholarship to study the regional ceramics. He has since documented his findings in a 10-chapter booked called the Earth Has Three Colours A celebration of Moroccan Ceramics and he’s planning to release the book this year.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
On this week’s episode of Why Morocco, I had an opportunity to interview artist Christo during the opening of his exhibition Femmes at the Yves Saint Laurent museum in Marrakech. During the press preview I was able to visit the exhibition and admire the Wedding Dress sculpture which, given the exhibition space, was a very fitting choice given its reference to both fashion and women.
I then had about 10 minutes to chat with Christo about his artworks and ideas, his first show in Morocco and in a fashion museum, and whether or not we may see one of his larger installations making an appearance here.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
My other projects include:
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
On this week’s episode of Why Morocco, British-Moroccan author Saeida Rouass stopped by the studio following her TEDx Marrakech talk to chat writing her first book Assembly of the Dead, a historical fiction set in Marrakech in 1906, and what the Marrakech medina may have looked like compared to today. We also talked about the soon-to-be-released sequel Library of Untruth that sees the return of Farouk al Alami, the detective we met in her first book, but this time in Fez in 1912 at the start of the French Protectorate era.
She certainly left me inspired to consider and helped me define a writing project I’ve been thinking about for awhile. So let’s listen in as Saeida talks about historical fiction, her British-Moroccan roots and fascination with serial killers having grown up just steps away from where Jack the Ripper once roamed.
To support Why Morocco, please consider buying me a coffee nouss nouss.
For more Morocco ideas and advise, follow me on Instagram at @ms.mandy.sinclair
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