Helein Karam behind the bar at Gaumont Art Lab. (Credit: Marguerita Sejaan/L'Orient Today)
In Gaumont Art Lab, Helein Karam, 71, runs the bar in front of a three-meter mural she painted of three women in blue. To her left, there is often a band of young musicians playing covers of rock songs, Lebanese rappers showcasing original tracks or a film student screening their latest work.She fills pitchers of sangria and arak for tonight’s customers, her huge blue rings catching the light. The glasses are stored in cabinets made from her sons’ old bedroom windows. In front of her, the venue’s big red door was recovered from the original Gaumont Palace — a center her father built in the 1950s on Beshara al-Khoury Avenue. Read more On the Lebanese stage, the democratization of poetry as a means of expression Karam, a lifelong artist and teacher, built her venue in Mansourieh in 2001 in hopes of establishing a space “to support...
In Gaumont Art Lab, Helein Karam, 71, runs the bar in front of a three-meter mural she painted of three women in blue. To her left, there is often a band of young musicians playing covers of rock songs, Lebanese rappers showcasing original tracks or a film student screening their latest work.She fills pitchers of sangria and arak for tonight’s customers, her huge blue rings catching the light. The glasses are stored in cabinets made from her sons’ old bedroom windows. In front of her, the venue’s big red door was recovered from the original Gaumont Palace — a center her father built in the 1950s on Beshara al-Khoury Avenue. Read more On the Lebanese stage, the democratization of poetry as a means of expression Karam, a lifelong artist and teacher, built her venue in Mansourieh in 2001 in hopes of establishing a space “to...
