Laura Elkeslassy - Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile

Joe’s Pub presents Laura Elkeslassy in her debut album release Ya Ghorbati: Divas in Exile (vinyl pre-order now available on Ayin Press).

 The musical intersections in Laura Elkeslassy’s Ya Ghorbati (يا غربتي), to today’s ear might seem a wistful statement of political and cultural imagination: outdreaming borders and questioning the supposed binary of Arab and Jew. But for early-to-mid 20th century legends like Line Monty, Zohra Elfassia, Habiba Msika, and Salim Halali, they were just the sonic facts of their lives and identities. 

These cultural nexuses continue in families like Elkeslassy’s, the Brooklyn-based musician born and raised in France, with ancestral Jewish roots in Morocco. A spellbinding and raucous retro-futurist cabaret, Ya Ghorbati (or “Oh, my exile”) bridges Elkeslassy’s sense of familial longing for what’s lost with an excavation of the music of past North African Judeo-Arab divas. Weaving together folk and sacred music from the Maghreb, ranging from traditional Andalusi style, to popular Chaabi, to Francarabe cabaret, Ya Ghorbati moves across time and space to trace a history of political upheaval and exile.