Jeudi en résidence №66
On the Silent Witness

Badr al-Habashi, an Ethiopian Muslim and former slave,
met Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi, a visionary writer from the
Andalusian elite, in Fez, Morocco, at the end of the twelfth
century. For the next twenty-three years, they circled the
Mediterranean together, dodging plague outbreaks, completing
the hajj, consorting with sultans and graveyard lurkers. While
Ibn ‘Arabi is among the most prolific writers in any language,
Badr al-Habashi left almost no trace beyond manuscript
signatures attesting to his presence as a listener.
A resident at the Foundation, Brad Fox is currently writing
a book inspired by the legacy of Badr al-Habashi as a historical
figure, but also as a riddle. It is a cartography of ignorance, an
inquiry into negative space, a premise in search of a form. In this
Thursday in Residence, he will discuss the project and present
some of his early experiments.
Les Jeudis en résidence
Every first Thursday of each month, from 7 to 8 pm, a writer in
residence opens a window on his or her work, universe and
motives, in a free form of intervention. An hour of carte blanche
to share, followed by an aperitif.
Image © D.R
Brad Fox is an American writer, journalist, and translator based in New York. His
work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Whitney Biennial, and The Public
Domain Review. The author of the novel To Remain Nameless (Rescue Press, 2020),
he has published a work of nonfiction, The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous
Ocean Depths (Astra House, 2023), which recounts the stories of those who pioneered
undersea exploration in the early 1930s. The book was awarded the National Book
Foundation’s Science and Literature Prize.

Event in English
Free admission, upon
reservation on line

Fondation Jan Michalski
pour l’écriture
et la littérature
En Bois Désert 10
CH–1147 Montricher
fondation-janmichalski.com

https://fondation-janmichalski.com/fr/agenda/jeudi-en-residence-avec-brad-fox