Delfina Foundation and Bidoun are pleased to announce that Rayya Badran has been selected for the Bidoun/Delfina New Writing Residency, supported by the British Council.Rayya Badran (b. 1984) is a writer based in Beirut who focuses on the performative nature of the voice as well as on characteristics of aurality and music in film and video. In recent years, her research has explored melancholy in music. Her first publication entitled Radiophonic Voice(s) was produced in the framework of Ashkal Alwan’s Homeworks 5: A forum on cultural practices in April-May 2010, Beirut. The publication engaged two radiophonic events recorded and filmed in 2006 during the Israeli war on Lebanon. Rayya will be in residence in Winter of 2011 during which time she will research how popular culture, specifically Western music, is received, lived and later theorized among different generations in the context of Beirut.