#eden dersso

[rockveroll]

Eden Derso  Photo by Orit Pnini Style by Noa Renert Hair by Helen Make up by Orly Izhaki

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

A 2021 webinar intended for K-12 teachers, published by the University of North Carolina (UNC) Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, presented a map of the Middle East and Africa.

The map, however, erased Israel and replaced it with “Palestinian Occupied Territories.”

A flyer promoting the webinar said prominently at the top, “How to Teach About the Middle East and Get It Right!”

The webinar titled “Hip Hop and Women’s Voices in the Middle East and North Africa” discussed seven female hip hop artists from Morocco, UK/”Palestine”, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and Egypt.

Not a single Israeli artist was included.

An obvious omission is Eden Dersso, a highly regarded Israeli-Ethiopian hip hop artist, described in a Vogue profile as “captivating,” “provocative,” and “a sensation.”

At one point, the webinar presenter — Angela Williams from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign — spoke for more than six minutes while attendees looked at a slide saying “Free Palestine.”

[oritpnini]

EDEN DERSSO // עדן דרסו

Photos by Orit Pnini אורית פניני

styling by Noa rennert 

[mishpacha]

I absolutely love Eden Dersso and you should too.

[ashtyn-hiphopreligion]

Eden Dersso is a young, black, Jewish, female rapper in Tel Aviv who was recently featured in Vogue. When I saw this article on Vogue it really excited to see a young woman facing so many obstacles being honored by such a prestigious outlet. On her status as a minority and an Ethiopian immigrant, she had this to say:  “I am the youngest rapper, so I always talk about it. I always rap that I am better than a man because they need to know. They need to know that a girl can do it better than them, and they don’t,” she says. “They expect me to come out sounding like Beyoncé, but I’m more like Tupac. And then I spit, I spit my heart out.” Another interesting thing about Dersso is that she wants to be an icon and, like she said earlier, she wants to compete alongside the men and even surpass them. Many times in her lyrics, she calls herself “The New Queen of Sheba“. Much like Nicki Minaj or Beyonce, she considers herself a queen. However, it’s different because she was not influenced by them, as she stated. She said she actually didn’t know who Beyonce was at first. She had been influenced by Tupac and lil Wayne. 

“I want to touch every girl like me, so I want to be an actor, a fashion model, I want to write, make music videos,” Dersso goes on. “I want to be everywhere for everyone to see, acknowledge, and respect what I do, because I would have loved to see a black woman spinning this country when I was a child. I want Israel to eventually be sick of my face.”

Dersso is very exciting to me because of how driven she is. Looking at the quote previous, one can see how much she wants to be on the map and not just gain fame, but bring other girls up with her. She wants them to see a strong black girl like her at the top of her game.  This is much of what we discuss in class regarding people’s obligation to their community and to the culture. While she wants to achieve greatness, she does not want to leave her community or make them the ‘other’. 

Dersso is young, she’s excited and she’s very talented. She writes raps in both English and Hebrew. In this article though, many of the struggles that Ethiopian Jews face both in Ethiopia and Israel effect Dersso. She felt that many times she was too Ethiopian in Israel but too Isreali everywhere else she goes. This is how many immigrants feel and certainly informs her music. 

[oritpnini]

EDEN DERSSO X VOGUE 

photos by Orit Pnini 

beautiful words by Liana Satenstein      

https://www.vogue.com/vogueworld/article/eden-dersso-israeli-ethiopian-rapper-tel-aviv?fbclid=IwAR32QsIe3vEAwhPj9hPHuh-DQZC8UN9hny9p_varIpuHjAm9oZmKzkSf6Rs

[oritpnini]

צו השעה - עדן דרסו והתקווה 6

EDEN DERSSO & HATIKVA 9

photos by Orit Pnini