Saint Levant explores Palestinian identity through music
A chameleon when it comes to identities, California-based partPalestinian musician Saint Levant has had many names. But it is his current alias that is garnering him global recognition as a young musician speaking straight to the people.
The artist, who prefers to go by his stage name, was born in Jerusalem and has made it his mission to dismantle the notions some people have of Palestine.
For Saint Levant, who spent some of his formative years growing up in Gaza, the memories of Palestine still bring warm feelings, despite the horrors that led to his family having to leave.
“The actual cultural makeup is my mom is half-French and halfAlgerian. My dad is Serbian, halfPalestinian. And they both grew up in Algeria. But they decided, in the early 90s, post the Oslo Accords, that Palestine was going to be free. “So they went back, my dad went to live in Gaza in the early 1980s. And my dad built a hotel there and that’s where I grew up … (they were) the best years of my life,” said the singer who turned 22 last month.
As a musician and artist, he says he wants to walk in the footsteps of Palestinian American intellectual Edward Said to “reclaim the Orientalist fantasies that have
dictated the geopolitics of our area for the last three centuries.” This year, Saint Levant also announced the 2048 Fellowship, which covers the living expenses of a young Palestinian creative for a whole year.
“Palestine is such a big part of my identity. I always feel very out of place, always. You know what I mean? And I think one of the only times maybe in my life that I didn’t feel out of place was in Gaza.” He even composed a song, “Tourist,” that expresses how he feels about his birthplace. “I know (if I) go back, I would feel like a tourist. My music can also be naive, nostalgic,” said the musician.
“I made a conscious decision last September that I’m going to be a musician, because I don’t want to be 80 years old and look back at my life and regret the fact that I didn’t give it a try,” he said. “And I heard this quote the other day, ‘leap, and the net will appear.’ And just like that, everything fell into place.”