To an outsider, it seems that Maya Karanouh, an architect who owns her own web-developing company, has a strange pastime. In addition to running her company, Karanouh organizes creative competitions open to the public that push citizens and non-citizens to reflect on Lebanon. Her latest is a postcard drawing contest that encourages artistry no photographs are allowed and discourages traditional images of tourist sites. All the postcards show the same old views of Lebanon.
Cards are no longer about monuments, but more about ideas, thoughts or expressions.
Karanouh wants to see people come up with drawings, for instance, of a character in the neighborhood, a satirical theme, their city, their mother, or any abstract idea that could reflect a part of Lebanon. Everybody can pick up a paper and draw. Two years ago, Karanouh organized a poetry contest called Poetic Beirut that she is modeling the postcard competition after. She was pleasantly surprised that Poetic Beirut received more than 800 entries. The poems were in English, Arabic and French and were judged by prominent poets and writers.