Writing in the Palace on the Square

The sound of pens scribbling on paper fills the wood-latticed windows of AUC Tahrir Square. Nina Ellis, assistant professor of English and comparative literature, gestures to the ceiling: a gold-trimmed mosaic of red, green and blue. “Notice the light in the room,” she tells her class. “What colors do you see? What textures do you feel? If it's gold, does it shine? Does it reflect the light?” 

_{Students from the Creative Writing class observe and draw inspiration from Oriental Hall in AUC's historic palace.}

AUC Tahrir Square was once a palace overlooking Cairo’s downtown area for almost 150 years. Now it is a historical hub for the arts in Cairo, where a Creative Writing class taught by Ellis conducts a field study on characters and setting. The field trip is structured for students to explore the University’s oldest building through the perspectives of characters developed over the course of the semester.

"What colors do you see? What textures do you feel? If it's gold, does it shine? Does it reflect the light?” 

Students explored the history-laden rooms of Oriental Hall and Ewart Memorial Hall and drew inspiration from the campus. AUC psychology sophomore Mazen Massen watched microbuses and motorcycles zip around downtown Cairo through the eyes of his character, a spirit of stasis who believes things change in patterns. “I felt my character would gravitate to that, looking at the big picture of all the people,” Massen says.

AUC integrated marketing communications senior Layla Khaleb wrote in Oriental Hall, where her character focused on the room’s smallest details, “like the smell of the wooden chairs, the mosaics and the glass all over the walls,” Khaleb says. 

_{The Khairy Pasha Palace was constructed in the 1870s by Khedive Ismail to house his confidant and Minister of Education Ahmed Khiary Pasha.}

Ellis was inspired and struck by the beauty of the Tahrir Square campus during the new faculty orientation. “Dazzled is the word, which I think must be the intention,” Ellis says. “I thought, ‘I'm teaching creative writing, and I want to sit down and write, and usually I find that to be a good indication of something students will enjoy.”

“Dazzled is the word, which I think must be the intention."

AUC Tahrir Square was first erected in the 1870s by Khedive Ismail, then sold to Greek businessman Naestor Gianaclis in 1899 and used as a cigarette factory, then bought in 1919 to serve as the University’s first campus. 

Students and dignitaries alike have graced its halls— 800 people crowded Oriental Hall to hear Helen Keller speak in 1952. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Tahrir Campus in 1959 to reconvene with his former college friend AUC professor of psychology, Jimmy Beshai.  Edward Said delivered a commencement address in Ewart Memorial Hall in 1999.

_{The American University in Cairo bought the palace in 1919 to house the University's first campus.}

After the University moved to the New Cairo campus in 2008, the Tahrir campus transformed into the center of the University’s public engagement, hosting community events, performances and guest lectures.

“It continues to serve Cairo and to serve the community,” Ellis says of AUC Tahrir Square. “And I think it’s really important that these students return to this campus. I say return because it is part of the history of their identity as AUC students.”

While integrated marketing communication senior Marian Elammawy has visited the Tahrir campus many times during her four years at AUC, she looks forward to these field trips as a shake-up from her normal AUC routine. “I was really happy when I was standing with my friends during assembly hour. I was excited and told them, ‘I have to go to Tahrir today!’”

_{The Creative Writing class walks outside of AUC's historic palace.}