Museum of the People of Downtown…Narratives and Memories

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The Museum of the People initiative, launched by iCulture Consulting in 2024, seeks to engage communities in the appreciation, documentation and celebration of Downtown Cairo’s collective memory as part of our intangible cultural heritage.

In collaboration with the AUC Tahrir Square Programming, this initiative aims to create an interactive platform for knowledge exchange and oral history documentation of Downtown Cairo, through curated sessions and community-driven activities.

Leveraging the important role of AUC in the history of Downtown Cairo for decades, iCulture aims at engaging more community contributions to the documentation of Downtown Cairo's oral history and collective memory.

Downtown Cafés: Tales from the Heart of Cairo
July 18, 2025 • 7 pm
Explore the folk heritage of the iconic cafes of downtown by Mostafa Gad, UNESCO expert and former dean of the Folk Art Institution, Arts Academy. Through interactive discussion, he will be sharing his experiences in documenting folk arts and traditions in downtown beside his own memories as a young Egyptian in the streets of downtown, which will then be added to the district’s oral archive.


Storytelling Building
July 19, 2025 • 7 pm
Join professional storytellers Alaa Khairi and Mohamed Kamel as they lead an engaging live storytelling session. Through creative techniques, they bring downtown’s history and human experiences to life, inviting the public to brainstorm and share their memories and forging emotional connections between the audience and the place.

Participatory Mapping Workshop and Closing
July 19, 2025 • 7:45 pm
Take part as the iCulture team will guide you in creating an “oral history map” of Downtown.
Participants annotate locations tied to their memories and share accompanying stories. Printed street maps will be provided by iCulture.

All stories gathered—from the social figures, storytellers, and participants—will be compiled into a book “Oral History of the People of Downtown,” to be published by iCulture. This publication aims to preserve the intangible heritage of residents, even as the city’s physical landscape evolves. iCulture has already documented dozens of such stories over the past year, and this effort furthers that mission.

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AUC Tahrir Square Programming

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