As Egyptian protesters dig in at Tahrir Square for a "Week of Steadfastness" against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, poetry, theater, and even visual arts have become a tool to maintain spirits. The outburst of impromptu culture in the heart of the uprising — in which pro-Mubarak thugs have used concern for the country's ancient heritage, and chants of "no more vandalism," as pretexts for savage assaults — provides a glimpse into a society where free expression, long bottled under the dictatorship, has become suddenly uncorked. 

In one instance, protester Hatem Abdel Razek created an improvised experiment in interactive art while living in the Square for the last thirteen days, making a giant portrait of Mubarak with trash bag hair and vampire fangs. "Everyone protests in the way that they are comfortable with, and this is what I am comfortable with," Abdel Razek told the Egyptian newspaper Almasry Alyoum. "I am here because I can be here, because Mubarak, bless him, has made it possible for me to be here by keeping me unemployed for the past seven years."

Abdel Razek invited his fellow demonstrators to take their anger at the dictator out on his Mubarak effigy — an offer that was apparently enthusiastically taken up. "We have been stifled for years, and denied any real chance to express ourselves," he told the paper. "I am not an artist, I am an engineer who has had to resort to construction work to make a living. But this revolution has made artists out of all of us."

Another example is Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed, who has been inspired to a voluminous output of anti-Mubarak poetry, and even created an impromptu stage for himself in the Square. "I have a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, and the only job I've ever been able to get was as a carpenter's apprentice," Ahmed explained. "But, in my heart, I am an artist, and this revolution has inspired me and given me a new purpose."

The New York Times confirms the impression of the festive nature of the Tahrir Square occupation, reporting that at night "the cacophony of rebellion" gives way to "a stage of poetry, performance and politics." Amid makeshift medical stations and lost-and-found tents, the community even includes tents dedicated to art, with one artist apparently coining the name "Revolution of Light" for the current occupation of Tahrir Square.

It should be no surprise that the uprising has inspired people on the street to express themselves through poetry, because poetry in particular has played an integral part in the anti-Mubarak protests from the beginning. The wave of demonstrations breaking out on January 25 were marked by a particularly pronounced use of the vernacular protest poetry of Amad Fu'ad Nigm. Speaking to the Daily Beast, Elliot Colla, chair of the Arabic and Islamic Studies department at Georgetown University, compared the status of Nigm's verse in Egypt to the folk music of Pete Seeger or Arlo Guthrie, "fairly brazen songs about being on the bottom looking up."

Casting a pall over the outpouring of the arts, however, is the fact that Egyptian artist and experimental musician Ahmed Bassiouni has been reported among the casualties of last week's clashes. According to various accounts, the Cairo-born artist, who taught in the painting and drawing department at Helwan University, died of asphyxiation from tear gas during the January 28 demonstrations. The Disquiet.com has posted a memorial to his legacy online, with photos and a moving audio art tribute from admirers.