Roy Arad

Roy "Chicky" Arad (Hebrew: רועי "צ'יקי" ארד, born 1977) is an Israeli poet, singer, script-writer, artist and political activist. Arad is the editor of Maayan magazine for poetry and a journalist in Haaretz. Arad was born in Beersheba.

Arad has published Eight books. In his first book, “The Nigger”, he formed a style that he called "Kimo" and defined as "a Hebrew adaptation of the Japanese Haiku": it consists of three lines of 10, 7, and 6 syllables. It usually describes one frozen scene that has no movement in it, and in practice the content of the poems is close to Senryū. In 2004 he published "Paintings and poems 2000-2003" with Tal Esther Gallery, Shadurian. and In 2009 he published the poetry book "Guns and Credit Cards" with Plonit publishing house. As an author, Arad published the book "The Israeli Dream" (Xargol-Am Oved) in 2010, "The Pelican" (Xargol-Modan) on 2013, and many short stories.

Arad’s poem “The owl” which deals with the destruction of the Israeli urban city centre in favor of a giant shopping mall, "The Negev Mall", interlacing elements of ancient eastern Gods, was a part of Michal Helfman’s work in the Venice Biennale 2003. In 2007, a translation was published in the USA at "In Our Own Words", an anthology of young writers. He was one of the editors of three poetry anthologies: "Aduma" (the red) of socialist contemporary poetry, "Latzet" (go out) against the 2009 war in Gaza and "The Revolution Songbook" following the social protest of summer 2011. As the publisher of Maayan, he edited several poetry books of young writers.

Arad is co-editor (with Joshua Simon) of Maayan magazine Israeli periodical for poetry, literature, and ideas and of New&Bad Art Magazine. In July 2009, his poem, "The Night's End Anthem" was performed by the Tel Aviv philharmonic orchestra by Zubin Mehta with music of Ella Sheriff for 100 years to Tel Aviv. Along with Mati Shemoelof, Aharon Shabtai and Almog Behar, Arad is a key member of Guerrilla Tarbut, a group of Israeli poets and artists striving to promote social and political causes through poetry and music.

In the end of July 2009, Arad participated in the San Francisco International Poetry Festival and had a surprising show with the influential musician Jonathan Richman. Some of Arad's poems where translated to Arabic and where published in Lebanon and Egypt.

In March 2012 he curated the exhibition Iran [1], in opposition to Israeli government plans to go to war with Iran in order to prevent war with Iran. [2]

• Hakooshi, Shadurian, 2000 (Novelettes and Kimo Poetry)
• Aerobic, Shadurian, 2003. Editor: Roee Wolman (a Novel)
• Paintings and Poetry 2000-2003, Shadurian and Tal Esther Gallery (Art and Kimo Poetry)
• Guns and Credit Cards, Plonit, 2009 (poetry)
• The Israeli Dream, Xargol-Am Oved, 2010. Editor: Eli Hirsch (Novelettes)
• Right Wage, Maayan, 2013 (a Novelette)
• The Pelican, Xargol-Modan, 2013. Editor: Eli Hirsch (a Novel)
• The Aircraft Carrier, Maayan, 2014. Editor: Aharon Shabtai (Poetry)

In 2000 Roy's band "Ping Pong" represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden with the song Sameach. At the close of voting the song had received 7 points, placing 22nd in a field of 24. The song lyrics mentioned a friend from Damascus who dates an Israeli girl. The band was dis-endorsed by the Israel Broadcasting Authority after waving the flag of Syria during the rehearsal and the video-clip of the song. They refused to back down for the performance in the final and pulled the flag out live.

In 2003 Arad released "Sonol" ("Ra Records", Israel, Produced by Ram Orion). In 2004 Arad released "Tourists, come to Israel, it's a Nice Country". On January 7, 2005 he released two different albums in the same day: "Monster" (Comfortstand) with French musician Chenard Walcker, and "Sputnik in Love" under the Dutch label WM Recordings.

Some of Arad's music is political. In July 2005 Arad released "I Vanunu" with Chenard Walcker (Freesamplezone, Paris), named after the atom prisoner Mordechai Vanunu. The videoclip to the title song was shot in Ramallah. In 2006 Arad released his fifth solo album, "Good Friends" (Birdsong, Israel). In August 2006, Arad released a song against the war in Lebanon. In 2002, Arad was one of the organizers of "Rave against the occupation", a line of parties protesting against the Israeli policy during Second Intifada.

Arad was an editor of "Firma", a supplement in Globes between 2000 till 2009. From 2010 Arad is a journalist in Haaretz, writing about social issues in Gonzo Journalism style. Arad participated in the blog of London Review of Books. Arad was the scriptwriter for the satirical television series Toffee and the Gorilla that aired in 2007 on the private Israeli comedy channel, Bip (channel).