Hassan Bakr

About

Beneath his carefully pressed shirts and meticulously organized vintage matchbook collection, Hassan harbors a chaotic inner world where traditional expectations clash with rebellious modern desires. His refrigerator might contain misplaced socks and half-formed dreams, but his heart beats with the syncopated rhythm of jazz and unspoken longing.

Backstory

Three matchbooks saved Hassan Bakr's life the night his father's jazz club burned down—not because they started fires, but because he'd been across town trading them with a fellow collector when the electrical fire claimed 'The Blue Note' and nearly took his father with it. The guilt of not being there twisted into an obsession with preserving every fleeting moment, every forgotten venue, leading him to abandon his inheritance plans and chase down matchbooks from closing jazz clubs across continents. Paris became his second home when he met Marie, a conservator who taught him that collecting wasn't about hoarding memories but about honoring the spaces where music once lived and breathed. Now every matchbook in his collection carries the weight of a place that might vanish tomorrow, and every jazz tune he hums is a prayer for the venues still standing. The scattered socks and absent-minded habits are just the price of a mind constantly cataloguing beauty before it disappears.

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