Edited by Hamdan Dammag, Taher Qassim and Deryn Rees-Jones, the book brings together poems written by 20 Yemeni poets as part of the ongoing Yemen in Conflict project.
The poems were written in response to a series of creative writing workshops for the project co-ordinated by the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival between 2019 – 2021. The project was prompted by work done in association with the Universities of Liverpool and Leeds, and funded initially by the British Academy, and later Arts Council England.
Tomorrow Will Shine: Poems of War and Hope from the “Yemen in Conflict” Project
Edited by Hamdan Dammag, Taher Qassim and Deryn Rees-Jones
Printed by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
72 pages
ISBN: 978-1-3999-2917-2
Cover (pictured above)
Poets included in the book:
Maliha Al-Assadi
Abdel Hakim Al-Qazi
Yousef Alshamiri
Haneen Ali
Maysoon Aleryani
Ahmed Alkholaidi
Salim Alshaayee
Ali Alsowrqi
Khaled Alshameri
Belqis Mohammed Alwan
Amina Atiq
Hamdan Dammag
Shadia Mohamed Hamood
Saba Hamza
Rasheed Nagi
Abdulkader Sabri
Sara Rahman
Janet Watson
Amerah Saleh
Ahmed Zaabar
“The very end of my fingertips,
the ones most sensitive,
feel their way, with absent eyes,
to touch the tip of a thread”
Threads brings together three Arab women artists from Syria, Lebanon and Sudan, weaving a story of migration, songs of the Earth, of disability and the passage of time.
In a journey through storytelling, music, and visual poetry they explore how, while the rich tapestry of our lives may be different, a thread runs through them to bring together a sisterly home that is unbound and timeless.
Inspired by the nomadic Bedouin, one of the many indigenous communities in the Arab world who continue to be marginalised through aggressive, extractive ‘development’ practices, Threads brings together the impact of time, culture and migration in a scripted spoken word, accessible performance, with music and a mixed media installation.
Storytelling is performed by Alia Alzougbi and accompanied by original and adapted music performed by Rihab Azar on the Oud. The focal point of the installation is a sculptural work that brings numerous threads, made up of a vast range of colours, and created by Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings.
Part of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, Threads is a research and development project.
Threads is commissioned by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, with support from DaDa, funded by Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council.
Watch the trailer for Threads
Artist Biographies
Alia Alzougbi
Alia is a BAFTA-nominated performance storyteller, educator, and cultural producer.
Her grounding in Social Anthropology, Applied Theatre and Development Education compels her to find ways of subverting dominant narratives. Alia’s work resonates with principles of social and environmental justice, activism, and equity as complex processes within deeply interconnected systems. Her practice in the community amplifies lesser-heard stories through co-produced creative outlets.
Alia has recently been appointed joint CEO of Shubbak Festival in London. Since 2017, Alia has been chairing the National Theatre’s ‘We Need to Talk…’ sessions. In 2019, Alia was awarded the Writers’ Guild Olwen Wymark Award for supporting new writing. She is a proud Associate of Khayaal Theatre Company.
Alia is a recent Clore Fellow, a highly sought-after programme that seeks to develop the next generation of leaders in the cultural industries. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Omeima is a British-Sudanese combined textile artist, Crafts Maker and Independent Curator who has exhibited both nationally and internationally and received the runner-up prize for the Arab British Centre Award for Culture 2019 (individual award).
In 2018 Omeima was commissioned by Artichoke to work with local communities in Brighton bringing deaf and hearing women together to create a banner that took part in the PROCESSIONS event to mark the centenary of women’s right to vote in the UK. This culminated in the publishing of a book titled Women Making History.
Omeima is a 2019/20 Clore Cultural Leadership Fellow, Creative Consultant, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Accessibility Consultant and Trainer and a leader in creating Deaf and Hearing integrated activities that promotes both equity and professional development opportunities.
Syrian oud player, graduate of the conservatoire of Damascus (2014). Recognised by Arts Council England as a musician with Exceptional Promise (2016). MA in Music Education, UCL (2018) and a Chevening scholar (2015).
Rihab was the first woman oud soloist to perform accompanied by the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music (2014).
Strongly influenced by Arabic music, as well as frequently collaborating with musicians, ensembles and orchestras with different genre focuses, Rihab has played, arranged and written music for projects involving story telling, visual arts, tv programmes, radio and theatre plays.
Nadia trained at International Visual Theatre (Paris). Her theatre credits include: Midnight Movie (Royal Court); A Christmas Carol (Bristol Old Vic); Hamlet and As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Unheard World (Arlington Artist Centre, Newbury); Our Town (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Can I Start Again Please (UK Tour); Notre Dame (National Theatre); Grounded (Deafinitely Theatre at Park Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Windibops (UK Tour); Tyrannosaurus Drip (Stratford Circus); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Shakespeare’s Globe); Tanika’s Journey and Invisible (Deafninitely Theatre); Girls and Dolls (Southwark Playhouse); and I Believe in Unicorns and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt (Little Angel Theatre).
Other credits include: Scrooge (D-Live!); Sonnet 18 (Short Film); Legacy of Dot (Television); Diana and the Gods from Galatea (R&D); Extraordinary Wall of Silence (R&D); Sonnet 30 (Short Film); Margaret Ashman Gallery (Still Photography); The Hub (Television); BSL Zone Showcase (Internet); Snapshot Dicing with Sex (Documentary); All Day (Short Film) and Wicked series 2 & 3 (Television).
Credits
Artist collaboration:
Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings – Textile/Combined Artist, Textile Installation and Designer
Alia Alzougbi – Storytelling, Writer and Performer
Rihab Azar – Music Adaptation and Composition
Nadia Nadarajah – Creative Performer
Production Team:
Louise Stern – BSL/Creative Consultant
Ben Glover – Creative Captions and Video Designer
Liv McCafferty – Producer
Jon Stonehouse – Filmmaker and Editor
Liam – Video Cameraperson and Editor
Joe Strickland – Digital Producer, DaDaFest
Grace Ng – Joint Artistic Director and CEO, DaDaFest
Nickie Miles-Wildin – Joint Artistic Director and CEO, DaDaFest
Robert Hack – Bluecoat Technician
Jack Welsh – Festival Manager, LAAF
Laura Marie Brown – Creative Producer, LAAF
Textile Installation / Light lanterns:
Mathew Jones – Graphic Design for Layout Images for Screen Printing
Martin Glover – BSL Consultant Design/Architect for Lanterns
Richard Woolf – Talbot Designs Ltd for Lanterns
Ihitashri Shandilya – Collect Scarf and Jewellery from India
Khaleb Brooks – Set Manager
Naomi Da – Creative Production
Jane Sampson – Inkspot Presss for Images on Screens
Plants and Foliage – Roots Houseplants
Volunteer assistant for Textile Printing/Seamstress:
A new podcast series talking to artists from Egypt and of Egyptian heritage about climate, crisis, environment, protest and change.
Artists | Ideas | Now turns to the country’s creatives to ask: How can art and activism raise the profile of the climate emergency?
In this eight-part audio series, we hear from Egyptian artists and those with Egyptian heritage, who are using the arts to address the most pressing and complex conversations behind the crisis. From creating desert sculptures that can be seen from space, to reawakening dance culture, we discover how creativity can spark change.
Conversations take us on a journey through the history of protest, tackling the urgent and unspoken issues that underpin climate disaster, from colonialism to censorship and the destruction of cultural heritage.
Featuring artists from literature, performance, visual, street, sound art and more, as a global climate summit begins, this series presents the voices of those leading creative solutions that not only protect the environment but fight for a fairer, more just and equal world.
Artists | Ideas | Now is produced by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival in collaboration with Artists on the Frontline.
The series was supported by The Spaceand Arts Council England with funding from the National Lottery.
The producers are Laura Marie Brown and Zoe Lafferty. Executive Producer is Sarah Fortescue.
Each individual episode is linked next to the artist below.
The whole series is available on YouTube with English subtitles
Artists
Yasmin El Rashidi – Place
Yasmine El Rashidi is the author of The Battle for Egypt: Dispatches from the Revolution and Chronicle of a Last Summer a coming-of-age novel that was long-listed for the 2017 PEN Open Book Award. She is a regular contributor to the The New York Times and The New York Review of Books, and a contributing editor to the Middle East arts and culture quarterly Bidoun.
Miray Sidhom is an Egyptian-born writer, theatre-maker and performer. Her practice combines elements of film, soundscapes, poetry and movement to create socially engaged, thought-provoking performances. She produces work that confronts social issues whilst celebrating duality and her cross-cultural experience. Miray‘s writing has been featured in LegalAliens’ audio series Things I Am Not, and the Black Gold Arts Zine. Her debut solo show THE BREAD WE BREAK explored Egypt’s suppressed history of political uprisings, and is currently short-listed for ‘Best Performance’ at The Manchester Culture Awards. Miray is a founding member of experimental theatre company ClusterFlux Collective, creating innovative performances which respond to our contemporary context in playful ways.
Aya Tarek is renowned for the giant murals painted in public spaces, whether in their home town of Alexandria, in 2011 during the revolution and most recently in countries including Brazil, USA & Geneva. Aya’s constant pursuit of finding new ways to engage the public and drive for artistic independence has taken them from canvas to murals, digital art to 3D-motion graphics, feature films and creating Egypt’s first art collection for an NFT marketplace.
Yara Mekawei has always had a passion for recording the sounds around her. An artist, scholar, electric musician, and producer of Radio Submarine she draws inspiration from the dynamic flow of urban centres and the infrastructure of cities.
The music you hear on this series is Yara’s, Feed on Wasted Energy is from her LP 1963.
Adham Faramawy is an artist based in London. Their work spans media including moving image, sculptural installation, and print, thinking through issues of materiality, touch and toxic embodiment to question ideas of the natural in relation to marginalized communities. They lecture at both Goldsmiths University, London and Ruskin School of Art, Oxford. In 2018 they presented a show on the body and VR for BBC Radio 4, in 2019 they premiered their video piece ‘Skin Flick’ at a screening at Tate Britain dedicated to their work. They were shortlisted for the Jarman Award in both 2017 and 2021. Their work has been exhibited in solo shows at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Niru Ratnam Gallery, London, in group shows at Whitechapel Gallery, Somerset House, and Serpentine Gallery and in 2022 they performed their first live work as part of the Serpentine Ecologies program ‘Back to Earth’.
The air is subtle, various and sweet, video, 35 minutes, Adham Faramawy, 2020-21
Hazem Header – Dance
Hazem Header is an Egyptian contemporary dancer and choreographer. With a BA of Physical education, studies of Personal training, Biomechanics and Kinesiology and a long career as a personal trainer and volleyball coach, Hazem decided to focus on contemporary dance in 2009. Hazem studied at the governmental center “Cairo Contemporary Dance Center (CCDC)” at Cairo Opera House. There he gained experience in choreography.
In 2013 Hazem founded his own dance company ‘ NÜT Dance Company’ (NDC);
NÜT Dance Company is a Cairo established & legally recognized entity that produces and creates contemporary dance, physical performances & culture events.
Nadine Abdel Ghaffar is the curator and founder of Art D’Égypte. Creating work with sustainability in mind, her organisation works to preserve and create access to cultural heritage whilst presenting a contemporary view of Egypt to the world.
Sarah Rifaat is an Egyptian graphic designer, photographer, theatre performer, and environmental and climate activist. Sarah was the Arab World Co-ordinator for 350 and participated in the first Arab Youth Climate Movement. Sarah founded Khoyout Troupe which uses theatre as a tool for development and social change.
‘Salt and Sister Studio are two sisters based in the UK, taking up space in branding and design, with proud Egyptian heritage and unapologetic creative. Starting in 2020, they’ve worked with arts and culture collectives, such as A.MAL projects, FAYDdigital (formerly Floresta Magazine) and the Turnpike Gallery. Their values are authenticity, integrity and inclusion, with work that reflects this in bold, considered design and impactful messaging.’
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival is delighted to be part of Arts Council England’s Investment Programme 2023-26, which was announced today.
Thank you to Arts Council England for their ongoing support of our work and our future growth plans as a National Portfolio Organisation. Our mission remains the same, to be a vibrant international platform for Arab arts and culture in the North of England.
We are proud to work in a vibrant cultural city, alongside our friends, colleagues and peers who work everyday to share the stories of those whose voices are not often heard.
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival delivers arts events and education projects throughout the year, including our Cultural Education Programme.
We have a new podcast series, Artists Ideas Now, supported by The Space and Arts Council England with funding from the National Lottery launching next week. Zackerea Bakir‘s exhibition ‘Shwaya, Shwaya’ is at Output Gallery until Sunday. Camille Maalawy’s Arabic Song Workshop returns to Liverpool on 26 November.
We are thrilled to confirm that our annual festival will return 6 – 16 July 2023, featuring the best UK and international Arab artists and creatives. Our artist call out will be released in the coming weeks.
Returning after a sold-out event at LAAF 2022, Camille Maalawy presents her Arabic Song Workshop.
Where: Merseyside Yemeni Community Association, 111 Beaumont St, Liverpool. L8 0XA
When: Saturday 26th November 2022 | 16.30-18.30
Tickets: £5 from Eventbrite
Sing with Daughter of Arabia, Camille Maalawy
Join Camille Maalawy for a choir performance workshop, which explores Arabic folk song, Andalusian Muwashshah and some well known songs of the great Arabic singers such as Um Kulthum and Fairuz. This workshop will take place Merseyside Yemeni Community Association in the heart of Toxteth.
No previous knowledge of Arabic or Arabic music is needed. Everything will be transliterated.
Camille Maalawy is a Mezzo Soprano – classical, Arabic and world music performer; singing teacher and animateur based in Kingston Upon Hull. She has achieved notable acclaim for bridging both musical and cultural divides. In her eclectic music career Camille draws on her Arabic heritage and classical singing training to bring a vibrancy and passion to all of her work.
Zackerea Bakir’s first gallery exhibition explores what it means to be a dual Libyan/British national, playfully navigating the tensions and contradictions between two cultural identities.
Shwaya is a colloquial Arabic term which means a little. The slang phrase Shwaya, Shwaya is often passionately used in various contexts, from telling people to calm down, to expressing that someone lacks knowledge.
This body of work, across sculpture, collage, video and graphic design, playfully riffs on the phrase. By responding to outdated media depictions of Arab nations (such as the Libyans in Back to the Future, a nostalgic touchstone for the artist), it presents a modern, open-minded and inquisitive take on dual heritage identity.
Zackerea asks: can he truly be Arab, or engage in Arab culture, without being able to speak Arabic?
Biography:
Zackerea Bakir is a British-Libyan creative and actor. His work examines the nuances of being an Arab dual-national within Britain. Driven by a restless energy, Zackerea’s diverse creative output interrogates this question, using either screen, gallery or stage to tell his story.
Celebrating the release of a ground-breaking new anthology called This Arab Is Queer, this event by Homotopia and supported by LAAF, brings together editor Elias Jahshan with essayists Madian Alijazeera and Anbara Salam for an evening of readings and lively chat.
For the first time, LGBTQIA Arabs come together to share their personal stories of hope, struggle and love. All welcome.
Madian Aljazeera is a Palestinian Jordanian bookseller and founder of Amman’s Books at Café, a bookshopcome-internet café.
Anbara Salam is a Palestinian-Lebanese-Scottish writer. She is the author of Things Bright and Beautiful (Fig Tree/Penguin, 2018) and Belladonna (Fig Tree/Penguin, 2020).
Elias Jahshan (he/him) is a Palestinian/Lebanese-Australian journalist, writer and editor. He is a former editor of Star Observer, Australia’s longest-running LGBTQ+ media outlet.
Chaired by Laura Marie Brown, Creative Producer at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.
Curfew & Love in the Time of Apartheidby El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe & Hawiyya Dance Company
Available to watch online until the 31st October 2022
After a wonderful evening at Unity Theatre on Saturday 15th July during this year’s festival, we’re pleased to announce that both performances are available to watch online:
About Curfew:
Curfew was devised in 2018 and, after two sellout shows at Rich Mix in London and one night in ramallah, it was due to travel to Liverpool in 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic.
The dance performance’s omnipresent themes of time – past and present – information, introspection, frustration and rebellion, lead us to face existential questions, whilst living and understanding concepts of opportunity, privilege, responsibility and duty. To challenge helplessness and to facilitate action to change, to become better world citizens, we have a duty and responsibility to channel important messages to the wider world.
The production does not give an answer, rather it questions the public and encourages us (the audience) to find our own answers by expiring and reflecting on our positions and our actions towards oppression, injustice and complexity.
About Love in the Time of Apartheid:
Love in the Time of Apartheid premiered at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival and presents the start of internal conflict of an individual torn between the love for his homeland and the love for his partner. Through a rollercoaster of insomnia, stress, torment, and defiance, the dancer draws on his own personal story to represent that of thousands of Palestinians who struggle for family reunification.
Performances sponsored by the Arts Council, British Council, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival and Interpal.
How to Watch:
Curfew & Love in the Time of Apartheid will be available to watch on Unity Online until the 31st October 2022.
Watch this film for £6: You can watch the show through Vimeo for just £6, by clicking the Watch Now button. Once you have purchased your individual film you will be able to watch it as many times as you like in the three-month watch period.
Watch the whole playlist for just £25: Unity Online will drop a new playlist of at least 6 productions every three months (August, November, February & May). You can watch each production individually for £6, or save money by purchasing all films in the drop for just £25.
Edited by Hamdan Dammag, Taher Qassim and Deryn Rees-Jones, the book brings together poems written by 20 Yemeni poets as part of the ongoing Yemen in Conflict project.
The poems were written in response to a series of creative writing workshops for the project co-ordinated by the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival between 2019 – 2021. The project was prompted by work done in association with the Universities of Liverpool and Leeds, and funded initially by the British Academy, and later Arts Council England.
Tomorrow Will Shine: Poems of War and Hope from the “Yemen in Conflict” Project
Edited by Hamdan Dammag, Taher Qassim and Deryn Rees-Jones
Printed by Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
72 pages
ISBN: 978-1-3999-2917-2
Cover (pictured above)
Poets included in the book:
Maliha Al-Assadi
Abdel Hakim Al-Qazi
Yousef Alshamiri
Haneen Ali
Maysoon Aleryani
Ahmed Alkholaidi
Salim Alshaayee
Ali Alsowrqi
Khaled Alshameri
Belqis Mohammed Alwan
Amina Atiq
Hamdan Dammag
Shadia Mohamed Hamood
Saba Hamza
Rasheed Nagi
Abdulkader Sabri
Sara Rahman
Janet Watson
Amerah Saleh
Ahmed Zaabar
