Are you interested in being part of our 2023 Family Day event as a trader?
Family Day takes place on Sunday 16th July 2023, at the Palm House in Sefton Park.
Each year we welcome a variety of traders, selling food and drink, authentic Arab goods, or simply promoting causes or initiatives that reflect our ethos.
Trading hours are 12:00 to 17:00, with set up allowed from 10:00. All trading areas will be in the grounds of the venue, on either grass or hardstanding, and within a dedicated marquee or similar structure.
We especially welcome traders whose product or service closely aligns with the objectives of LAAF, but all applications will be considered. The cost to trade will be determined on the answers to the questions on the form. we will contact you directly via the email address you provide.
Family Day Trader applications are now closed. Thank you for your interest.
Image credit: Stall at Family Day 2022. Image by Andrew AB Photography.
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival strongly condemns the unacceptable violence and hatred directed towards those seeking asylum in Knowsley last week.
We firmly stand with Together for Refugees, and other signatories of a joint open letter. We collectively call for a clear stand and action from political leaders to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Those who incite this anger and violence bring shame on this country, on the vast majority who are proud of our history of helping those in danger around the world. This does not reflect the people of Knowsley, the wider Liverpool City Region of Britain. This is not who we are. We reject hate.
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:
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.
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