Lisa Luxx and Dayna Ash – Grinding Saffron

Saturday 11 July, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm

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Spoken Word

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Join Lisa Luxx and Dayna Ash for an evening to celebrate poetry and Arab heritage. A night of poetic lesbian sisterhood, this event will blend performance and spoken word. 

Lisa Luxx and Dayna Ash are two LGBT+ poets of Arab heritage, and two best friends. This exclusive evening, invites you into conversation and exchange between the artists, sharing their own poems on queerness, identity and longing, with nods to the history of Arab lesbian culture.

Lisa Luxx is Liverpool Arab Arts Festival Artist-in-residence for 2020.

Minimum age: 16.

Lisa Luxx is Liverpool Arab Arts Festival Artist-in-residence for 2020.

Minimum age: 16.


Artist bios

Lisa Luxx

Lisa Luxx is a queer writer, performer, essayist and activist of British Syrian heritage. She writes for freedoms, for healing, to mobilise and to inquire.

Winner of the Outspoken Prize of Performance Poetry 2018, Luxx was also shortlisted for both Peace Poetry Prize 2016 and Sabotuer Awards Best Spoken Word Performer 2017. She has been nominated for the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Poetry. Luxx’s poetry, essays and opinions are published internationally in newspapers, magazines and anthologies including by Hatchette, Saqi, i-D, Dazed, Tate Britain, The International Times, Tribe de Mama (US), Sukoon (Lebanon), The Numinous (US), Verve Poetry Press and Wasafiri.

She regularly headlines literary events in the UK and Middle East, including shows at Royal Albert Hall, Latitude Festival and Station Beirut. She’s done readings for Burberry, Selfridges and her local Women’s Centre. Her poetry has been broadcast across channels including BBC Radio 4, VICE TV and ITV. She was named one of the top 4 queer poets by Diva magazine.

She has lectured on the philosophy of language in mental health for TEDx, spoken on panels about refuge at the Tate Modern and given a talk on sexuality for The Psychedelic Society. She is also a poetry educator in high schools, Pupil Referral Units and has taught at School of Everything summer school at University of the Arts London (Central Saint Martins).

Founder of The Sisterhood Salon, a feminist literary gathering in Beirut. She authored an essay on the Economy of Sisterhood for Saqi Books anthology Smashing It, and continues to develop theories around sisterhood. Her work is also concerned with displacement, adoption, mixed heritage existence and the lesbian experience.

Sometimes cited as Lisa Minerva Luxx, she splits her time between London, Huddersfield and Beirut.

“Her poems are sensitive and revolutionary – always kind, always fierce.” – Dazed magazine

Dayna Ash

A cultural and social activist, playwright, performance poet and the Founder & Executive Director of the non-profit arts organization, Haven for Artists based in Beirut, Lebanon. “What I do stems very deeply from who I am therefore I cannot see myself doing anything else. I am a woman and a writer. I am an Arab and I am queer. I was raised in the West and in the East. I am not simply an activist, I am whatever my city, my community, my gender, my fellow sisters and brothers require.”

Haven for Artists is a nonprofit organization that works at the intersection of art and activism, combining creative and humanitarian methods to facilitate a safe space for the exchange of information, tools, and skills to create a better world. An all-inclusive arts organization (NGO) based in Beirut, Lebanon, HFA was founded in 2011, by a group of LGBTQI+ artists and activists. Beginning with large events hosted to promote local and regional artists. HFA has produced annual exhibitions with international, regional, and local artists; held regular workshops on many artistic mediums, renovated two heritage houses in Beirut which acted as a safe space and shelter for LGBTQI and women’s community. HFA extended its network, skills, and tools to work on numerous campaigns for human rights. HFA provides a platform and network for talented creatives not found elsewhere in the region while extending the reach of art and activism through workshops, public discussions, and events.

Image credit: Lisa Luxx courtesy of Maria Klenner

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