The Liverpool Arab Arts Festival – now in it’s 13th year – kicked off a nine-day programme of Arab art and culture on the 7th of June. This year, the festival events included Amira Kheir, Farah Siraj making her UK debut,a series of plays including Martin Crimp’s satire Advice to Iraqi Women, and The Worst Cook in the West Bank. a 10-day exhibition, entitled Al Noor – Fragile Vision, and a drumming workshop by Simona Abdallah.
Several film screenings, including, Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar, and Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda.
The full program of events is here.
It’s not just music and art and food however, with each day including a ‘Freedom Hour’ intended to allow “thought-provoking debates on current affairs, culture, freedom and change in the Arab world” – and the festival will also be marking the publication of Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline.
More about the book:
Syria Speaks is a celebration of a people determined to reclaim their dignity, freedom and self-expression. It showcases the work of over fifty artists and writers who are challenging the culture of violence in Syria. Their literature, poems and songs, cartoons, political posters and photographs document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria.
Arab Hyphen 