A cabaret show with a Middle Eastern and North African twist!
Event starts at 8pm (Doors open from 7pm)
Celebrate the festival’s ninth anniversary at Grand Junction, with an unmissable evening of cabaret featuring the ASWAT (‘voices’ in Arabic) of London’s most talented, emerging female artists from the Middle East and North Africa. The evening will be packed with music, poetry and spoken word!
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Sunkissed Child (Yasmina) is a Leeds and London-based artist from Lebanon. Through her music and captivating lyrics, she shares pieces of herself and her life story through a mix of cultures, languages and genres. Her sound takes influences from Neo-soul, R&B and Hip-Hop as well as from Lebanese, Arabic and Middle Eastern cultures. Yasmina has just released a new single with hip-hop star Otis Mensah – LOVE N ATTENTION.
Amal Khalidi is a multi-disciplinary, poet, musician, and storyteller born and raised in London. Amal’s work takes inspiration from their experience of being a part of the North African diaspora, and the cultural fluidity of London and attempts to understand the absolute silliness of the everyday.
Tasneim Zyada is a British Palestinian spoken word artist, published poet and voice over actor. A perfectly calm storm on the spoken word scene, her performances have featured in the likes of Shubbak, Bloomsbury and AWAN festival, and most recently headlining at the first festival for showcasing Palestinian artists in London, PalArt Festival. Her work explores themes of identity, displacement, mental health and faith.
Sana El Wakili is a multidisciplinary artist based in London with North African heritage. Sana’s poetry, writing and acting are influenced spoken word and contemporary circus, music, visual art, as well as lived experience. A true cross-arts maker with bold artistic vision, Sana explores truth through experimentation, innovation and poignancy. She creates work for radio, theatre, film and television.
Chifaa Khelfaoui is a spoken word artist, actor and writer. She’s currently training at Kingdom Drama School and is part of the Theatre Makers cohort at the Old Vic. She uses poetry to express her thoughts and emotions on the complications of life – particularly those faced by Arab women. Her work takes inspiration from hip-hop and conscious rap. In the future, she hopes to incorporate different languages in her work for the purpose of connecting to a global audience.
Heba Alhayek is a London-based Palestinian author, communication consultant, and facilitator. Her first book, Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies, won the 2022 Palestine Book Awards and was chosen as a 2021 Book of the Year by The White Review, Middle East Eye and The New Arab.
The evening is presented by Arts Canteen in collaboration with Grand Junction.
Supported by Arts Council England.
Arab Women Artists Now (AWAN) is the UK’s only contemporary multi-arts festival dedicated to showcasing Arab women’s artistic work, taking place each March, to coincide with International Women’s Day across venues in London. The festival showcases work in venues across London. Celebrating and promoting high quality female artists from the Arab world and diaspora the cross-arts festival features music, comedy, literature, visual art, theatre and performance, along with a series of workshops and development opportunities for emerging artists.