Nahla Ink Online Journal

It’s the news you’ve been waiting for! After a one year hiatus, Hishek Bishek is back! So get your dancing shoes on, and get ready to revel in the musical soundtrack of London’s hottest Arabic club night. Paying homage to the Middle East’s popular music history, Hishek Bishek is a pulsing club night dedicated to the region’s vibrant sonic cultures. From chart-topping Iraqi & Lebanese dance-floor hits and the newest releases from Egypt’s underground, to Palestinian electr...

Listen with Mark Gergis to musical gems from Syria’s cassette era (1980s–2011) with styles from Syria’s myriad ethnic and religious groups including dabke and shaabi folk-pop music, which are popular at weddings, parties and social gatherings. A part of the session will shed light on the musical landscape of the Cold War period. The session will be followed by an hour set of 7″ vinyls from all over Syria by Yamen Mekdad. Syrian Cassette Archives is a project aiming to document, preserve and s...

Exhibition Dates: 4-14 August 2021 Artist: Sally Souraya If only we could sweep up a country’s collective pain …  In August 2020 a huge explosion ripped through the heart of Beirut and tore up whole communities. This unprecedented explosion unbalanced the country and the people that were already on tremoring revolutionary ground. Tonnes of glass were shattered throughout the city and displaced from their natural abode, a testimony to how fragile the situation was and still is. Yet the p...

Exhibition Dates: 7 May–15 August, 2021 Hosted by the British Museum, this display weaves together a rich tapestry of artistic expression from artists born in, or connected to, countries from Iran to Morocco. With drawings by artists trained everywhere from Paris to Jerusalem, and subject matters ranging from the Syrian uprisings to the burning of the National Library of Baghdad, it offers new views of societies whose challenges are well-known in the press but are little known through th...

You can now tune in to the podcast of Shubbak Festival 2021 - the UK's largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture which connects you to new and unexpected voices, alongside established artists. In this four-part mini-series, DJ Nooriyah speaks to some of the brilliant artists who were featured during the 2021 festival edition, about how their art tackles some of the most pressing topics of our time. Join her for a deep dive into digital activism, the history of Arab Hip Hop, love an...

Resistance, Rebellion & Revolution explores the life and works of the late Libyan artist and satirist, Hasan ‘Alsatoor’ Dhaimish (1955-2016). Coinciding with the ten-year anniversary of the Libyan revolution, this exhibition features samples of his anti-Gaddafi regime, pro-human rights illustrations that were published between 1980 and 2016. His cartoons were relentless, brutally honest, and were received with laughter by most and anger by others. ​For the first time, Alsatoor’s cartoons are...

Theatre Production by Adele Reeves Productions & Bashar Omar What do we do when our ‘safe haven’ becomes our prison? Inspired by profound personal and varied refugee experiences, ASYLUM is the debut play by Palestinian writer Bashar Omar. Over the course of several average days in the life of a very real character, Yusif, ASYLUM shifts between the realism of the refugee centre’s four walls, and the realms of psychological torment, and begins to uncover the myriad of issues facing refugees bey...

Welcome to Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2021 – an artist-led response to the complexities of the climate emergency in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region today.  Founded in 1998, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) is the UK’s longest running and most successful annual Arab arts and cultural festival, platforming the best UK and international Arab artists. The festival creates a dynamic between traditional and contemporary Arab artforms, encouraging informed debate that explores, ...

Born in the Libyan City of Benghazi, Ahmed Fakroun looked set to make his mark in world music circles in the mid-1980s when is album Mots D’Amour, combining traditional Arab melodies with electronic music, was released on the Celluloid label in France. Years of international sanctions impeded Libyan citizens’ freedom of movement and he spent long periods abroad in the 70s and 80s. However, in the last ten years he has come to prominence on the club scene when some of his early songs were r...

A great line-up of comedians, representing the Arab world and surrounding regions, looking for an opportunity to showcase their talents. Arts Canteen cannot wait to bring ‘Arabs Are Not Funny’ to the cool people of Islington, live from The Old Queen’s Head, a Grade II listed building from the 1830s (why is that relevant? It just makes it cooler). Widely regarded as one of the hottest comedy nights among the Arab community and beyond. ALL ACTS IN ENG...

After a long absence, Habibi Funk finally returns for his quarterly residency at the Jazz Cafe, with special guest selectors Nabihah Iqbal and Dar Disku. Jannis Stürtz heads record label Habibi Funk, which focuses on reissuing Arab funk and electronic records from across the decades. His latest incoming compilation is one of his finest yet, Habibi Funk 15: an eclectic selection of music from the Arab world, a true testament to the quality of the label. As seen on an iconic Boiler Room set in ...

Exhibition Dates: 25 June-26 September, 2021 Private View: 5-8pm, 24 June, 2021 The Mosaic Rooms presents the first UK solo exhibition by Berlin-based art collective Fehras Publishing Practices. 'Borrowed Faces: Future Recall' looks at the Cold War and its effect on cultural practices in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa region, which generated one of the most fertile periods in the history of Arab culture and publishing. The exhibition is part of the 2021 Shubbak Festival. Artis...

Exhibition Dates: 12 October, 2021—30 January, 2022 'Stateless Heritage' sets out to challenge mainstream narratives of refugee experience, of humanitarian crises, victim-hood and suffering. In this exhibition, artist and architectural collective DAAR proposes exile as a radical perspective which can take us beyond the limitations of the nation state. Stateless Heritage also interrogates Western definitions of heritage. The works in the exhibition focus on Dheisheh refugee camp in Palestin...

Blending traditional Arabic music with soul, jazz and electronic sounds. Oum’s music is sensual, atmospheric and danceable. Easily recognizable by her elaborate head wraps and captivating stage presence, Oum el Ghait Benessahraoui, known as Oum, is a Moroccan singer of Saharan origins. Defined by lyrics full of social commentary, and finding inspiration in the traditional Moroccan rhythms of Gnawa, Hassani and Sufi, as much as jazz, gospel and African music, Oum is considered an ambassador of...

The renowned oud master Marcel Khalifé returns to the Barbican in a show created by his son who reinvents his much-loved music to celebrate his musical legacy. Coming as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. Bachar Mar-Khalifé is a French Lebanese singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Born in war-torn Lebanon, he is the son of the revered oud virtuoso and composer Marcel Khalifé, an Arab cultural icon. Bachar has collaborated on many projects that fuse jazz, Arab musics, electroni...

Trailblazing trumpeter Yazz Ahmed joins forces with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Festival. Coming as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2021. The British-Bahraini performer and composer brings her boundless musical ingenuity to a collaboration with the orchestra and its Grammy-winning Principal Conductor, Bramwell Tovey. The concert presents new orchestrations of Ahmed’s evocative, colourful works, joined by the artist and her quintet. Hear pioneering jazz on a grand scale in wha...