Radius of Arab American Writers | RAWIFest Day 3
Saturday, June 12th starting at 9AM EST, hosted online
In collaboration with The Boston Foundation, RAWI is excited to host RAWIFest – a weekend of free virtual programming celebrating Anglophone SWANA literature and performance art, featuring new work from poets, spoken word artists, and performance artists!
Rather than following RAWI’s previous “conference” format, and in the spirit of openness and accessibility, the entirety of RAWIFest’s programming is free and open to the general public. This is made possible due to the generous support of the Boston Foundation (LAB), Mizna, Kundiman, The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies.
All events will be live-captioned.
Email rawifest@gmail.com with any questions about registration or the festival.
Day 3 Schedule
9AM EST
RAWIFEST POETRY READING
Join us for a RAWIFest featured poetry reading with Itiola Jones, Ghinwa Jawhari, Leila Chatti, Maha Ahmed, Sara Elkamel, and Nour Kamel
10:30AM EST
GATHERING CEDAR: AN ARAB/INDIGENOUS MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE AND DIALOGUE
Recognizing the importance of constellating Arab diaspora art in multiple ways, including through immigrant/refugee and pan-Asian/African lenses of experience, this collaborative multimedia performance and dialogue argues for a creative, critical, pedagogical, and publishing re-evaluative centering of Indigenous Arab realities, by placing in dialogue womanist/queer/trans Palestinian, Indigenous North African, and mixed-race Arab/Native American artists, activists/organizers, editors, and educators. Weaving visual, textual, and performative arts, an Indigenous re-orientation and dismantling of Orientalism is invoked and a dialogue more deeply decolonized.
Featuring Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Rasha Abdulhadi, Katherine Toukhy, Micaela Kaibni Raen, and Molly Murphy Adams.
1PM EST
A BOOK CELEBRATION W/ RANDA JARRAR & ZEYN JOUKHADAR
Join us to celebrate recent book releases from former RAWI executive director Randa Jarrar and Lambda Literary Award finalist Zeyn Joukhadar. Both authors will read from their books Love is an Ex-Country and The Thirty Names of Night followed by a discussion.
2PM EST
RAWIFEST GATHERING OF FILMMAKERS & POETS
After their Friday night film screenings, join us for a follow-up panel discussion on poetry and filmmaking featuring Jessica Abughattas, Hind Shoufani, Hala Alyan, and Darine Hotait. This event will be moderated by Hazem Fahmy and Ryah Aqel.
3:30PM EST
UNARCHAELOGY WORKSHOP W/ FARGO TBAKHI
Unarcheology is a queer, anticolonial orientation that asks us to examine how texts, objects, artifacts, bodies, and histories have been dug up and narrated in service of particular, oppressive ideologies—what we might understand as a form of archeology. Informed by queer, anticolonial aesthetic practices like collage and autoethnography, unarcheology asks that we intentionally engage our poetics in service of putting back‚ or reburying, restoring complexity and dignity to those texts and subverting those oppressive ideologies. In this workshop, we will think through unarcheology’s parameters and possibilities; examine poems, performances, and other texts which are using this method; and use research-based exercises to vision possible unarcheologies ourselves.
6PM EST
THE RIDE
The Ride written and performed by Ramy El-Etreby, seeks to reconcile seemingly conflicting identities: Gay, Arab, and Muslim. After being outed in a highly public forum, Ramy’s world is turned upside down. As his personal relationships become strained, so does his faith in God. THE RIDE takes Ramy down a dark hole where he loses touch with the most precious parts of himself. Featuring multiple characters from Ramy’s life, including his Egyptian immigrant parents, his caring best friend, and his snarky “catterpist” (his cat/therapist), The Ride offers lessons learned on the bumpy road from self loathing to self love.
7:30PM EST
MIZNA EVENT