Here you will find all the past events and resources for the festival.
Movies & Videos
Shuruq 4.5 Live Reading (10/7)
This live reading showcases seven Arab-American authors featured in the Shuruq 4.5 writing showcase. This is the first of a two-part reading series hosted by Samia Saliba.
Cooking With Salima's Kitchen
Moroccan and Puerto Rican food blogger Salima Benkhalti from Salima’s Kitchen is here to share a classic Moroccan Tomato Salad.
This dish is traditionally served as a side salad, but also tastes fabulous on top of omelettes, with any kind of meat or on top of a toasted slice of bread.
Ingredients for Moroccan tomato salad:
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 red onion, minced finely
- 1/4 cup parsley & cilantro, minced
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 tsp salt, pepper, cumin
Seattle Arab Feminisms - Then & Now
Canadabkeh Performance
Join Vancouver, B.C.- based Canadabkeh troupe in this specially-choreographed piece, showcasing the beauty of Levantine folkloric dance! Video is pre-recorded and available for multiple viewing.
About Canadabkeh:
Canadabkeh was founded by Haytham and Zaid Alhamaydeh, two brothers from Nablus, Palestine. After both noticing that dabke culture was not active in Vancouver, they decided to look for passionate individuals who would share and pursue the vision of bringing joy to the community through zaffe chants and loud dabke footwork.
Canadabkeh consists of a women’s dabke team and a men’s dabke team who work closely to establish a functional well-rounded dabke representation. Canadabkeh is known for their diverse and energetic performances
These Chains Will Be Broken
The Gaza Strip has been made into an Israeli combat zone with the decided aim of crushing Palestinian resistance. Israeli weapons, most of which are courtesy of Washington, have for, at least, 14 years turned Gaza into the world’s largest open air prison. But neither prison nor siege have ended the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Palestinians in Gaza, as elsewhere, are determined to claim their rights, no matter how high the price. The discussion will touch on the stories of real Palestinians who have paid a high price for their resistance, in all of its forms. For more information on Ramzy’s latest book, These Chains Will Be Broken, follow this link:
youtube.com/watch?v=B2asYP8J0Co&feature=emb_logo
Shuruq 4.5 Live Reading (10/21)
My Father, My Martyr, and Me: Postcolonial Instructions for Loving the Palestinian Body
A solo performance in poetry by Fargo Tbakhi, My Father, My Martyr, and Me asks audiences to engage in the project of unlearning the criminality always already layered onto the Palestinian body. Using an invented method called “unarcheology” to examine Fargo’s life, his father’s life, and the life of Sirhan Sirhan, the performance seeks to decolonize possibilities for solidarity, support, and love towards the survival of the Palestinian people. Staged on and around a large pile of dirt, the performance uses a nonlinear, queer, decolonial approach to text and to aesthetics to ultimately ask: in the face of decades of colonization, erasure, and colonization, how can we love each other better?
Indigenous Solidarities
This live poetry reading and artist’s statement highlights the indigenous solidarities inherent in decolonial relationships to land. Following the destruction of the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural in the summer of 2020, this project pays homage to the community-led reconstruction efforts, while highlighting the voices of indigenous and Palestinian authors Gail Tremblay, Mona Gazala, and Ameerah Bader, and hosted by Samia Saliba.
In Conversation with Laura Boushnak & Faisal Saleh
Live Musical Performance featuring Layle Omeran and Amaani Yahya
Shuruq 4.5 Closing Event
Join the Rachel Corrie Foundation’s final event in our October online Arab festival, a conversation with current and former Olympia Arab Festival coordinators and planners hosted by Cindy Corrie. We’ll touch on the origins and history of the Olympia Arab Festival from 2012-2020, talk with our guests about highlights of this year’s online festival and all we’ve learned, and think about the future of Arab festival programming post 2020 and COVID-19. Tune in for what promises to be a delightful conversation with festival mentor Huda Giddens, long-time coordinator Farihan Bushnaq, subsequent festival staff coordinators Amirah Ziada, Kristina Erickson, and Jessica Babcock, and this year’s Shuruq 4.5 Coordinator Alia Taqieddin.
