SYMPHONY OF CELEBRATIONS

The NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) Arts Centre will celebrate the UAE’s 51st National Day with a series of musical events.

The eighth edition of ‘Hekayah – The Story’, which is part of the Abu Dhabi City of Music events, will be organised on November 28 at the university’s East Plaza. It will bring together poets, spoken word artists, musicians, and storytellers from diverse backgrounds and cultures to showcase the beautiful diversity of the UAE.

The season’s theme is directly inspired by the name of the event, Hekayah – The Story. Through poetry, spoken word and song, the artists will share their stories and narratives of home, family, heritage, and nation, in all the complexity those concepts contain, asking questions about what ‘home’ means to each individual.

The line-up of performers for the event was selected through a collaborative curatorial process by key players in the UAE’s cultural, poetry, arts, and writing communities, including Farah Chamma, Osama Mootassem, Maryam Khalifa Alshehhi, Dorian Paul Rodgers, and Bill Bragin.

Among the live performances will be spoken word poetry by Emiratis Ali Al Zaabi, Fatema Al Fardan, Maitha Al Suwaidi, American artists Dorian Paul Rogers and Marion Wrenn, Polish artist Monika Pawlowska, Palestinian artist Samar Abdel Jaber, and American-French-Palestinian artist Nathalie Handal. There will also be musical performances by Hungarian artist Bea Laszlo, Nigerian artist Jiire Smith, and Egyptian artist ZigZag Ghanim. Asian dance group Moving Mudras will also regale the audience with a show.

“Hekayah creates a transnational space for the celebration of UAE National Day and acts as a platform for Emiratis [and expats] alike to pay tribute to the place we all call home,” said Bill Bragin, executive artistic director at NYUAD Arts Centre.