by mustafasArtistic Dialogue on Conflict, Colonialism & the Climate Crisis
14 July 2020 | The Freedom Theatre (TFT) is honoured to invite our community in Palestine and around the world to join an online Artistic Dialogue presented as part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), curated in collaboration with our friends at Creative Destruction (UK).
This timely conversation brings together leading voices from across the Arab world and diaspora to explore how global emergencies, particularly the climate crisis, are shaped by local realities of conflict, colonialism, displacement, and environmental destruction.
Event Details
Date: Friday, 17 July 2020
Time: 6:00 PM (GMT) | 8:00 PM (Palestine time)
Format: Online
With
Representing The Freedom Theatre, Faisal Abu Al-Hayjaa (actor & comedian) joins:
- Samah Hijawi; artist and researcher
- Sabrina Mahfouz; playwright, poet, screenwriter and performer
- Doreen Toutikian; cultural producer and entrepreneur
Key Questions
- How does the climate crisis affect communities already facing environmental destruction through conflict and colonialism?
- How are artists across the MENA region responding to overlapping narratives of crisis, while creating space to imagine alternative futures?
About the Dialogue
As Liverpool Arab Arts Festival launches its 2021 theme Climate Crisis, this event opens a wider discussion on how responses to global emergencies are shaped by unequal realities. For many communities across the Arab world, experiences such as uninhabitable land, forced displacement, and resource scarcity are not future scenarios, they are daily life.
This series is led by some of the most exciting Arab artists across the globe and aims to engage with the most complex questions of our time, while exploring the action we can take moving forward.
Featured Artist: Faisal Abu Al-Hayjaa (TFT)
Born in Jenin Refugee Camp, Faisal Abu Al-Hayjaa is an actor, comedian, director, and cultural practitioner. He graduated from the inaugural class of The Freedom Theatre Acting School, founded by Juliano Mer-Khamis, and went on to serve as a resident artist at TFT for five years, teaching and mentoring the next generation of performers.
Faisal has performed with The Freedom Theatre across Palestine and internationally, including in Brazil, India, the UK, the US, and across Europe. A member of Red Noses International, he is a graduate of the International School of Humour (Austria), performing in refugee camps and hospitals through initiatives such as Emergency Smile.
His collaborations include touring the UK with celebrated British comedian Mark Thomas, co-writing and performing Showtime from the Frontline. Faisal’s directing credits include At-Tuwani (Palestine), A Skate Play (Palestine), and Hamesha Shamida (India). He was also a leading artist on The Freedom Bus, a project touring Palestine to amplify cultural resistance through performance.
From 2017–2019, Faisal was a Lab Fellow with The Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. He currently leads The Jenin Comedy Club at The Freedom Theatre, where he trains students from across Palestine in improvisation and comedy performance.
About Creative Destruction
Creative Destruction is a UK-based initiative connecting arts, activism and politics, creating spaces where complex, radical and new conversations can happen.
Further Information: