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The Bard & The Rawi

@bardandrawi

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The Bard & The Rawi, a digital magazine dedicated to the incredible Arab creatives & institutions shaping art, literature & culture in the UK & SWANA.
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Building on Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi's latest film, โ€œRevolutionaries Never Dieโ€, screening at the BFI London Film Festival, we honour Jocelyne Saab (1948โ€“2019); a Lebanese war reporter, filmmaker, and experimental artist whose five-decade career traced the arc of the Arab world's conflicts and transformations. Her films were not simply moving images; but an archive of human power and resistance. Her camera an instrument of human preservation and perseverance. ๐Ÿ”Š๐Ÿ“–Read & Listen to the full via the link in our bio. https://thebardandtherawi.com/jocelyne-saab-lebanese-filmmaker-journalist/ #LebaneseCinema #ArabCinema #WomenInFilm #ArabUK #BFILondonFilmFestival @jocelynesaabasso @idiomsfilm @britishfilminstitute by @bardandrawi
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3 days ago
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I'm reading Toni Cade Bambara, where she says, 'as a culture worker who belongs to an oppressed people, my job is to make revolution irresistible.' @mohanadyaqubi - Mohanad Yaqubi Palestinian filmmaker Mohanad Yaqubi's latest film, โ€œRevolutionaries Never Dieโ€, screening at the BFI London Film Festival, is a profound reflection on memory, archives, and the cinema that refuses to die. The film explores the work of Jocelyne Saab, the Lebanese filmmaker who made 16 films between 1973 and 1983, documenting Palestinian women, the Lebanese Civil War, and liberation struggles across the Arab world. Yaqubi never met Saab. She emailed him in 2018. He never replied. Three months later, she passed away. What emerged instead is a cinematic letter to a kindred spiritโ€”a love letter to hope and a stand against the erasure of history. ๐Ÿ”Š๐Ÿ“–Read & Listen to the full interview via the link in our bio. httpsthebardandtherawi.commohanad-yaqubi @jocelynesaabasso @idiomsfilm @britishfilminstitute #ArabFilms #JocelyneSaab #PalestinianCinema #LebaneseCinema #BFILondonFilmFestival by @bardandrawi
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4 days ago
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Arab UK Community Call Out We are building a directory of cultural spaces from across the UK that celebrate Arab culture, art, literature, music, theatre and community. From London to Belfast, the UK is full of incredible spaces celebrating Arab culture, art, and community. ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งโœจ We've rounded up just a few of our favourites, from the art and ideas at @ibraazlondon and @p21_gallery to the warmth of @yallaa.ni in Belfast and the community spirit of the Liverpool Arabic Centre. But we know this list is just the beginning. What did we miss? ๐Ÿ‘‡ Tag in the comments a space you think should be recognised. ๐Ÿ‘‰ Comment what are your favourite Arab cultural hubs, institutions, or hidden gems in your area. ๐Ÿ‘‰ Drop their names below so we can all discover them! ๐Ÿ”Š๐Ÿ“–Read & Listen to the full list via the link in our bio https://thebardandtherawi.com/top-arab-cultural-hubs-in-the-uk/ #ArabCulture #SWANA #CulturalHubsLondon # #ArabArt #ArabUK by @bardandrawi
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9 days ago
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If you could ask the Arab Hall one question, what would it be? ๐Ÿ›๏ธ The Arab Hall: Past and Present exhibition at Leighton House is nearing its endโ€ฆ but the stories remain. If you missed the exhibition our Spotlight series is your lasting archive. Step inside the Arab Hall and meet the Arab artists who reclaimed its narrative, and the historian who uncovered its secrets. Explore the series: ๐ŸŽฌ Soudade Kaadan โ€“ Award-winning Syrian filmmaker. Her short film When The Tiles Spoke gives voice to the Damascene tiles. She also shares practical wisdom for independent filmmakers. ๐ŸŽจ Ramzi Mallat โ€“ Lebanese artist whose installation Atlas of An Entangled Gaze reshuffled the power dynamics of the Arab Hall. He also shares practical advice for artists navigating the art world. ๐Ÿ“š Dr Melanie Gibson โ€“ Historian and author of The Arab Hall: Frederic Leighton, Traveller and Collector. Leighton's genuine engagement with the Arab world and the challenge of translating and contextualising the Quranic inscriptions. ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ Bridging Worlds in Tile and Paint โ€“ How Frederic Leighton transformed his house-studio into a canvas for reflection and creativity. This is more than a building. It is a conversation across centuries about art, power, and belonging. ๐Ÿ”Š๐Ÿ“– Read & Listen to the full Spotlight series at the link in bio. https://thebardandtherawi.com/spotlight-leighton-house/ @ramzimallatstudio @leightonsambournemuseums @soudade_kaadan @melgib1 #ArabHall #ArabArt #IslamicArt #VictorianArt #TheBardAndTheRawi by @bardandrawi
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16 days ago
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Thrilled to experience first institutional solo exhibition in Europe of artist Mohammad Alfaraj at Delfina Foundation in London today. It was a pleasure to learn about #MohammedAlfarajโ€™s practice and to understand how he expresses the concepts of memory and time in his art work. You must catch it @delfinafdn if you can! I will be interviewing Mohammed soon for a feature in #TheBardAndTheRawi ๐Ÿ’— by @bardandrawi
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19 days ago
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The Creative Toolkit: Your Resource for Growth Consider this your essential support pillar. The Creative Toolkit curates the tools you need to thrive: funding guidelines, upcoming competitions, and practical cross-cultural communication guidesโ€”all designed to empower artists and institutions within the UK-Arab |SWANA creative ecosystem. Your growth, powered by our curation. https://thebardandtherawi.com/category/resources/ by @bardandrawi
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23 days ago
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โ“ What's the best advice you've received about sustaining an artistic practice? ๐ŸŽจ @ramzimallatstudio : On Crafting Authenticity & Presenting One's Truth "Be deeply delusional in what you're trying to make and what your actual journey is. If you have that deeply locked in, you're like Teflonโ€”nothing's going to touch you." Lebanese artist Ramzi Mallat shares candid, practical wisdom for artists navigating the art world. His advice: ๐ŸŽจ On responsibility: "I want to separate the artist from the civically engaged citizen. The artist is not the answer. To be an artist is to make art, think and feel profoundly." ๐ŸŽจ On rejection: "Be comfortable with rejectionโ€”and not just comfortable, embrace it and respond to it. Fight for whatever you believe is your truth." ๐ŸŽจ On practice: "Your practice is the only thing that's going to sustain you. If you can sit fully committed with your own practice every day, it's the biggest love story." ๐ŸŽจ On staying in one lane: "Get comfortable with the unknown. Try as many different things as possible." ๐ŸŽจ On institutions: "Arab staff, that's the most important one. There are plenty of highly qualified people from the region, but barely any are in positions of power." ๐Ÿ”Š๐Ÿ“–Read & Listen to the full Q&A at the link in bio https://thebardandtherawi.com/practical-advice-from-ramzi-mallat/ #LebaneseArtist #ArtistAdvice #AdviceForArtists #ContemporaryArt #ArabArtists by @bardandrawi
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23 days ago
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๐ŸŽฌ Soudade Kaadan: Practical Wisdom from an Independent Filmmaker "Just make your film. Don't wait for permission. You're not a filmmaker until you have a film." Soudade Kaadanโ€”award-winning Syrian filmmaker (Venice, Sundance)โ€”shares candid, hard-won advice for aspiring filmmakers navigating the realities of independent production. Get Her key wisdom: ๐ŸŽฅ On finding resources ๐ŸŽฅ On developing filmmaking skills ๐ŸŽฅ On developing a story ๐ŸŽฅ On pitching ๐ŸŽฅ On the filmmaker mindset Her filmography includes The Day I Lost My Shadow (Venice Lion of the Future), Aziza (Sundance Grand Jury Prize), and Nezouh (Venice Audience Award). ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen to the full Q&A at the link in bio. https://thebardandtherawi.com/ssoudade-kaadan-independent-filmmaker-advice/ #SoudadeKaadan #IndependentFilm #Filmmaking #SyrianFilm #TheBardAndTheRawi โ“ ๐Ÿง What's the best piece of practical advice you've received as a creative, and who gave it to you? Comment Below ๐Ÿ‘‡ by @bardandrawi
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a month ago
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๐Ÿ›๏ธ Bridging Worlds in Tile and Paint: The Arab Influence on Leighton House Frederic Leighton (1830โ€“1896), Victorian artist and President of the Royal Academy did not just think outside the box. He thought outside the frame. Rather than confining his art to canvases, the Victorian artist transformed his house-studio into art itself - a space where the boundary between home and creativity blurred. From the outside, Leighton House on Holland Park Road is unassuming, even plain. But inside, it holds one of London's most treasured spaces: the Arab Hall. Adorned with tiles from Damascus, ceramics from across the Ottoman Empire, and intricate Islamic patterns, the Arab Hall is a testament to Leighton's travels and his deep engagement with Arab art. Since its completion in 1881, the Arab Hall has been a place of discovery, debate, and contemplation. Today, the exhibition The Arab Hall: Past and Present invites us to reflect on its significance in our own time. โœจ The exhibition runs until 4 October 2026. ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen to the full article at the link in bio. https://thebardandtherawi.com/the-arab-influence-on-leighton-house/ #LeightonHouse, #ArabHall, #FredericLeighton, #VictorianArt, #IslamicArt โœ๐ŸŽจ๐ŸŽฅ๐ŸŽญ๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿ“š The Bard and The Rawi; home for artists, writers & institutions shaping art, literature & culture in the UK and the MENA/ SWANA region. ๐Ÿ“ฃ Follow Us And Subscribe To the Dialogue ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen - Text to Audio Feature Have you visited Leighton House? What did the Arab Hall make you feel? Did you recognise the Arab influences in the Victorian home? Comment Below ๐Ÿ‘‡ by @bardandrawi
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a month ago
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๐Ÿ“– The Arab Hall and the Weight of History: An Interview with Dr Melanie Gibson For over a century, the Arab Hall at Leighton House has held visitors in awe. But for Dr Melanie Gibson, it held something more: a mystery. "When I became a trustee, I started to interrogate the space more closely. The more I looked, the more I questioned how it was put together." Her new book, The Arab Hall: Frederic Leighton, Traveller and Collector, is the culmination of years of research into this extraordinary space - a Victorian artist's home adorned with Damascene tiles, Arabic inscriptions, and a complex colonial history. In this interview, Dr Gibson unpacks: ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Leighton's genuine engagement with the Arab world ๐Ÿ›๏ธ The challenge of translating and contextualising the Quranic inscriptions ๐Ÿ›๏ธ The fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation ๐Ÿ›๏ธ The anonymous Syrian artisans whose work adorns the walls "I can breathe deeper. I find incredible, emotional nourishment." ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen to the full, fascinating interview at the link in bio https://thebardandtherawi.com/melanie-gibson-arab-hall-interview/ โœ๐ŸŽจ๐ŸŽฅ๐ŸŽญ๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿ“š The Bard and The Rawi; home for artists, writers & institutions shaping art, literature & culture in the UK and the Arab/ SWANA region. ๐Ÿ“ฃ Follow Us And Subscribe To the Dialogue ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen - Text to Audio Feature @melgib1 @leightonsambournemuseums How do we balance appreciating historical art collections with acknowledging their colonial origins? Comment Below #LeightonHouse #FredericLeighton #TheArabHallBook #IslamicArt #VictorianArt by @bardandrawi
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a month ago
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๐ŸŽจ Atlas of An Entangled Gaze: A Conversation with Ramzi Mallat. "A lot of people told me it feels like it was always there, and I like the fact that I was able to form an eerie presence in the Arab Hall and reshuffle the power dynamics within the space." Ramzi Mallat is a Lebanese artist whose work blends contemporary practice with cultural heritage. His installation for Leighton House's Arab Hall - Atlas of An Entangled Gaze - was a cascading fountain of over 7,500 glazed ceramic discs, suspended above the hall's pool. It was a constellation of blue forms that reflected and refracted the room's luminous surfaces. But it was more than beautiful. It was a reckoning. Mallat's work sits at the intersection of memory, identity, and resistance. From his early guerrilla coffee project in Lebanonโ€”serving coffee to strangers to understand his country - to his memorial for the Beirut port blast victims, Not Your Martyr, his art forces us to look, to question, to feel. "I produced this work so that I could finally allow the space to speak, because I felt like it was aching to do so." ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen to the full, extraordinary conversation at the link in bio https://thebardandtherawi.com/ramzi-mallat-entangled-gaze-interview/ @ramzimallatstudio @leightonsambournemuseums #TheBardAndTheRawi, VictorianArt, #ArabArt, #LebaneseArtist, #ContemporaryArt โœ๐ŸŽจ๐ŸŽฅ๐ŸŽญ๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿ“š The Bard and The Rawi; home for artists, writers & institutions shaping art, literature & culture in the UK and the Arab/ SWANA region. ๐Ÿ“ฃ Follow Us And Subscribe To the Dialogue ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen - Text to Audio Feature What does it mean to 'reshuffle the power dynamics' of a space through art? Share a piece that has done that for you. Comment Below ๐Ÿ‘‡ by @bardandrawi
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a month ago
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๐ŸŽฌ The Voice Behind the Tiles: @soudade_kaadan "I felt very emotional, recognising things from home, at a time when I wasn't allowed to go back to Syria, and never thought I would be able to see Syria again." Soudade Kaadan is an award-winning Syrian film director and screenwriter. Her debut feature, The Day I Lost My Shadow (2018), won the Lion of the Future Award at Venice. Her short Aziza won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Her second feature, Nezouh (2022), won the Audience Award at Venice, making her the only Arab woman director to have won two awards in Venice. Now based in London, Kaadan has created a short film for Leighton House's Arab Hall: When The Tiles Spoke. "The tiles had made a journey they did not choose. They too had been lifted from their place, carried across distances, set into walls far from where they began. I was also here, in London, carrying a world inside me that I could not return to." Thank you Soudade for allowing me to tell your story โค๐Ÿ™ โœจ Catch a special screening on 10 September 2026 at #LeightonHouse, followed by a panel discussion. ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen to the full in-depth interview only in the Bard & the Rawi: https://thebardandtherawi.com/soudade-kaadan-award-winning-syrian-film-director-and-screenwriter/ #SoudadeKaadan #SyrianFilm #ArabHall #TheBardAndTheRawi @leightonsambournemuseums โœ๐ŸŽจ๐ŸŽฅ๐ŸŽญ๐ŸŽถ๐Ÿ“š The Bard and The Rawi; home for artists, writers & institutions shaping art, literature & culture in the UK and the Arab/ SWANA region. ๐Ÿ“ฃ Follow Us And Subscribe To the Dialogue ๐Ÿ“– ๐Ÿ”Š Read or Listen - Text to Audio Feature What does it mean to reclaim stories of objects, of places, of home through film? Comment Below ๐Ÿ‘‡ by @bardandrawi
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a month ago
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