Join us as we commemorate 3rd anniversary of the genocide, the ongoing nakba in Palestine and southern Lebanon.
Date: October 4, 2026, 6:45pm
As we celebrate the excellence of Palestine's and Lebanon's creatives, we also take a moment to pay tribute to our martyrs, our storytellers, our resisters, our rescuers and healers.
Poetry and song will be shared in their honour as we gather in community to reflect, grieve, uplift and re-commit to ending Canadian complicity in the oppression of Palestinians and Lebanese, and Arabs across the broader region. United we will persevere.
Performers: Musicians Hytham Farah (oud), Naghmeh Farahmand (percussion), and Isa Fara (cello). Featuring poets Sarra Malek and Roula Said.
Bios
Hytham Farah is a classically trained Palestinian oud player based in Toronto. Drawing from the musical traditions of the Levant and Egypt, as well as classical and contemporary Palestinian compositions, his work explores the oud through both traditional and modern arrangements. He leads Qalbi Basha, an Arabic jazz and Tarab project, and regularly collaborates with artists and community initiatives across the GTA, including performances and fundraisers in support of Palestine. Follow Hytham’s music and collaborations on Instagram @hytham_farah, and Qalbi Basha at @qalbibasha.
Naghmeh Farahmand is an internationally acclaimed Persian percussionist based in Toronto. She began her musical journey in Iran under the guidance of her father, master percussionist Mahmoud Farahmand, and has performed across Europe, Asia, and North America. Since moving to Canada in 2010, she has released three albums: Unbound, A Tale of Two Cities, and Refuge. Her collaborations include Tafelmusik Orchestra, Toronto Consort, Amici Ensemble, and David Buchbinder’s The Roots of Andalucia. Her international performances include Walt Disney Concert Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Yale University. In 2025, she was a Grammy Award winner for her performance on Immersed. She also teaches and leads workshops internationally.
isa farah is a transsexual agent of chaos, cellist, composer, and agitator in Toronto's diasporic and improvised music scene. She plays heart-forward music inspired by the Iranian Radif and contemporary improvisation, with a sprinkle of pop and a dash of soft-ferality. She once thought her practice was centered on grief, but now thinks of it more simply: as offering permission to feel. An ex-academic turned bimbo, she is currently in the midst of a fellowship exploring femininity as a form of resistance in Iranian music through a transfeminist lens.
Sarra Malek is a Palestinian poet, writer, editor and spoken word performer living in the diaspora. She is co-editor of an anthology of Arab feminist writings called Min Fami: Arab feminist reflections on identity, space and resistance published by Inanna Publications in 2015, and 4 print zines called AQSAZine showcasing Muslim young women voices in Toronto, Canada. She is also a creative writing educator, workshop facilitator, and spoken word poet and band member of Haneen Biladi, along with other Palestinian-Canadian musicians. She is currently writing a fiction novel called Al-Watan about young Palestinian woman, Areen, who is on the search for the meaning of home after being displaced from her grandfather’s house in Nablus in the West Bank. She is also working on compiling her spoken word poetry in a collection called Poetical Thawra.
Roula Said is a Palestinian-Canadian artist based in Toronto. As a musician and poet, Roula sings and plays qanun, piano and percussion to accompany original songs created from Palestinian poetry and her sufi-inspired poems. She also sings traditional Arabic songs with her women’s drums and voice band, Tabiba. As an actor, she has appeared on stage in Suvendreni Lena’s play, Rubble and on screen in Ruba Nada’s charming and long-running, Sabah. For the last 2 years on May 15, Roula and Suvendreni have produced a 24 Hour Poetry Vigil commemorating the Nakba at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. With a history in dance and movement, Roula is a member of Wild Soma Collective, exploring embodiment as a world-making practice and an architecture connecting us to ourselves, each other and all of life.
