This year we are very excited to present a youth writing workshop with the esteemed Ibtisam Barakat, an award-winning, Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator.

About the workshop:

Write Your Life workshop is a creative social change platform focusing on the powerful art of writing as a tool for an expansive understanding. Participants are offered a creative environment to experiment with their genuine voices, speak and listen, and share personal stories toward building a more inclusive and representative book of humanity.

About Ibtisam Barakat:

Ibtisam Barakat is an award-winning, Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator, based in the US. She publishes in both English and Arabic—her memoirs, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood (2007), and Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine (2016), received considerable critical acclaim. Her poems, essays and short stories have appeared in magazines including The Nation, Wasafiri and the Washington Post. She won a 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for illustrated children’s book Al-Fatah Al-Laylakeyyah (The Lilac Girl), her sixth book for younger readers. You can watch her TEDx talk about her transformative and cross-cultural love for language ("Songs of my foreign accent") on YouTube.

Help us celebrate our closing night and join us for a jam session with Toronto-based singers Hala Ayyad and Murshed Khalid featuring your favourite Arabic songs.

This performance will also feature bassist Rocky Haddad, percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand, pianist Johnny Bahri, guitarist Edward Tarzi, violinist Eddy Suleiman and Majd Sukar on clarinet.

Hala Ayyad is a Canadian-Palestinian singer based in Toronto. She has always had a profound appreciation for Arabic music of different genres, and believes that music is truly the best form of expression no matter the dialect or genre.

Murshed Khalid is a Toronto-based artist who sings mainly sufi and Classical Arabic music among others. He’s a member of the Canadian Arabic orchestra choir and he founded in 2019 his own music ensemble, Hikaya Project.

Co-presented by Sitti Soap

Although we'll miss hosting you at our annual Sahtain! Palestinian Brunch, we're so thrilled to present a live chat with the one and only, Mirna Bamieh. The Palestinian artist and chef is the founder of Palestine Hosting Society, a live art project that explores traditional food culture in Palestine especially those that are on the verge of disappearing.

The project brings these dishes back to life over dinner tables, talks, walks, and various interventions.

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Performers: Rafeef Ziadah, Phil Monsour

Rafeef Ziadah and Phil Monsour present a selection of poems, with original music compositions, from their new album Three Generations. Recorded for TPFF while under lockdown, the sequence of linked poems is a deeply moving, powerful, personal remembrance. It is also a beautiful testament to the human spirit, to 'love and joy against skies of steel'.

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Co-presented by MARSM UK

As we witness in TPFF’s film The Journey of the Others, many artists and artistic productions representing Palestinian narratives are facing cancellations and other silencing tactics across the West. The attacks take various forms from rescinding awards, venue cancellations, withdrawal of funding, smear campaigns and interference with the proposed work.

As Ontario is poised to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism - a definition that includes criticism of Israel in its examples of anti-semitism - will arts organizations, funders and venues be fearful of supporting art related to Palestine? This panel will explore these implications and other attempts to suppress Palestinian arts and culture, and artists who support Palestinian human rights. It will further explore why the arts are increasingly becoming a focal point of attack and creative strategies to stave off attempts to erase Palestinians in this sector.

Panellists:

Jamelie Hassan, multidisciplinary artist, lecturer, writer and independent curator

Toleen Touq, Artistic Director of the South Asian Visual Arts Centre

Azeezah Kanji, legal scholar, writer and Director of Programming at the Noor Cultural Centre.

Corey Balsam, National Coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices

Moderator: Reem Bahdi, professor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law

Complementary to this panel are four sessions scheduled throughout the festival with artists who are using their crafts to fight the erasure of Palestinian cultural and traditions through their modern day revivals. Please join our sessions with artist Samar Hejazi (embroidery), fashion designer Rami Kashou, artist Mirna Bamieh (food) and Samaa Wakeem w/ Mohammed Samahneh (dance).

Panellists:

Jamelie Hassan is a visual artist and activist based in London, Ontario. Since the 1970's, she has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally. She is also active as a lecturer, writer and independent curator. In 2001 she was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts. In 1993 she received the “Canada 125 ” Medal for outstanding community service. Her commitment to community and public space has involved highly diverse sites. She has served as a member of advisory panels and art juries for the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and she served as a member on the advisory committee for the “Minister’s Forum on Culture & Diversity”.

Toleen Touq, Artistic Director at SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) is a curator, cultural producer and writer. Previously based out of Amman, Jordan, she co-founded “Spring Sessions” an annual learning residency program for artists, scholars and cultural practitioners. She also initiated “The River Has Two Banks” a multi-disciplinary platform that addresses the historical, political and mobility commonalities between Jordan and Palestine. Her writings have been published with Ibraaz, A Prior,Manifesta Journal and others, and she is the recipient of numerous international fellowships.

Azeezah Kanji is a legal academic and writer. She received her JD from University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, and Masters of Law specializing in Islamic Law from the SOAS, University of London. Azeezah’s work focuses on issues relating to racism, law, and social justice. Her writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, OpenDemocracy, and various academic anthologies and journals.

Corey Balsam is a writer, activist and National Coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices Canada. He has a master’s in Sociology and Equity Studies in Education from OISE/University of Toronto and is the co-author of a recently published journal article on the impacts of Palestinian political detention on the children of detainees. Corey spent nearly four years living in Ramallah, where he worked for Oxfam and at Birzeit University, and co-founded the Capoeira Freedom Collective - Palestine. ijvcanada.org

Reem Bahdi, is an author, researcher, and human rights expert, with particular expertise in the human rights of Arabs and Muslims in Canada. As Canada’s first tenured Palestinian-Canadian law professor, she is an associate professor at Windsor Law and a visiting professor at Birzeit University. She helped introduce a mandatory access to justice course at Windsor Law in 2003 and served as the law school’s Associate Dean 2012-2015. She was the co-Director of KARAMAH, The Project on Judicial Independence and Human Dignity; and Editor-in-Chief of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice. She has served as an expert witness, in legal proceedings involving Canadian-Muslim rights and national security.

Co-presented by Embassy Cultural House

Join us on Friday night for a special online performance brought to you the up-and-coming duo, Zenobia. Share this musical experience with your friends and dance your night away to the best electro beats. The group which was formed in Haifa was inspired by Zenobia, the Queen of Palmyra, who lived and ruled the Levant region and Egypt in the third century AD. Zenobia Group includes Nasser Halahlih (Compute and Synthesizer) and Isam Elias (Keyboards and Synthesizer).

Zenobia Electronic Music Group incorporates Arabic pop melodies of the Levant area passing through Palestine down to North Africa with electronic beats. Zenobia incorporates rhythms and groovy electronic productions along with popular Syrian and Palestinian Dabke (traditional dance) and in addition to Egyptian beats and atmosphere.

Credits:
Zenobia Live from Kabareet-Haifa, Palestine.
Video By: Rfic Sada

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Co-presented by KUVRD

Curated by Samaa Wakeem & Mohammed Samahneh

We have the privilege of hosting Palestinian dance performers, who have merged forces and joined us from all over Palestine for a special tribute to the late, Ayman Safieh. Curated by Samaa Wakeem and Mohammad Samahneh

Ayman Safieh was a 29-year-old renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, artist and activist who participated in local and international performances, using his art to raise social and political consciousness. His contributions to Palestinian and global arts and culture have changed us forever, and we are grateful. In May 2020, Ayman Safieh passed away in tragic circumstances, leaving a deep imprint on the many people who knew and loved him.

This series of works is a tribute to Ayman’s work and legacy collected and performed by friends and colleagues who will forever “keep moving” in his memory. This special piece is curated by Samaa Wakeem and M. Mohamed .Barges ,and is inspired by the time and journey they experienced with their dear friend that was taken way too soon, Ayman Safieh. The piece reclaims happy, humorous and special moments they shared together.

Part 1:

Video dance “This place"

The piece marks a place as a space that holds life, memories, hopes, disappointments, aspirations, experiences, moments of anguish and joy. A place brimming with sounds of life, of the spirits that inhabited it in the not so distant past. A place full of colors, tastes, and smells. A place where the shadows of the bodies that lived in it still float, trying to go back to the moment before they froze forever. The work moves along a temporal and spatial axis between the past and the present, dance and life. The video dance was worked on in the old city of Nazareth.

The company Shaden Dance Company for Contemporary Dance includes Palestinian dancers between the ages of 18-27. The company strives to be a home for Palestinian dancers who have chosen to specialize in the field of dance and will open a track that will enrich them as artists.

Shaden’s company aims to create a connection with the general public, to perform in public spaces, to put dance at the center, and to stimulate the subject of the body in the political, social, cultural, artistic, and of course in the aesthetic sense.

The founder Shaden Abu Elasal is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She lives and works in Nazareth, where she established a set of educational programs and projects surrounding dance. The rationale that guides her is the desire to develop the arts of dance with an emphasis on Arab society, creating a free space for the school’s students, professional development, and specialized accompaniment in the field of performing arts and dance. She has earned a bachelor's degree in dance from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (2001). Established and directed the Aida Contemporary Ballet and Dance School, through the Almedina Association which she also initiated. In 2019, she founded the Shaden Dance Company, a professional dance troupe

Part 2:

In may 2020 our beloved Ayman Safiah passes away in tragic circumstances. Ayman (29) was an internationally renowned Palestinian dancer and choreographer who left a deep imprint during his life nd career on many people around the world.

This series of works is a tribute to Ayman’s work and legacy collected and performed by friends and colleagues who will forever “keep moving” for his memory

1- Noah:

Noah, choreographed by Samar Haddad Haddad King and performed by Ayman Safiah, layers themes of love, courage and regret, as one man looks back at his choices. With original text by Samar Haddad King and Sean King, Noah explores sentiments both comical and touching; spanning the depth of a personal history to investigate the moments that make us who we are.

SAMAR HADDAD KING (PALESTINE)

Samar Haddad King, Artistic/Founding Director of Yaa Samar! Dance theatre earned her BFA in choreography at Ailey/Fordham under the tutelage of Kazuko Hirabayashi. King has been commissioned throughout the US and Arab World by Hubbard Street 2 (Chicago, USA); Palest’In and Out Festival (Paris, France); Palestinian Museum (Birzeit, Palestine) and others. She is a 2019/20 Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, and co-authored a chapter on dance in the Arab World for the 2nd edition of Contemporary Choreography (Routledge, January 2018). King recently choreographed a musical theater production, We Live in Cairo, Book, Music and Lyrics by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour, produced by American Repertory Theater (Boston).

2- In Memory

Marah Zoabi - Dancer/ performer (Palestine).

Zoabi was trained as a dancer at Al-Amal Dance School, Nazareth. She is a member of the Al Amal Dance School مدرسة الامل للرقص المعاصر company. In 2014, Zoabi joined YSDT for Bound creation where she toured with it locally and internationally. Zoabi took part in different Palestinian and international dance projects and creation, among all: Alqatan Foundation - Ramallah, The Place dance school - London, Les Ballet C de la B- Brussels, Edas - Salzburg.

3- Exit.

This short solo is inspired by the intro of BADKE performance, where Ayman and Yazan opened the performance with a duo on a big stage, Yazan recreates this intro doing it by himself with Ayman'S shadow, presence and sound, commemorating this moment to salute caymans exit from this physical world into a world that would always exist in our minds, souls and memories.

Yazan Iwidat
Choreographer and Dancer from Palestine
Based in Brussels Belgium

Yazan Iwidat is a dancer and choreographer, who has been working professionally in the field of dance and choreography since 2009. He has followed dance classes since the age of 7 in traditional Palestinian dance and then in contemporary dance at Sareyyet Ramallah Dance Company in Palestine. Iwidat has been trained by international choreographers in different dance techniques such as Flying Low, release technique, floor work, Graham, Horton, Contact Improvisation and M&B. He performed in local and international projects, such as the KVS (Keffeyeh/Made in China) and Les Ballets C de la B (Badke) in Belgium, with Sijilholm/Christopherson company (Area Y) in Norway. He started choreographing in 2014, his first performance, Empty Head, was created within the Eye on Palestine Festival in Belgium and Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival in Palestine. In 2016, Iwidat choreographed his second piece, Running Away, within an artistic residency at Khashabi Theatre مسرح خشبة in Haifa, Palestine.

4- “The Last Act”

In his funeral people welcomed his body with applause as if he were performing for the last time and before taking him off stage people started to clap very loud trying to keep this show going on, not surrendering to the fact that this is his last act.

In this short piece, we try to remember years of working together, five days of searching in the sea and all the memories in between.

SAMAA WAKIM (Palestine, Mi’ilya village, Galilee)

Samaa Wakim graduated from the acting department in Haifa University. She has performed in various local and international plays such as I am Yusuf and This is My Brother a co-production of the ShiberHur - a Palestinian theatre group - and the Young Vic theatre in London 2009; The Beloved, a co-production of ShiberHur and the Bush Theater in London, 2012; Exit, Khashabi ensemble Palestine, 2011-2012; and in various film projects such as the social media video If I Go Back in Time, 2013 and In your absence 2014. Dance credits include choreography (and acting) for Cabaret at Khashabi theatre 2018; and performance in Badke, a co-production between KVS, le ballets C de la B & A.M. Qattan Foundation and directed by Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres & Hildegard De Vuyest 2012-2017; Modern Curses (choreography and performing), 2019; and with Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre since 2014. Samaa was the Assistant Director and performer for Min Tala- a pan Arab dance company - in 2016, and Production Manager of HIFF (Haifa independent film festival), 2018-19.

MOHAMMED SMAHNEH (M. Mohamed .Barges) (Palestine, Askar refugee camp)

Mohammed has won various break-dance battles in Palestine and been involved in many international and local projects including Badke, a co-production between KVS, le ballets C de la B & A.M. Qattan Foundation and directed by Koen Augustijnen, Rosalba Torres & Hildegard De Vuyest (2013-16 Brussels, Belgium and international tours); Nomads Dance Camp directed by Dina Abu Hamdan with choreographers Jorge Cercis, Taoufiq Izzediou, and Samar Haddad King (2014, Jordan); Naji alli with Botega Dance Company directed by Enzo Celli (2009, Italy); Floor wars Battle champion (2012; Copenhagen, Denmark); The Playground by YSDT directed by Samar Haddad King (2013, Palestine and 2018, Belgium); and festivals in Spain and Greece touring Palestinian traditional dance (2004-2005).

5- “When tables will turn”

تريز سليمان | Terez Sliman is an independent Palestinian singer and songwriter. Her lyrics mirror her belief of focusing on the tiny details, in an attempt to keep on proclaiming the outstanding value of Beauty for the sake of Beauty.

Special thanks:
The palestinian circus school
Khashabi Theatre
Yaa Samar! Dance theatre
Juna Suleiman - Editing
Alla Aliabdallah - Regash Photography

Co-presented by KUVRD

Designer Rami Kashou
Live Studio Visit

Toronto Palestine Film Festival visits Palestinian fashion designer Rami Kashou in his New York studio - a rare glimpse into the world of high fashion. We will chat with Rami about his designs, and the stories they tell with his use of Palestinian textile, embroidery and shapes. From gowns to masks, Rami’s creations reinterpret Palestine’s traditional designs for a modern time.

Hailing from Ramallah, Rami Kashou’s groundbreaking feminine designs attract many high profile celebrities to his New York fashion week runway shows. He was also a fan favourite as the runner-up in season 4 of Bravo’s Project Runway and again on Project Runway: All Stars. Last year, his designs were featured at an exhibition celebrating Palestinian embroidery at the United Nations.

Zaina Arafat moderated by George Abraham

Toronto Palestine Film Festival starts with an author talk and book launch with the critically-acclaimed Palestinian writer Zaina Arafat and her debut novel “You Exist too Much” moderated by poet George Abraham.

This captivating coming of age story, that has topped must-read lists, follows a young queer Palestinian-American woman as she moves between her life in the Middle East and the US, from youth to adulthood and her longing for love and a place to call home.

Zaina Arafat is an LGBTQ Arab/Muslim-American fiction and nonfiction writer. She is the author of the novel, You Exist Too Much, which was selected as a most anticipated book for 2020 by O, The Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America, Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Granta, The Believer, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor, BuzzFeed, VICE, Guernica, Literary Hub and NPR. In recognition of her work, she was awarded the Arab Women/Migrants from the Middle East fellowship at Jack Jones Literary Arts. She holds an M.A. in international affairs from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from Iowa. She lives in Brooklyn and is currently at work on a collection of essays.

George Abraham is the author of Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020), and the chapbooks: the specimen’s apology (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019) and al youm (TAR, 2017).

You Exist Too Much

On a hot day in Bethlehem, a twelve-year-old Palestinian American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter.

Told in vignettes that flash between the United States and the Middle East—from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine—Zaina Arafat’s debut novel traces her protagonist’s progress from blushing teen to sought-after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as “love addiction.” In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her.

Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings—for love and a place to call home.

To purchase the book
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Some of the raving reviews

"[A] provocative and seductive debut . . . Novels like these don't exist enough." ―O, The Oprah Magazine, 1 of 31 LGBTQ Books That'll Change the Literary Landscape This Year

"This story about love, identity, gender and family is brilliantly written and questions the effects of maternal love." ―Good Morning America, 25 Novels You'll Want to Read this Summer

"For anyone who’s ever felt their body or identity takes up too much space, this deeply affecting story of doubt and and love is a gut-punch and a solace." ―ELLE, The 30 Most Anticipated New Books of Summer

“You exist too much,” a young Palestinian-American girl’s mother tells her, and the rest of the novel functions as a repudiation of that phrase."―VOGUE, 7 New Books to Read While You’re Stuck at Home This June

"You Exist Too Much tells the story of a bisexual Palestinian-American girl whose romantic obsessions and self-destructive impulses lead her to an unconventional treatment center called The Ledge, where she must reckon with the traumas that she has inherited from the places and people who raised her." ―Harper's Bazaar, 14 LGBTQ Books to Look For in 2020

"The unnamed protagonist of Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, a bisexual Palestinian-American DJ with literary ambitions, finds herself caught between several poles: her two countries; virtue and desire; family and personal ambition." ―TIME, 45 New Books You Need to Read This Summer

Awards

Most anticipated book for 2020 by O, The Oprah Magazine, Good Morning America, Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaa

zainaarafat.com
gabrahampoet.com

Co-presented by Another Story Bookshop