Liverpool Arab Arts Festival unveils new events

This year's LAAF launches with groundbreaking theatre piece Queens of Syria at the Everyman Theatre. Queens of Syria is a multimedia adaptation of Euripides' Greek tragedy The Trojan Women created by a group of 60 Syrian women living as refugees in Jordan – the project was the subject of a documentary of the same name by filmmaker Yasmin Fedda which screened at the 2015 Glasgow Film Festival. Watch our interview with Fedda on the project here.

Bluecoat plays host to Love, Bombs & Apples – the new play from Iraqi playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak – while A day in the life of war at FACT features a documentary on the conflict in Yemen produced by young people from Liverpool Arabic Centre; the same venue hosts a screening of Palestinian drag racing documentary Speed Sisters.

The new additions join a line-up featuring new work from painter and illustrator Nazir Tanbouli, a double bill of Egyptian contemporary dance, and a family day of Arab music at Sefton Park. 

Announcing the new events, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival chair Taher Qassim said: "While the themes and content of the work in this year’s festival are diverse – from heart-wrenching personal stories, to humorous approaches to contentious issues, they are all unified by the fact that art in all its forms can help to promote an understanding and appreciation of different cultures – and that is what LAAF is all about.”

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2016 takes place at venues across the city from 15-24 July.