Interest area: culture

Port Cities Symposium

Join Liverpool Arab Arts Festival for an immersive day featuring talks, performances and screenings led by Port Cities artists Mohamed Abdelkarim, Laila Hida, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Siska, and featuring special guests. Delve into the themes and concepts that have inspired their work for the project.

Contributions will include:

Mohamed Abdelkarim’s Blue Gaze At The Future is an audiovisual performance, composed through text-based scripted materials, radio drama playback, and visual materials to structure a narrative play-like, embodied in a performance-lecture.

Laila Hida screens her video work Into the Maw of the Spectacle (2024)

Siska will present his PORT FICTION project and its new relationship to Liverpool. PORT FICTION is an interdisciplinary artistic research project on the relationship between the port cities of Beirut and Hamburg. On a multimedia website, the works of all different artists are interwoven into a collective overall composition.

Port Cities is in partnership with British Council – MENA. 

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival: At Home ...

Join Liverpool Arab Arts Festival at the Bluecoat for a screening of At Home in Gaza and London, which follows the lives of people living in two locations separated by great political, economic and physical divides.

Mon 15 Jul, 6pm – 8pm

In 2016 a group of artistic collaborators in Gaza and London began a series of digital workshops as an alternative means to defy the blockade.

Out of the exchanges emerged a theatre piece where they appear together in a single space shared by audiences in both cities. The last live performances were in July 2018, connecting El Wedad Theatre with Battersea Arts Centre and the Everyman Theatre as part of LAAF’s 2018 festival in Liverpool.

At Home in Gaza and London follows the lives of people living in two locations separated by great political, economic, and physical divides. By using a mix of live-streaming and recorded video, a single performance space is created where artists work together. They occupy each other’s homes, streets and other social spaces. Sharing their everyday behaviour and concerns, as they dissolve into each other or become ghostly protagonists in the drama.

Many of the collaborators in the production are still living in Gaza. They have lost family members, friends, colleagues, and homes. One of them, Ayah Abdulrahman died of cancer in 2019, having received intermittent yet insufficient treatment due to the blockade on Gaza. All of the studios and theatres we worked in have been destroyed.

The event will share messages from the Gazan team and will try to connect to those we can live.

All ticket sales will go towards the project’s collaborators who are trying to survive unimaginable circumstances. Before the bombardment, disabled dancer Walid Tafesh was leading one of the few workshop programmes for children in Jabalia, North Gaza. Walid hopes to resume his work when it is possible.

Tickets: £11.55

Knowsley Arts Project Celebration Even...

The Knowsley Arts Project has been running since September 2023 thanks to management from One Knowsley, and funding from Arts Council England, Improving Me and Renova.

Three arts organisations have been delivering sessions which have rotated around Huyton, Halewood and Kirkby and they’d love to share with you what they’ve learned and what they’ve shared together.

Their aim was to offer multidisciplinary creative outlets for women in the perinatal period; to give them tools to support their own health and wellbeing.

They offered:

  • A book club called Reading Folk with Creative Spaces
  • A singing for wellbeing group with Singing Mamas
  • Creative storytelling sessions with Dramatic Recovery

Their celebration event will happen as follows:

Friday 19th July

Shakespeare North Playhouse

12.30pm: tour of theatre (must be pre-booked)

1pm – 2pm: lunch (provided)

2pm – 3pm: sharing from some mums about their experiences

The Boy King

On his lunch break, Jordan can’t help sneaking into the museum store room to explore…but it’s not long before he’s carried away on an ancient expedition of immersive storytelling and imagination.

An autobiographical, vibrant and educational one man show celebrating 100 years since the discovery of Tutenkhamun’s Tomb. Get to know The Boy King, the team who excavated his tomb and Jordan – A boy whose love of history transformed his life growing up with Autism.

Packed with playful characters, fun and facts, this relaxed performance is perfect for families, lovers of history and Neurodivergent audiences.

Running time: 45 minutes
Recommended: Age 7+
Pay what you decide: £3+
Relaxed performance: Low lighting will be kept in the auditorium. Feel free to move around, make noise and leave and re-enter as necessary.

Rumpelstiltskin

Get ready to meet Rumpelstiltskin – a crafty creature with a knack for spinning gold!

Join Altru Drama for a new adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin – perfect for the whole family.  Betsy and her dad the Miller are struggling to make ends meet, but a chance meeting with the foolish and greedy King Jacob thrusts them into a world of weaving, spinning and gold.  Can Betsy spin the gold and save herself? Of course not! But Rumpelstiltskin can!

Featuring live original songs, audience participation and loads of fun, this new performance will have you in a spin this summer!

Approximate running time: 40mins

Age: Children aged 3- 11 and their families

Unity Variety Night Fundraiser

Join Unity Theatre for a fun night of comedy, music, dance and short work from a range of amazing local artists.

Hosted by their associate company RAWD. Every penny they raise on the night will be going back into the pocket of our  artist development programme.

The amazing line-up includes, Nana Funk & The Varifocal, Legions of Doom, Hope Street Harmonies, The Corvids and Impro Fest.

If you are interested in getting to know more likeminded artists in their community then join them for an Artist Networking session before the fundraiser kicks off from 6-7:30pm.

The Nova Effect 2124

“Don’t press that big red button!”
…

“I pressed the big red button.”

When Mr Peter’s science class accidentally travels 100 years into the future, they end up in a world where the line between human and robot is blurred.

This tech world glitters with bright new gadgets and the class is buzzing to explore!

But between annoying AdBots, daily reports of extreme weather, and extinctions, something’s not quite right.

Will the class make it home? Are robots and humans all that different? What does it even mean to be human?

Join 20 Stories High Youth Theatre for a funny, adrenaline-driven adventure with lots of live music, stunning projections, movement, and drama! Supported by Unity Theatre.

Their Friday 26 July show will feature a Curtain Raiser from the boss young people from Deaf Active. Friday’s show will finish later as a result.

There will also be a Post-Show Party after Friday’s show!

Credits

Director & Writer: Bradley Thompson

Producer: Nathan Powell

Dramaturg: Keith Saha

Video Design & Creative Captions: Sarah Readman

Music Support: Paislie Reid

Movement Support: Eli Randle

Lighting Design & Technician: Xenia Bayer

Stage Manager: Jordan Barnes

Youth & Access worker: Donna Coleman

Pastoral Support Workers: Leonisha Barley & Catherine Ainsworth

Work Placement Student: Jess Cowie

Supported by the 20 Stories High and Unity Team.

Urban Sketch and Zine Making

Join Liverpool Independent Art School as they explore the historic Rialto area of Toxteth and draw the fascinating architecture to produce a zine as a visual diary of the day.

Materials supplied.

Arab Film Night: At The Library x LAAF

Join Liverpool Arab Arts Festival and At The Library for a special summer evening of Arab film at the Plaza Community Cinema in Waterloo.

Chosen films, selected in collaboration with actress, writer, presenter and founder of The Arab Film Club, Sarah Agha, and women from “The Colour of Pomegranates”, will be announced in June.

Children’s activities will be available at Crosby Library, opposite to the cinema, during the screenings for those who need child care.

Dip Into Pride Bath Open Day

The Dip Into Pride Bath was first conceived last year when Laura McCann was curating an exhibition for Pride and wanted to include an interactive installation that would encourage people to immerse themselves in the spirit of equality.

Laura asked mosaic artist Natasha Ellis to bring the idea to life and since then the bath has been on display around the city. This is your opportunity to have your photo taken in the bath ahead of this year’s Pride. Your photo will be taken by Laura who has recently been shortlisted for the annual Taylor Wessing Photography Portrait Prize at The National Portrait Gallery in London.

Event

This will be a very rare chance for you to be involved in this project before the bath is ultimately sold with all proceeds going to the Liverpool based charity, Sahir.