The artistic variety in formats and themes is a showing of the freshness and freedom of young Arab artists who are gradually creating an inter-connected community from the Maghreb to the Levant through comics.

The world of Arab comics for adults has been experiencing a boom in recent years that has made it a natural element for people to break away from the society around them. Choral publications like the Lebanese magazine Samandal or Egypt’s Tok-tok have marked the path to follow, as have self-published editions on the Internet or on international platforms for comics, which have allowed many authors to cross beyond the borders of the Arab world.

Acclaimed for his discography, which features works by Mompou, José de Nebra, Chopin, Debussy, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Grieg, and an award-winning member of orchestras that have performed in Europe, America and Asia, Perianes won the Spanish Award for Music in 2012. He burst onto the music scene when he was only 22, and has grown in stature to become one of the favourite performers of leading conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, etc.

Acclaimed Egyptian writer Alaa Al-Aswany, known for his bestseller “The Yacoubian Building,” is visiting the next edition of the Hay Festival in Segovia, where he will be going over several topics regarding the intense current events in the Arab world and Egypt.

With tumultuous Cairo on the verge of change as a backdrop, this movie presents six stories about six couples whose paths cross. All of these married couples’ lives revolve around ambition, frustration and hope. They are connected to each other during important stages of their lives through one person, who is not chosen by chance, a traveling salesman who goes by the name of “Hope.”

The Segovian company called “El Sombrero de la Memoria” will be introducing Saida’s world to the youngest viewers, with a story that tells them about friendship and the value of meeting children from other countries that speak languages different from their own. The activity is inspired by the story written by Susana Gómez Redondo and illustrated by Sonja Wimmer.

Thursday, September 24, 2015, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. (performance for schools)
Thursday, September 24, 2015, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. (general public). Tickets: 3 euros.
Thursday, September 25, 2015, from 12:00-1:00 p.m. (performance for schools)


Raquel Rubio Cano
Ms. Rubio is a children’s theater teacher. She has a great deal of experience putting on activities and teaching children and teenagers. She is the mother of two daughters who have been a source of inspiration and learning in and of themselves. She founded the storytelling company “El Sombrero de la Memoria,” with which she has been traveling to libraries and a wide range of other stages for years.  Her dedication has given her the chance to take part in activities with children and teens, having worked as a monitor, organizer and director of camps, classes and seminars, as well as a party and event planner. She has contributed to many projects, workshops and events for different official entities and associations.

Susana Gómez Redondo (text)
Born in Soria in 1969, Gómez Redondo has earned degrees in Information Sciences and Literary Theory and Comparative Literature. At present, she gives classes on Teaching Spanish Language at the University’s School of Education in Soria and writes children’s and youth literature in the cultural insert of El Norte de Castilla newspaper. She is the author of travel guidebooks and short stories. Her love of children’s literature came with the birth of her son, and since then she has published three illustrated albums and a children’s poetry album.

Sonja Wimmer (illustration)
Born in Munich in 1974, Ms. Wimmer moved to Barcelona to study illustration at La Llotja, Advanced Design School, and since then she has lived and worked in that city, amid paintbrushes, colors and magical worlds, making illustrations for publishing firms from different countries. In 2011, she was given a prize at the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards and in 2012 the International Latino Book Awards.

Casa Árabe has scheduled this flamenco concert by Cartagena’s flamenco singer Curro Piñana, to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the birth of Al-Andalus’ mystic and poet Ibn Arabi, as well as the Fifth Centennial of Santa Teresa de Jesús. The program presents an adaptation of poems by both authors into flamenco music. Accompanying the singer: Francisco Tornero on the guitar and Miguel Ángel Orengo on percussion.

The performance highlights the spaces of convergence between Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions in relation with mystical experience and human and divine love. Exploring the points where these traditions intersect is the source of inspiration for this recital which, using tarantas, bulerías, tangos and malagueñas, attempts to emphasize brotherhood and tolerance between cultures. All of the songs in the repertoire are original compositions by Curro Piñana with musical arrangements by guitarist Francisco Tornero. The recital includes the collaboration of the Society of Studies on Ibn Arabi, MIAS Latina.

The director of Casa Árabe’s Governance Area, Karim Hauser, will be talking with McHugo about the Arab world’s modern and contemporary history, using the case of Syria as an example to show to what extent colonial history and World War I have had a major influence on geopolitics in the Middle East today. John McHugo is also the author of a specific monographic work on Syria and its modern history.

John McHugo is a lawyer and Arabist with more than 40 years of experience in the region. He completed his university degree in Eastern Studies at Oxford University, a Master’s degree in Arab studies at the American University of Cairo, and another in medieval Sufi thought at Oxford University. He has worked as a lawyer in several Arab countries, above all Egypt, Bahrain and Oman. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Arab British Understanding and the British Egyptian Society.

Since the beginning of the Muslim era, Arab literature has dealt with the topic of the hegira, or migration, a particularly important topic for Palestine since 1948, and since the 1990’s for Iraq. Displacement and the scars it leaves behind on the way, the memory of the Tigris and Euphrates, evoking unmentionable stories which are transformed into letters and pages, the destruction of identity and its re-creation in other latitudes, histories of uprootedness and distancing, poems of re-encounters, lights in exile. Abdul Hadi Sadoun, Bahira Abdulatif and Muhsin Al-Ramli talk about the paths they have taken and their works. 

Abdul Hadi Sadoun
Writer, Hispanist and publisher. He has resided in Madrid since 1993. For ten years, he co-directed the literary journal in the Arabic language Alwah. He directs the “Alfalfa” collection, which specializes in modern Arabic letters. He is the author of a long list of books which include: No es más que viento (It Is Nothing But Wind, 2000), Plagios familiares (Family Plagiarism, 2002), Escribir en cuneiforme (Writing in Cuneiform, 2006), Pájaro en la boca (Bird in the Mouth, 2008), Siempre todavía (Always Forever, 2010), Memorias de un perro iraquí (Memories of an Iraqi Dog, 2012) and Tustala (2014). He has published three anthologies of modern Iraqi poetry in the Spanish language: La Maldición de Gilgamesh (The Curse of Gilgamesh, 2003), A las orillas del Tigris (On the Shores of the Tigris, 2005) and Otros mesopotámicos raros (Other Strange Mesopotamians, 2009). His poetry and fiction have been translated into German, French, English, Italian, Farsi, Turkish, Spanish, Catalan and Galician.

Bahira Abdulatif
A Hispanist, writer and translator from Iraq, Ms. Abdulatif has worked as a professor in the Spanish Department at the University of Baghdad and then at Spanish universities, including the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and University of Salamanca. She is the co-author in Spanish of 15 books, including Iraq bajo ocupación: Destrucción de la identidad y la memoria (Iraq Under Occupation: Destruction of identity) and Lapidación, mujer árabe, islam y sociedad (Stoning, Arab Women, Islam and Society). She has had books published in Arabic (stories, essays and poetry) and many articles in Arab publications. She has also translated into Arabic books by Rafael Alberti (winning Best Translated Book of the Year in Iraq), Jorge Luis Borges, José Carlos Mainer and José Antonio Maravall, as well as a Peruvian poetry anthology and other works.

Muhsin Al-Ramli
A writer, poet, translator, Hispanist and scholar, Mr. Al-Ramli writes in Arabic and Spanish. He has resided in Spain since 1995. With a degree in Spanish philology from the University of Baghdad (1989) and a PhD in Philosophy and Letters (Spanish Philology) from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2003), with a thesis on: Marks of Islamic Culture in Don Quixote. He is the brother of writer Hassan Mutlak, considered by some Iraqi intellectuals to be the “Iraqi Lorca,” who was hanged by the Iraqi regime in 1990 for taking part in an attempted coup d’état. Founder and co-publisher of the cultural magazine Alwah since 1997. He has had stories published, including Regalo del siglo que viene (Gift from the Coming Century, 1995), poetry: Todos somos viudos de las respuestas (We Are All Widowers of the Responses, 2005), and novels which include Dedos de dátiles (Date Fingers, 2008), Los jardines del presidente (The President’s Gardens, 2012) and Adiós primos (Goodbye, Cousins, 2014).

Our societies are increasingly defined by their cultural diversity.  The discussion is chaired by Pedro de Andrés, first vice president of CEDRO, the Spanish Reproduction Rights Center. Participating in the discussion are journalist Darío Prieto of the arts section of El Mundo; Juan José García de la Cruz Herrero, Sociology lecturer at the Autonomous University of Madrid; Paula Izquierdo writer and Nuria Medina, Culture Coordinator at Casa and Stephan Fuetteres (member of the board of Asociación de Directores de Comunicación ; DIRCOM)

To be presented in these two workshops lasting three hours each are all of the letters in the Arabic alphabet, the rules that exist on connecting the letters and an introduction to the thuluth and naskh schools.

Two possible dates are offered:
Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 27, 2015 from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Ricardo Vicente Placed
With a degree in Arabic Philology and Islam, he resided in Egypt for five years as a professor at the Cervantes Institute and at the Egyptian universities of Ain Shams and Al-Azhar, where he earned his diploma in Arabic Calligraphy. He studied there under the tutelage of Ahmad Sultan, and for four years at the School for Perfection of Arabic Calligraphy of Cairo. At his studio Aularium, he completes commissioned works and gives courses throughout the year. As a calligraphy teacher, he also travels to schools, museums and libraries, trade fairs and handicraft fairs, festivals, historical recreations and educational events, as well as others. www.ricardovicente.com

Journalists will be talking about this project to cast light on the situation of Afghan women, as well as increasing awareness among the population about the widespread impunity and systematic violation of Human Rights in this Asian country, and the difficulties in covering information from countries at war.

Farid, a young Frenchmen aged 26, must go to Algeria to save his father’s home. This leads him to discover a country where he had never set foot, and he ends up meeting a whole series of surprising characters whose humor and simplicity will end up changing him profoundly. The film, by the same producers as “Intouchables,” formed part of the official non-competing selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

Organized by: Co-organized with Casa Árabe