We go back as far as spring to remember "Casa Árabe's Thousand and One Nights at the Book Fair.” After two editions marked by the pandemic, lockdowns and capacity restrictions, the Madrid Book Fair returned in all its splendor, and Casa Árabe wanted to accompany this return in style. When the stands closed, Casa Árabe's garden welcomed visitors, who were able to enjoy seven evenings with a full program of activities from May 27 through June 11.

During these days, the group Dakka Nakhil Madrid guided the public from the Retiro to Casa Árabe with their parade of traditional gnawa music. In our garden, our main storyteller, Héctor Urién, was waiting for them to entertain, amuse and amaze young and old with the stories from the Alf Leila wa leila, "The Thousand and One Nights.” Then thete was the staged poetry in our contest "A Thousand and One Constellations,” enlivened by Gonzalo Escarpa, director of the Piscifactoría Laboratorio de Creación, with the participation of poets Diego Mattarucco and Celia Bsoul, among others. The narrated literature gave way to music, and so we were able to enjoy a wide variety of musical genres from the tropics to the rhythm of the Colombian duo Guacamayo Tropical; the sounds of Cairo with percussionist Samir Elturky, the keyboard played by Armen Kusikian, and the Arabic oud of Ali Omar Faruk; the melodies of the Nile with Wafir Gibril and Sara Habasha, while surrendering to the bats of hip hop singer Miss Raisa and the electronic flok of Yacine Belahcene.

During the days prior to the Fair, Casa Árabe invited the artist ZETA (Pablo Herrero) to create two murals inspired by the characters in "The Thousand and One Nights,” which can still be seen on the outside gates of our headquarters at the corner of Alcalá and O'Donnell streets.

You can enjoy a video summary of those days below:



This fall, we could not resist the king of all sports: soccer. To mark the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the first World Cup in this sport to be held in an Arab country, Casa Árabe presented a full program of activities which, taking soccer as a starting point, emphasizes its power as a tool to achieve more inclusive societies and bring the realities of Arab countries closer to Spanish society. Under the title "Soccer for Hope", the initiative includes two photographic exhibitions, one of the same name by Ofelia de Pablo and Javier Zurita, and "Baghdad, a modern place," dedicated to Iraqi photographer Latif Al Ani, both of which can still be visited at Casa Árabe's headquarters in Madrid (until February 5) and in Cordoba (until January 20).

During the month of October, our film schedule was devoted to women's soccer in Arab countries, with the series "Women on the Pitch.” We also held a meeting with three Arab women footballers: Nouf Faleh Al Anzi, Emirati player of C.D. Leganés; Yasmin Mrabet, of F.C. Levante Las Planas, and Honey Taljieh, former captain of the Palestinian national team and head of Corporate Communications at FIFA.

Without leaving literature aside, we attended the presentation of the soccer team of Spanish writers "La Cervantina", on the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair, as well as a colloquium with its members. And thete were more books: we hosted the presentation of "Qatar: Pearl of the Gulf," by Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio and Ignacio Gutiérrez de Terán - a documented study that allows us to delve into the politics, society and economy of this country from its independence until today - and the “Spanish-Arabic Football Glossary," a joint initiative with the Cervantes Institute and LaLiga.

On the economic front, we organized the business conference "Culture, mobility and sports: from Spain to the Gulf," which brought together representatives from economic institutions and companies with interests and experience in the region to examine the value of sport as a vector for development and an economic driver, as well as a promoter of exchanges between societies and cultures.

There was also time for recreational sports activities both in Madrid and Cordoba, with the initiatives "El Reto,” a scavenger hunt held in Madrid's Plaza de Colón, and a freestyle soccer exhibition and workshop in Cordoba's Plaza de La Corredera. In addition, in our "Arab Screen" space, soccer fans were able to enjoy the matches of the Arab teams competing in the World Cup (Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia).

This has been the most important set of events in 2022. You can remember these and other activities on our Youtube and SoundCloud channels

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