{"id":23440,"date":"2019-04-04T19:33:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23440"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:34:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:34:06","slug":"arab-voices-to-rise-in-unique-cultural-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/arab-voices-to-rise-in-unique-cultural-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab Voices to rise in \u201cunique cultural festival\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversation between cultures is something \u201ccrucial for the\nbetterment of human relationships,\u201d according to writer and poet Abdulrahman\nMatar, and there is no better way to start a conversation than speaking up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly what\nMr. Matar, a native of Syria, hopes will take place next Saturday, April 6, at\nthe Aurora Public Library (APL) when they and Mr. Matar\u2019s Syrian Mediterranean\nCultural Forum, join forces for a bilingual (English and Arabic) afternoon of\npoetry, music and arts from the Arab world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe conversation\nbetween cultures is something crucial for the betterment of human\nrelationships, and we should always be open to experience other cultures,\u201d says\nMr. Matar, speaking to The Auroran in an interview conducted over email. \u201cWe\nlive in a unique society that is diverse and has many cultures within it, so\nthis is a very important opportunity to be introduced to a different culture.\nWe welcome everyone, we can listen to each, talk, and work together and\ncollaborate. Humanity brings us together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Matar came to\nCanada in 2015 via the United States. He requested asylum in Canada for\npolitical reasons and eventually gained his permanent residency. Now working on\nattaining his Canadian citizenship, he says he is \u201cproud\u201d to be here, enjoy\nfreedom, and work for a living \u201cwith no threats or dangers due to writing\nfreely, or due to the freedom of self-expression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of PEN\nCanada and the Writer\u2019s Union of Canada, he says he was \u201cborn between books.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was raised in a\nfamily that boasted a big and diverse library and an unabashed love of reading\nand culture that existed prior to the advent of television and the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to read every\nbook I saw passionately, then I began going to the public library before I\nwrote my first poem at the age of 12,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen, I was allowed in an\nearlier age to listen and become acquainted with writers, novelists and poets\nthat made me drown in a sea of writing, going from poetry to stories and\njournalism, and then to novels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWriting had brought\nme courage and joy, but also pain and the arrest that followed my writing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his writing, he\nfinds inspiration in the lives of the average person \u2013 \u201ctheir stories, their\nsadness, their happiness. Those who are arrested, those who are victims. In\npeople\u2019s eyes, their footsteps, their dreams and thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey create life,\u201d\nhe says, noting he feels quite a difference when writing poetry compared to\nprose and journalism. \u201cIt feels to me as I\u2019m flying above the clouds, drifting\naway in a dream, faraway. I feel the letters of the words as if they were\npieces of my soul, or as if it was the melody of the soul. Poetry is the\ngreatest method for me to express my emotions and it is a beautiful melody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This melody will be\nheard wildly through Aram Voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the aim of\nthe program, bringing together poets, novelists, short story writers, as well\nas creators specializing in everything from drawing, to painting, to film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve noticed\nthroughout the past years that the Canadian society, including writers and\nnovelists, do not know the Arab culture well, and that includes Arab writers\nthat have been here for years,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is also related to the absence\nof events and activities that makes the Arab culture known better in Canada. By\nthat I mean the poetry, novels, stories and art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Matar founded the\nSyrian Mediterranean Cultural Forum in Turkey in 2013. It bills itself as a\ncultural forum, a non-profit NGO, now based out of Toronto, that is interested\nin \u201cexpressing the cultural aspect in its different creative sides in both arts\nand literature\u201d through public activities like hosting lectures and screening\nfilms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe forum aims to\nopen up to different cultures and to share ideas and activities,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\nsees the important diversity behind that and aims to be a stage of cultural\nfertilization and debates, and it is also a forum of support for the Syrian\nrefugees who are merging with the new societies receiving them.\u201d
\nAram Voices is just one prong of this approach and the\nAurora event will be the second held locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a source of\npride and joy for us,\u201d he says of the relationship between the group and APL.\n\u201cPresenting Arab poets to society and reading poems in both Arabic and English\nis an entirely different cultural experience. Nothing like that has ever\nhappened here, or at least in Aurora and the area. The audience will get to\nknow Arab literature through these poets and writers, and it is a chance for\ncultural exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arab Voices will take place in the living room\nof the Aurora Public Library next Saturday, April 6 at 2 p.m. Participants\ninclude poets Rula Kahil (Lebanon) and Sozan Sami Jamil (Iraq), poet and artist\nNaeem Hilany (Syria), artist Mwafaq Katt (Syria), poet Younis Attari\n(Palestine), musician Esmaeel Abou Fakher (Syria), and Mr. Matar.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conversation between cultures is something \u201ccrucial for the betterment of human relationships,\u201d according to writer and poet Abdulrahman Matar, and there is no better way to start a conversation than speaking up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/2019-03-25-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-664","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 19:34:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}