Eclectic music venue Joe’s Pub, in New York City, has announced the Habibi Festival’s full lineup of artists for its second annual edition, which will take place over five nights, October 11-15, 2022.
This October, Habibi Festival will present music from Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Lebanon, and more.
“This year’s artists are all giving new life and context to ancestral ceremonial traditions, whether it’s HAT using traditional musician samples in his DJ set, or Noura Mint Seymali bringing psychedelic rock to the griot tradition”, said festival co-founder Yacine Boulares.
Noura Mint Seymali, a leading representative of the Mauritanian Moorish griot tradition and step-daughter of the legendary Dimi Mint Abba, will open up the festival alongside Algerian dancer Esraa Warda who returns to Habibi Festival with her collaborator, Khadija El Warzazia, an innovator in Moroccan music and one of the first women to publicly perform Gnawa music, a tradition historically dominated by men.
With her all-women vocal and percussion ensemble, Bnat El Houariyat, El Warzazia will add her Marrakech flavor to both the saint-praising Huara music of Southwest Morocco primarily reserved for women-only gatherings and Chaabi, the country’s beloved “popular” music.
“Kicking off the festival with a double header of Noura Mint Seymali and Bnat El Houariyat with Esraa Warda is going to send shockwaves across New York – these two powerhouse ensembles are taking traditional musics to new, ecstatic heights. We’re excited New York audiences are omnivorous with their music tastes and hope they enjoy finding connections with and between the spectrum of ancient to contemporary music in this year’s lineup”, says Habibi Festival’s producer Meera Dugal.
Highlighting the local diaspora community in New York City is also essential to the festival. Opening up Bnat El Houariyat’s set on October 12 is New York-based, Iraqi singer Zahra Alzubaidi, a proponent of the country’s southern musical styles as well as Iraqi maqam.
Joining Bnat El Houariyat in their US premiere is Night in Tunisia, a project by Yacine Boulares that brings together a supergroup of artists from across the geographical and musical traditions of Tunisia.
Young Palestinian qanun player, Firas Zreik, holds down the classical music side of the spectrum in the festival at a young age became the first ever soloist and qanun player for the National Arab Orchestra.
Tastes of the region’s underground music scene come from Lebanese/Syrian duo Bedouin Burger who combine electronic beats of the Levant together with Arabic poetry and Hatim Belyamani aka HAT, a Moroccan electronic artist and founder of Remix ⟷ Culture who remixes traditional music and video from across the world in an audiovisual journey spanning everything from Amazigh folk songs to Afro-Indigenous Brazilian processional music.
Additionally, each performance will be accompanied by a conversation with the artist in collaboration with Afikra, a global organization that aims to promote understanding of the diversity and richness of cultures and histories of the Arab world.
Dugal said, “Whether you’re from these cultures or not, you can feel the history in the music, it’s a visceral experience. When it’s hard to find footing in a world that is constantly in flux, it’s grounding and humbling to experience a sound that is hundreds of years in the making. It’s also beautiful to watch artists bring a playfulness to their torchbearer status – it reminds us that we’re part of a long continuum of creativity and beauty that extends well beyond this moment.”
Habibi Festival was co-founded and curated by musician Yacine Boulares, producer Meera Dugal, and Joe’s Pub Director Alex Knowlton.
Habibi Festival 2022 Schedule – October 11-15, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. EST
Night 1 – October 11, 2022: Noura Mint Seymali + Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda
Night 2 – October 12, 2022: Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda + Zahra Alzubaidi
Night 3 – October 13, 2022: Yacine Boulares’s Night in Tunisia + Firas Zreik
Night 4 – October 14, 2022: HAT + Yacine Boulares’s Night in Tunisia + Nour Harkati
Night 5 – October 15, 2022: Noura Mint Seymali + Bedouin Burger
More information about Habibi Festival. publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2022/h/habibi-festival-lineup/ Tickets are on sale now at joespub.com.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central