Hiya to Host Themed ‘Inhiyar’ Night in New York March 29th

Hiya Live Sessions, a global research-events platform amplifying the revolutionary feminist voices of the Arab world, is set to host a themed community event, ‘Inhiyar’ (Breakdown), celebrating radical feminist voices from the SWANA underground scene in New York on March 29th.

‘Inhiyar’ will bring together artists who are on the frontlines of underground noise resistance movements to explore variations on the concept of ‘Breakdown’ through poetry, sound, movement, and thought-provoking conversations.

Supported by Columbia University's Incite Institute, the event will feature a lineup of female artists, performers, and musicians from across the SWANA region and its diaspora. The featured artists include punk poet-performer, cyborg, and activist Andrea Abi-Karam; Syrian-Palestinian artist, cultural activist, and performer Leyya Mona Tawil, who works with sound, dance, and hybrid transmissions; Moroccan-American experimental artist and creative producer Nora Alami; Palestinian singer-songwriter Israa Shalaby; and Beirut-born journalist, programmer, DJ, and founder of Hiya/Hom, Shirine Saad.

Hiya Live Sessions shared a note with SceneNoise on the creative concept behind ‘Inhiyar’:

“As we stare at mass death, plunder, and erasure of native ecologies and histories, we turn toward the remains scattered under the rubble and their promise of life, love, and resistance. Another cycle of unspeakable violence fuels new waves of the revolutionary movement on the streets and underground—poetic and political—mapping new exit routes and survival networks, both real and imaginary. Artists in distress, facing crushing censorship and relentless struggle, forge DIY communities and intimate spaces, creating new languages to defy the devastating loss of humanity and land. They reinvent ghazals, muashahat, maqamat, queer erotica, sacred cosmologies, futuristic utopias and dystopias, intoxicating Sufi and zar rituals, and the deep legacy of militant art throughout the region, remixing punk, techno, rap, and grime—echoing protests from Tehran to Tunis and Cairo, alchemizing noise and fatal pollution.”

The event will take place at Nublu Classic. To RSVP, head to the link in @hiyalivesessions’ Instagram bio.