The fourth annual Habibi Festival is now underway at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The festival highlights the music of the SWANA region (South West Asia and North Africa). This fall’s edition runs five nights (October 8-12), with two acts featured each night. Given ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Sudan, pulling off this festival is no easy task. Franco-Egyptian bandleader Mohamed Abozekry ran into travel issues and had to be replaced last minute on the first two nights. Fortunately, the “Habibi family” as co-curator Meera Dugal describes it, has deep resources and was able to come up with excellent artists to fill in.
The first night opened with Nour Harkati of Tunesia alone with his Guembri (hajouj), the deep-toned lute of the Gnawa healing brotherhood of North Africa. His velvety voice accompanied by the warm, thumping lines of his Guembri proved mesmerizing, even without translation from the Arabic lyrics. Noor played spare renditions of songs from his upcoming band album, Moulana. He’ll be doing a full-band release event for the album on December 11 at Public Records in Brooklyn.
The mood changed sharply when Iraqi-Canadian rapper, professor and multi-media artist NARCY took the stage for the second half. His energized, fiery raps delivered before a barrage of images evoking tumultuous histories from the SWANA region was riveting. NARCY makes a point of inviting other voices from the region to join him in his performance, so we heard soulful spoken-word evocations by artists from Lebanon and Sudan—the latter a country whose ongoing tragedies are too often overlooked. This was NARCY’s first performance this year. He keeps busy with his professorial activities in Montreal, and performs only when he feels he has “something to say.” Well, he had plenty to say this night. He also announced the upcoming release of a double-vinyl album, his first recording in some years.
On night two, the focus was on Palestine, and naturally, the mood was more understandably more reflective and sometimes somber. It began with another artist stepping in for Abozekry. Issra Shalaby delivered a moody, rhythmless performance, singing an extended piece backed by electronic drones, and at times, a steady beat on her circular frame drum. Her soaring, plaintive voice cast a spell. It was often hard to tell whether she was singing words or simply sounds. But the message was emotional, not textual.
Mikey Muhanna of the supporting organization Afikra conducted revealing conversations with artists between sets (all available on the Afikra podcast). Shalaby spoke about her experience performing in a band in Tel Aviv and how what seemed at first an open-hearted collaboration led to experiences of discrimination and marginalization that led to her leaving that city. She also noted that when she appears again at the festival on Saturday, October 12, her performance will be “completely different.”
Then came Mona Miari, a Palestinian singer and songwriter who was a sensation at the Habibi Festival at Celebrate Brooklyn this summer. The audience reaction when Meera Dugal asked who had seen CB show confirmed that point. Miari’s set here was also sensational. Her agile voice, full of colors and intensities, had the audience enraptured. The set began on a light note, but when she addressed the audience and spoke about the past year in Gaza, she was fierce, speaking of a 76-year “occupation” and a year-long “genocide.” From there the music deepened.
Miari’s backing ensemble offered a perfect blend of percussion and acoustic sounds—piano, guitar, saxophone and ney flute. She generously invited crowd-pleasing solos from her accompanists all displaying flare and virtuosity. The set ended on a high note with Miari’s passionate performance reaching for a kind of joy, clearly felt by all.
There are three nights left, and there may still be tickets available. And wherever you are, you can livestream the shows on YouTube. Here’s a link to the October 8 show.
Here are some images from the first two nights.
