MACFEST celebrates 5 years of arts, diversity, women and community cohesion

Featuring over 75 events hosted from Manchester, Dubai, Scotland, Kuwait, the USA and beyond, the award-winning MACFEST returns to #spreadhoneynothate with an extensive, family-friendly and almost entirely free programme of literature, art, photography, culture, comedy, women’s panels and more in a celebration of the rich cultural heritage of the Muslim diaspora communities across the world.

Taking place once again in a hybrid format – featuring both live and online events held in collaboration with Manchester Lit & Phil Society, The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Bolton Sunnyside Club and more – the celebrations kicks off with the Weekend Festival, featuring a digital ceremony hosted by filmmaker and journalist Myriam Francois at 12pm on Sat 18 Feb. Alongside welcome speeches, an Afghani women’s art exhibition, a presentation on famous palaces, music by Zakariya of GNAWA group and greetings by youth from around the world, the launch includes a recitation from the Holy Quran by Khalil Mohammed and a celebration of MACFEST’s fifth anniversary.

At 3pm, the online event Ottoman Encounters explores the journals and letters of travel writer, botanist and diplomat’s consort Henrietta Liston and her regency-era experiences with Ottoman women, with unique detail on their arts, crafts and cuisine, the harem, Ottoman religious practices and the Empire’s minority communities. As part of a thorough interrogation of the ways in which Muslim women are historically misrepresented and orientalised in the accounts of Western writers, Ottoman Encounters features a selection of responses written two hundred years later by by figures such as Turkish novelist and political commentator Ece Temelkuran and botanical illustrator Işık Güner.

On Sun 19 Feb at 6pm, Somalia-born South London comic Prince Abdi performs a hilarious one-off MACFEST set following a stellar career performing alongside the likes of Dave Chappelle, Chris rock, Louie CK, Michael McIntyre and Trevor Noah. He is joined by fellow stand-up comedian Nabz Pat.

Part of MACFEST’s Youth Festival programme, a celebration of national heritage stars Manchester school students of different origins, including Jawad Rasool (Phillips High School, Bury), Teeba Rahmatalla (Altrincham Grammar School for Girls), Tareq Ahmed (Dean Trust Ardwick) and others in a ‘cultural feast’ as they each cover a wide array of topics in a showcase of their home country at 6pm on Thu 23 Feb.

On Wed 8 Mar, MACFEST commemorates International Women’s Day 2023 with three events in collaboration with the Muslim Women’s Art Foundation. At 10am, Manchester Museum hosts an in-person symposium on Muslim women creatives, in which Dr. Saskia Warren discusses key findings from her new book, British Muslim Women in the Cultural and Creative Industries, exploring the barriers to ending religious discrimination, while award-winning adventure filmmaker Rabia Hussain shares her experiences as a creator and her commitment to providing representation through film. At 1pm, Women’s Movements, Tradition and Islamic Narratives in the Arabian Gulf, a women’s online panel, aims to ‘shed new light’ on the Muslim women of the Arabian Gulf contextualised within the rising role of women in education, politics culture and media across the region. The day concludes with a digital event exploring Three Centuries of Travel Writing by Muslim Women, the new book by Sheffield University’s Professor of Global History, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley. The illustrated talk unpacks the first-hand accounts of Muslim women’s travels from the 17th to the mid-20th century, providing unprecedented insight into the unique perspectives of a diverse group – queens, captives, pilgrims, provocateurs and others – and the moving human empathy inherent to their encounters and recollections.

On Sat 11 Mar at 2pm, MACFEST presents In Conversation with Fatima Manji, Author, Broadcaster: A Fresh Perspective, in which the award-winning Channel 4 journalist and newsreader discusses her new book, A Fresh Perspective on British History, while examining and answering a range of captivating questions such as: Why was there a Turkish mosque adorning Britain’s most famous botanic garden in the eighteenth century? How did a pair of Persian-inscribed cannons end up in rural Wales? And who is the Moroccan man depicted in a long-forgotten portrait hanging in a west London stately home? Described as ‘timely, brilliant and very brave’, Manji’s work offers an expose on the true diversity of pre-2oth century Britain and the misconceptions around modern immigration narratives.

Forming part of MACFEST’s Ramadan Festival, Aicha Boubaker and artist Ahmed Alaya host a showcase of Tunisian cultural heritage from 2pm on Sun 2 Apr. Featuring a live Oud performance, a taste of Tunisian food and traditional garments from the coastal city of Sousse and an exploration of Roman and Islamic heritage, the 90-minute celebration promises a unique Iftar for the online community.

Hosted by Professor Daniel L. Newman on Sun 9 Apr, Eat Like a Sultan! comprises a fascinatingly informative session on medieval Arabic cooking, charting an inconceivably broad culinary tradition which has produced over four-thousand recipes, across ten known surviving manuals, from al-Andalus to Aleppo, spanning five hundred years. The talk will also provide an overview of peripheral customs, including recipes for drinks, condiments, pickles, powders and perfumes.

In addition to countless interactive events both online and in-person, MACFEST hosts a set of literary sessions led by renowned artists and authors, including Flavors of al-Andalus (Sun 16 Apr) with Shadab Zeest Hashmi and Yvonne Maffei, Travel Writing with Tharik Hussain (Sat 17 Jun), Poetry and Ghazal: Formal Ways, Out and In (Thu 6 Jul) with Manchester University’s Professor of Poetry, Michael Schmidt, and Kindness and Integrity with Professor Akbar Ahmed (Sun 9 Jul), hosted by Manchester Lit & Phil Society.

For more information and to check out the full MACFEST brochure, click here.

Paintings by Afghani women artists, featured in a panel exploring freedom through art on Sun 12 Mar at 2pm