Youmein Creative Media Festival: 48 Hours in July

July 16-17, 2016

We were thrilled to co-host the second edition of the Youmein Creative Media Festival this past weekend, from July 16-17. The Youmein Festival brought together artists and creative thinkers from across Morocco, France, the United States, Belgium, and Palestine to discuss and produce art centering around the topic of “crisis” or “أزمة”. Artists were challenged to create pieces reflecting on “crisis” within the 48-hour timespan of the Festival.

On Saturday members of Youmein, TALIM, and the public convened for a roundtable discussion featuring Driss Ksikes, a Moroccan journalist and playwright, and Hicham Bouzid, co-director of Arty Farty’s Think Tanger project.

(l-r) Hicham Bouzid, Driss Ksikes, George Bajalia. All photos by Omar Chennai
(l-r) Hicham Bouzid, Driss Ksikes, George Bajalia. All photos by Omar Chennai

The presenters initiated the discussion with their own ideas and perspectives, and the audience participated with discussion and questions. The interactive panel discussion took place in a multitude of languages, Darija, French and English, reflecting the diversity of knowledge and experiences of the participants.

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Invitation to Youmein Festival

Tanger Evénements Ouvert au Public Our first event open to the public will be at the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM), on August 26th at 12pm! Please join us for a roundtable panel and discussion on the themes of Al Barzakh and Les Limbes, moderated by George Bajalia (Artistic Director, Borderline Theater … Read more Invitation to Youmein Festival


Global Voices, Chicago and Tangier

TALIM Global Voices group
Tangier Global Voices group, plus ALC Tangier staff: IT wizard Rachid El Mziryahi, teacher Rabia el Antaki, and Director Mark Holbrook

Their voices came wafting up over the Legation courtyard, a springtime Friday evening.  Intrigued, I paid a visit to our group of high school English students enrolled in the Global Voices Initiative program, thanks to our partnership with the American Language Center (ALC) Tangier.  You can watch the videos on the ALC website.

It was practice for their upcoming presentation of a set of three plays, which they developed, wrote in English, and then performed for their audience of American students in Chicago, via a Google + connection.

Meanwhile, the Chicago students were doing the same thing – in Arabic.  Here’s how George Bajalia (he’s smiling from the corner of the screen in the photo below), former Fulbright scholar in performance studies in Tangier, described the scene in Chicago:

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