TALIM Hosts the 2021 Edition of Youmein Festival

After a one-year break due to restrictions related to COVID-19 in 2021, the Youmein arts festival has come back this year with a retrospective vision looking back at the previous five editions, with some updated art works and performances.

A piece of artwork projecting a video on a screen made of classroom tables.

Launched for the first time in 2015 with the initiative of Dr. George Bajalia, professor of Anthropology at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, Zakaria Alilech, Events and Outreach Coordinator at the American Language Center of Tangier, and Tom Casserly, Associate Producer at Barbara Whitman Productions in NYC, Youmein has gone for five successive years.

Mehdi Xidori Dahkan performing on the rooftop of the American Legation.

This year’s edition of Youmein started with a retrospective exhibit at Le18 space in Marrakech, then moved to Tangier, where it was hosted entirely by the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies during the period of July 28-29, 2021. On Friday, July 28, the Zanka Gallery at the American Legation Museum hosted a talk that featured Dr. Bajalia and Aida Alami, a Moroccan freelance journalist and regular contributor to, among other publications, The New York TimesForeign PolicyFinancial Times, and Bloomberg. The two discussants talked about the themes of migration and borders across Africa and the Carribean.

Picture from the talk by George Bajalia and Aida Alami.

The 2021 Youmein festival was supported by TALIM, the American Language Center of Tangier, and the American Embassy in Morocco.

© Photos by Abdelbaar Mounadi Idrissi