Participants

Coming from 20 countries - Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Lebanon, UK, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine, Zimbabwe - 28 talented, emerging festival makers gathered for an intense 7-day programme to critically reflect on the role of festivals in today’s world.

You can find their bios below. 

Anastasia (Natasa) Michailidou lives in Xanthi, Greece. She has a BA in Archaeology and a MA in Museum and Gallery Management. Moreover, she is a licensed tour guide in Greece, with the originality of involving tales (traditional or new ones written by her) in the guiding process.

Since 2009, she is delivering to Primary Education schools various educational tours and programs she has designed, two of which are related to shadow theater (‘The tales of Karaghiozis’ and ‘The life of the shadow’). Since 2013 she is also the stage assistant in the Shadow Theater group ‘The tales of Karaghiozis’, with performances and workshops for children in festivals all over Greece. She has curated the travelling (since 2020) exhibition ‘All arts for Karaghiozis’. In 2017 she has co-founded a non-profit organization, the Poetry and Folktale Academy in a mountainous village in Greece, with annual storytelling events, tours and performances, aiming at turning Vamvakou into ‘The village of folktales’.

Moreover, she is collaborating since 2007 as a freelance for several years with the ‘Athena’ Research and Innovation Centre in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies, in the context of projects aiming to create technology applications in the field of culture. Apart from her academic publications, she is writing articles for regional Greek newspapers.

Anastasios Papanastasiou was born in Greece, is 55 years old and has spent his whole life working in HORECA field as a bars and resturants owner. Anastasios showed his social committment already at a young age by interacting and taking actions in his school community as well as at social solidarity and ecological movements.

Combining his passion for culture and his entrepreneurial skills, in 2000 Anastasios founded the Athletic and Cultural Union “Olympus Eagles”and co-founded WeGang, a carnival spirit team alive until now. In 2008 the first Olympolis Art Project took place: video art, photo exhibitions and music concerts were held inside a 300 meters long unused train tunnel; a gastronomy session, the urban documentary screening “There is Hope” and a dialogue sessions on drugs also featured in the event. In 2013, Olympolis Art Project celebrated the 100th anniversary of climbing the highest peak of Mt. Olympus by organizing concerts and art exhibitions and in 2018 the Union organised “Let’s Brand the City”, a last-minute Urban Festival in Katerini (Greece).

Olympolis Art Project presented the interactive project “Photagogia” with video installations and video mappings graphics with a collaboration of a Romanian artist team in 2019. More recently, they worked on the polythematic project “PrometheusIX”, a dedication to the famous Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, with a collaboration of Kuniko Kato and hear team, a world famous Japanese percussion, at Spetses historic island and Mt. Olympus/Katerini.

Anastastios enjoys dancing, cooking, collecting stamps and antiques and create art and social communities.

The Ukranian-born Anastasiya Verlinska worked for ten years as a project manager at one of the biggest Eastern European film companies, FILM.UA Group, implementing projects to promote both film and animation in Ukraine. In 2014, she joined the team of the LINOLEUM animation festival as a program coordinator, and in 2016, she became its director. 

Apart from the festival, Anastasiya organises screenings of both international and Ukrainian animation as well as educational projects that help to develop the local animation industry.

 Since 2022, coordinates Keep Festive initiative, a collective of festivals and companies that aim to create safer spaces and prevent all kinds of inappropriate behaviour at different events by offering a certain set of rules and trainings for organisers, volunteers, and attendees.

Ukrainian by origin, Andrii considers himself a multicultural human, who seeks for identical values in all cultures and countries.

A manager by education, he was always astonished and mesmerised by art in various forms - from music and paintings to sculptures and natural decorations.

Andrii is a lifetime seeker of truth who believes in "better" humanity - when values are more real and creativity is more important than consumerism. He loves to enjoy life through active sports (biking, snowboarding, kayaking, hiking etc.), festivals and spending time with good, open-hearted people who are sincere in their actions and relations.

Andrii is a traveller and explorer in both physical and spiritual sense and considers himself a kind of a visionary in regards of potential future generation lifestyle in a world without poverty, wars and economic problems. Being constructive and staying in touch with reality is a big part of him at the same time...

ngelika Sechremeli is an Architect Engineer and Museologist, co-founder of the architecture firm ‘Urban Beaches’, based in Athens - Greece, currently working on architectural and exhibition design projects.

She has gained significant experience as an architect and museologist collaborating with leading firms in Greece and abroad. She has also worked in the field of cultural and creative industries as Programming and Production Assistant and Production Coordinator at a cultural center in Athens.

She has a great interest in ephemeral architecture and especially in site-specific architectural-artistic installations created as part of a greater effort for urban revitalization, for preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage, either as individual interventions or as part of the cultural agenda of a festival – as part of an effort to strengthen the relationship between local communities and cultural heritage.

She would like to start a systematic review on ephemeral architecture – currently looking for PhD opportunities – and would also like to create an organization, an architecture festival that is going to build a strong and dynamic architectural community in Greece.

Angelika has studied Planning and Regional Development at the University of Thessaly in Greece and Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Turin (B.Sc.) and at the University of Camerino (M.Arch.) in Italy. She also holds a postgraduate degree in Museology & Cultural Management (MA), from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She currently lives and works in Athens but she is always ready for new opportunities.

David is a multi-award winning theatre producer and lighting designer working primarily across Ireland and the UK. His work has been presented in Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands, France, the USA, Australia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

He is currently the Executive Producer of Jermyn Street Theatre, a studio theatre in the heart of London’s West End. In his time at the theatre he has produced world premieres of plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Peter Gill, and Howard Brenton. He has also overseen the expansion of the theatre’s artist development programmes and developed new touring and producing partnerships.

Prior to joining Jermyn Street Theatre, he was Producing Assistant for the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre where he worked on main stage theatre, dance, and opera productions alongside work with communities, and major digital projects.

David is also co-Artistic Director of Atticist, an award-winning theatre company based in London that is renowned for developing new plays alongside revivals.

Djalma “Jay” Menes is a multi-talented artist who has been working as a host, actor, assistant director, facilitator, literacy advocate, oral storyteller, entrepreneur, and adventurer. Mr. Menes is an experienced Storyteller and Trainer qualified to teach in the area of Theater, Stage Performances, and Culture-Based Education. He has a great passion for storytelling and believes anyone can be a storyteller using their own style, but if you pursue it further, you can become a professional.

In addition, he gained corporate experience while working in a Malaysian bank in the Philippines for seven years. After his stint as a banker, Jay pursued a career as a freelance performing artist and got into doing business. Now, he enjoys meeting and interacting with children, educators, parents, and students. Likewise, he traveled all over the Philippine archipelago sharing Filipino stories.

Jay is the prime mover in promoting the Art of Oral Storytelling through Storyhouse Philippines, a storytellers group he founded in March 2011.

He has performed at festivals in Hawaii & California (U.S.A.), Singapore, Morocco, Sharjah (U.A.E.), Iran, and Vietnam. Mr. Menes was considered the winner of the 17th Iran International Storytelling Festival. Member of the Federation of Asian Storytellers (FEAST). Moreover, Jay is the first Filipino member of the International Storytelling Network Red Internacional de Cuentacuentos and Professional Storyteller. Also, he is a member of National Commission for Culture and the Arts - Committee on Dramatic Arts.

Dzvinka Pinchuk lives in Ukraine, Kyiv. She is coordinator at Literature and Translation festival TRANSLATORIUM (Ukraine, Khmelnytskyi). Also she coordinated and curated the translation projects at the Centre for Literary Education Litosvita, Book Forum Lviv, Book Arsenal. Since 2019, Dzvinka Hanna Pinchuk is a member of the initiative group Translators in Action. For 4 years she was responsible for translation grant programme of the House of Europe, Goethe Institute.

She adores cinema, so translates a lot for documentary film festival “Docudays”, Molodist film festival, Odessa international film festival and other.

After February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and started the full scale war, Dzvinka returned to her journalistic and photo correspondent job. Now she’s documenting war crimes, working as local producer and photographer for the Daily mail and other medias.

Emin Aliyev (1996) is a writer and theatre professional from Baku, Azerbaijan.He also serves as the Creative Director of the 4.4 Short Performances Festival in Baku.

He graduated from Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts with a BA and MA in theater criticism. Previously, he gained experience working at the Azerbaijan State Academic Musical Theater and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He has actively participated in numerous local and international theater festivals and conferences.

Presently, he works as a writer, essayist, and critic for various magazines in Azerbaijan. Notably, he holds the position of editor at Teatro.az, which is the only theater portal in Azerbaijan.

Giulia is a PhD student in Sociology of Culture. She collaborates with various theater webzines ("exibart", "Doppiozero", "ateatro.it") and is the author of two books about culture and festivals.

Alonzo is president of TrovaFestival Cultural Association, the website that has been mapping Italian cultural festivals since 2017.

From 2015 to 2018, Hyojin worked for the Korea Queer Film Festival (KQFF) as a committee member to promote the human rights of sexual minorities, especially for their rights to be seen through films.

During the time, Hyojin has been exploring the term ‘queerness’; how being sensed, getting power and having an effect between the films about ‘queerness.’

In 2019, Hyojin got a position as the committee head of KQFF and keep continuing the journey.

Kevin Kimani Kahuro is an accomplished professional in the field of International Cultural Relations with extensive experience. He holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Film and Theatre Arts and is currently pursuing his PhD in Arts Management.

Mr. Kahuro is the Principal Creative Productions Officer at the Kenya Cultural Centre, Secretary General of the African Theatre Union, and founder and artistic director of the Kenya International Theatre Festival. He has also held senior roles, including Head of Theatre Arts at NIMPA and Managing Director at Glamourous Entertainment Theatre Festival.

Mr. Kahuro is a member of TASK, TAPS, and FLeTA.

Layane El Hajjar has been working in the production department on festivals, exhibitions, films, theater, art residencies and with non governmental organizations since 2018. She has worked as a project coordinator for 3 years with Haven for Artists a cultural feminist organization based in Beirut that works at the intersection of art and activism with a strong focus on queer and women voices. With Haven, Layane managed and produced campaigns targeting gender and social issues and coordinated fieldwork supporting communities that were affected by the Beirut Blast, particularly migrant women and LGBTQ+ communities.

Layane also acquired production experience working on numerous festivals in France and Lebanon (Festival Latitudes Contemporaines, Beirut & Beyond International Music festival, Beirut International Film Festival, Beirut Art Fair, etc.), short films and advertising campaigns.

Layane then moved on to achieve her master’s degree at the Celsa, Sorbonne University in Communication, Management & Cultures of Solidarity. Today, Layane continues to build her experience in the production department with a strong focus on festivals, theater and film projects that endorse under-represented communities in the Arab region.

Lidiіa Novokhatko is the head of the press office at the Leopolis Jazz Fest.

Raised in Zaporizhzhia, she moved to the capital of Ukraine to study as a musicologist at the Glier Kyiv Institute of Music. She started as a press secretary at International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz during her studies. After eight years in classical music, she became a PR manager at the Jazz in Kyiv production centre. The Jazz in Kyiv organized concerts for Ukrainian and foreign musicians in Ukraine, promoting jazz development, organizing workshops, and helping young Ukrainian musicians record albums with prominent musicians. The centre held the Theme with Variations, a project featuring Ukrainian and foreign jazz ensembles and their new projects. More than 370 concerts were held within the framework of the project in Kyiv.

The Leopolis Jazz Fest was founded in 2011 in Lviv. Lidiia started with the Leopolis Jazz Fest as a guide for foreign musicians. After a few years, the festival proliferated, and she was became a content manager. She was promoted to become the head of the press office at Leopolis Jazz Fest in 2020. Each festival is attended by over two hundred accredited media outlets. Festival concerts are recorded and broadcast by the internationally renowned channel Mezzo.

General and artistic director of the Centre des arts de Baie-Comeau since 2017, Marielle-Dominique Jobin has been part of the organization’s permanent team for almost 15 years.

Passionate about the arts and more particularly the performing arts, she served as a communications and development officer for almost a decade before taking up the challenge of directing the Centre des arts, a major multidisciplinary presenter on the North Shore in Baie-Comeau in Quebec.

A graduate in Management of Cultural Organizations at HEC Montréal and writing her master in Management of People in the Workplace at UQAR, this dynamic young woman worked for a few years as a journalist in several media, including Radio-Canada. Very involved in her community, she sits on various boards of directors, including those of Desjardins and the OFQJ.

Noxolo Bhengu is a theatre practitioner, actress, writer, choreographer, director, culture and arts curator from South Africa. She is the founder of LWuD Theatre, Ndawo Afrika and Imagination Act.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Cape Town in Theatre & Filmmaking. She has written Children’s plays that have been performed at The EDTA 72 hour theatre festival, American Eagle Institution and Ningbo International School. She has written and directed 5 original plays, two were performed at Durban Girl’s High in South Africa and 3 in Shanghai. She is also the recent author of a poetry book called ‘Swallow the Moon’. She has lived and worked in South Africa , Brazil and China.

Ndawo Afrika [Africa the Place] is a culture curating events company that creates art exhibitions, film screenings, African food experiences, diverse cultural events and workshops as well as monthly articles titled ‘Abantu Bakwa Ndawo’ spotlighting African artists, business owners and leaders.

LWuD Theatre produces and showcases new and existing plays from the African continent and those written in-house. LWuD theatre also does annual workshops, after school and summer theatre programs in international and bilingual schools in Shanghai.

O’Brien Makore is a leader in urban governance, transport planning and civic innovation, with keen interest in sustainable urban development. An Obama Foundation Leader and Mandela-Washington Fellow with a passion of transforming the lives of the disadvantaged urban communities. From 2014-15, he was the Programmes Coordinator at the Development Reality Institute managing climate change and urban governance projects. O’Brien has strong interest in the informal urban economy. In 2019, he conducted a baseline survey on Inclusive City Planning and Design for Informal Traders in Harare; and in 2020, he developed a policy paper on Easy of Doing Business for the Informal Sector in Zimbabwe. 

 O’Brien has great passion for transformative arts, and currently he is the Executive Director of EDZAI ISU Trust, a transformative arts organization that uses arts for social change to inspire positive community development. In 2018, they launched the ACTION Hub which is an incubation space for young creatives to connect, ideate and produce critical audio-visual content that challenges repressive and unjustified societal norms. Realizing the importance of festivals in transforming communities, in 2019 they established the Zimbabwe Human Rights Festival (ZHRF). The festival provides a safe space for individuals to express themselves freely and openly discuss human rights issues that are often marginalized or ignored. It encourages dialogue, fosters empathy, and promotes a culture of respect for human rights.

Kayode Timileyin Olaide (Timi), popularly known as Queernerd, is the founder of Queercity Media and Productions, Lagos, A Programs consultant, Archivist at Haus II Gallery and Organizer and Festival manager of Pride In Lagos. Kayode Holds a Degree in Geography and Environmental Management from the prestigious Tai Solarin University of Education.

Kayode is enacting and documenting African narrative surrounding history, Queerness, places, Women, and Nature, using Productions, Festivals and archives. They are a connoisseur of Nigerian Queer history, with works with the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, House of African Feminism, Witness Change, Where Love is Illegal, The Third Cafe, Wolfgang Tillmans, FemmeHive, amongst others Kayode is a trained creative and media executive with entrepreneurial training with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, a Terra Academy For Theatre and Art Alunmi, and a Taboom media Fellow (2022).

A Thomas Reuters Foundation-trained journalist, Kayode works featured on HBO's original documentary "The Legend Of the Underground" as the producer of Queercity Podcast, west Africa biggest LGBTQI+ podcast, other works like Pride in Lagos has been seen on Teen Vogue, Global Citizen, Hollywood Reporter, Daze, Xtra, I-D by Vice, Ynaija, and Adweek amongst other publications.

Sada Malumfashi is a writer and cultural curator from Nigeria. He is the Founder of Open Arts, a literary and arts collective where he curates the Hausa International Book and Arts Festival (HIBAF), a crisscross festival of arts and language by and for African creatives in an indigenous language. The festival showcases the best of contemporary African literature, poetry, music, art, film, and theatre in Hausa language.

His fiction has appeared in Lolwe, Bakwa Magazine, Transition Magazine and New Orleans Review. He is an alumni of the European Union’s Global Cultural Relations Program (GCRP) where he co-founded RIMA, a platform that empowers emerging creative practitioners from the global south by connecting them with international opportunities for funding and mobility.

He is a 2022 arts curator resident at the Al-Balad Arts Residency in the historical district of Jeddah “Al Balad,” a UNESCO World Heritage Site; a 2019 fellow of Reporters Without Borders Germany; 2019 fellow of Arts Omi Residency; and 2018 fellow of the Goethe-Institute/Sylt Foundation African Residency in Germany. He was selected to participate in the 2019 International Colloquium “Culture for the Future – Creativity, Innovation and Dialogue for Inclusive Development” organised by the European Commission.

He has produced video documentaries exploring identity of cultural and artistic producers of Hausa diaspora across the world. He is interested in the nexus of culture and identity on the African continent. His works have explored the Hausa feminist writings. Writing for Asymptote, winners of the 2015 London Book Fair's International Literary Translation Initiative Award, and the premier site for world literature in translation, he has investigated how censorship, religion and conservatism affect the representation of queer lives and relationships in Hausa literature inflected and influenced by local conditions and cultural nuances.

Md Shah Alam Riyadh is a dancer and choreographer from Bangladesh. He is Vice Principal Of Bangladesh Bulbul Lalitakala Academy Bafa. With many branches spread across the country and more than 1000 students only for the of Dance and Music Section, Bafa is the most popular cultural Institution in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Md Shah is also enlisted Dance Director Of Bangladesh Television (BTV), the National TV channel in Bangladesh. He studied dance for 16 years and holds a degree in Folk Dance and Classical Dance (Katthak).

As an international dance performer and choreographer, Md Shah has performed in many countries such as the USA, UK, France, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Nepal, India and many more.

Srishti is passionate about all performing arts - music, dance and theatre.

Armed with a masters degree in Arts Management from Lancaster University, UK (2019), she is presently an Associate Producer with the Bombay based theatre company QTP Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. She has worked on QTP productions such as Lungs (2022), Lunch Girls (2020), Mother Courage & Her Children (2017) and White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (2016) as well as NCPA's The Mirror Crack'd (2020), in various capacities. She has also led Thespo, QTP's youth theatre initiative, as a Fellow (2016-2018), and is now an active and dedicated mentor to the current Thespo Fellows and Coordinators. She has worked on other festivals and conferences such as Tata Literature Live!, Art of the Possible, and Love, Sex and Data.

In addition to her theatre work, she has trained as a Kathak dancer for more than 15 years, and also teaches the dance form.

Stella Ntavara is Greek but has been living, studying and working abroad for the last 13 years.

Her educational background is in project management and international relations and after a few years working in the corporate sector as a project manager - not related to arts or culture – she specialized in Arts and Culture Management.

Stella lived in France and Germany and has been living in Denmark for 5 years now, a country which enabled her to step out of the corporate world and started a new part in the cultural sector.

She has worked in different festivals (aft fairs, Copenhagen Photo Festival, Kids festival) but her more stable engagement where she is currently working full-time is the CPH:DOX -the Documentary Film Festival. She has worked for production incl. venue and logistics management and Head of Volunteers. Since 2020, Stella is the manager of the CPH:LAB, the training programme of the festival for digital media projects and the ACADEMY programme for students. Stella has an interest in audience development, sustainability of guest hosting and production and digital storytelling for younger audiences.

Tamir Eting (Israel, 1990) is an interdisciplinary choreographer and curator who works between the intersection of dance, philosophy, installation and performance.

He graduated from the 'Maslool' – Professional Dance Program at the Bikurey Ha’Itim’ Center in Tel Aviv, and subsequently worked with The Batsheva Ensemble Dance Company. After his years with Batsheva, he developed an interest in other art forms and art related professions, working as an assistant director at the Gesher Theater in Jaffa, and co-curating the AZA 13 space for artists based and working in Palestine and Israel.

Tamir is a certified Gaga teacher and inaugurated the first branch of the Gaga movement language in Amsterdam in 2016. He teaches workshops in various countries, including The Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Israel, and Germany. In 2020, Tamir completed his BA in choreography at SNDO, the School of New Dance Development at Amsterdam University of the Arts. He did his internship in relational art and philosophy at Sense Lab at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Currently,

Tamir is a member of the artistic team at the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance in Tel Aviv as assistant artistic director. His responsibilities include managing the annual Tel Aviv Dance festival, co-curating the annual Framing Movement video and media art exhibition for public spaces, managing the residency program, and being in charge of collaborations with other cultural hubs and institutions.

Tyson Meya is a Congolese Jazz Artist, Producer and Cultural Operator, born in Kinshasa on August 04, 1990.

He is the President of the CAFE MUSIC SMILE NGO organization created in 2019, whose mission is to develop the growth of the cultural and creative industries in order to be an engine of economic development in the DRC. The organization develops solutions and financing mechanisms for the projects of cultural creators; it organises cultural and artistic activities (training, concerts, festivals, conferences, workshops, workshops and webinars) aimed at fighting against social discrimination.

Tyson is also the organizer of the Culture and Development festival which is organized every year in November and Artistic Director of the Kinshasa Jazz Festival. A certified (PMP) Professional Project Manager by PMI (Project Management Institute), he is responsible for Africa of the American Label COLOR RED based in Colorado/Denver in the USA since 2020 and he is also a member of YALI RDC (Young African. leaders).

Tyson is founder of the funding platform for cultural and creative industries in the DRC and Central Africa "IYOFUND", which organizes activities with several artists from different countries such as USA, Sweden, France, Great Britain, Germany, Congo Brazza.

Viktoria Kostova has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and just finished her Master's degree in Management of Creative Industries and Cultural Organizations in Sofia, Bulgaria.

She is currently enrolled in the educational program European Diploma in Cultural Project Management. She has worked for different NGOs in the sphere of culture and education locally and internationally, predominantly in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Tenerife, Sweden, UK and the USA.

She is interested in sustainability in the arts, activism, youth engagement and audience development.

Wambui Gathee is a Kenyan director, producer, film curator and freelance photographer. She is currently the Screenings Manager at Docubox where she has curated and programmed award winning documentaries for regular monthly screenings in Nairobi at the Alliance Francaise for two years up until 2020. Wambui has also been curating short fiction films for about four years for an exciting quarterly film screening event called the Shorts, Shorts & Shots.

She is popularly known for her short film Love Zawadi, which has won three awards and gave her the title of award-winning director. She has also worked on other films as a producer, including Blurred that has received international recognition. Wambui is also involved in impact work through the Sema Stori campaign funded by Comic Relief as the Regional Impact Producer for ten short documentary films.

She is currently the Screenings Manager at Docubox EADFF. She is also a Southern Africa Locarno Industry Academy (SALIA), Some Fine Day Pix, Great Lakes Producer's Lab and Durban Film Mart (DFM) Business Lab alumni.

Wambui is a firm believer in artistic visual storytelling that is well represented in her filmography as well as photography. She is keen on learning and implementing the prowess of curating, programming and producing films.

Yasmeen Fahim is the Executive Manager of Orient Productions in Egypt, the company which produces the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) as well as manages many other projects and spaces in and around the performing arts.

She studied anthropology and theatre; two disciplines which teach the importance and magic of community, and work to (un)learn the power dynamics that inform our world. Thus, her approach is always community and audience-focused, and her passion lies in the transformative power of the arts and culture.

Beyond her full-time job, Yasmeen is working on a new initiative, AlaFein, which aims to cover all arts and culture related events in the form of a simple and easy to use directory.

Yasmeen lives and works in Cairo; her lifelong home and source of inspiration. Having always been obsessed with the city’s visual culture, she considers herself lucky that her job takes her to Downtown Cairo everyday, where forces of absurdity and contradiction are always at play. After all, what better reminder of the kind of world that we live in than a 100 year old building’s storefront being covered up with bright yellow plastic cladding for a new fried chicken shop?

Solga is continuously involved in 'Imagine Peace' and community music for peace and human rights.

Recently, she also focuses on climate change and ecological life. She will share about her music projects, including concerts, songs about the seasons, discussions, as well as her interest in the notion of sustainable music and ecological festivals.