We are so excited to watch Mouna Ouafik and Soukaina Habiballah weave their ideas into our poetic tapestry at StAnza 2024. Performing across the weekend as part of their first-ever UK poetry tour, supported by Creative Scotland, The National Lottery, Highlight Arts and SHAEIRAT, their tour aims to give voice to marginalised female writers from the Middle East and North Africa.
As well as performing as part of our Festival Opening Night, Soukaina and Mouna bring their phenomenal poetry performances to our Main Stage. Mouna will read from From the Female Chimpanzee to Darwin, examining her relationship with religion, family, sex and love, and Soukaina will perform Nini ya Momo, exploring maternal ties, colonialism and post-partum depression.
We caught up with the artists ahead of their big tour. Read Soukaina Habiballah’s full interview below:
StAnza: Hi, Soukaina. To get us started, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
From a bird’s-eye view: a Casablanca-born millennial Moroccan woman.
Zooming in: A mom slash Poetess slash novelist slash performer slash translator slash educator.
My sanctuary? Teaching creative writing to aspiring writers and poets for 7 years now. My academic journey has been an eclectic mix, spanning Economics, Law and American Studies. I view writing and art as my primary tools for navigating and connecting with the world’s complexities. They are the hands by which I touch and hold tight life. That’s why I am deeply unsettled by any attempts to restrain or bind these hands. Such constraints would mean letting the very essence of life slip through my fingers, a compromise I’m not willing to make.
StAnza: Can you tell us about Nini ya Momo and how it came to be?
Nini ya Momo is a solo performance from the Shaeirat Project, directed by Henri Jules Julien, not a traditional form of theater and not a complete experimentalist show. It’s a long poem I present in a bilingual format, blending Arabic with sound art. The narrative unfolds a dialogue between a grandmother and her granddaughter, exploring layers of personal and collective memory under the shadow of colonial legacy. This exploration delves into how colonization, its aftermath, could be related to the transgenerational trauma.
Initially embodying the granddaughter’s voice, my journey led me to also identify with the grandmother. Moroccan grandmothers were often imprisoned in their sacred roles: telling fairy tales, cooking delicious meals, and babysitting the grandchildren. We wanted their past to be completely overshadowed by age, as if they were born grandmothers. That was one of the reasons why I integrated Moroccan lullabies in various Moroccan languages, recorded from the mouths of Moroccan grandmothers, into the fabric of the narrative. These voices, doomed to silence, oblivion, and erasure, are briefly immortalized in this artistic work, and the brilliant Moroccan artist Zouheir Atbane (who created the soundtracks of this performance) excelled in weaving these voices together.
In a side note: translation is one of the pillars of this show, allowing Arabic and English to coexist, reflecting my view of the performance as a space for reconciliation across not only generations but languages also.
StAnza: What can audiences expect from the performance?
I consider the audience as part of this performance, which is why each presentation is a unique discovery for me, unfolding in real time on stage. This show has traversed a spectrum of human emotion and connection, from reviving lost melodies for Alzheimer’s patients in France to challenging stereotypes about Moroccan women and the Arabic language in Switzerland, to serving as art therapy in Egypt. It’s an auditory tapestry of Arabic, English and Moroccan languages like Amazigh, Darija, and Hassani. It invites audiences to experience poetry in motion, blurring the lines between the poem and her writer: Me the poetess.
StAnza: If you could describe Nini ya Momo in one sentence, what would it be?
There’s a Moroccan proverb I hold dear, encapsulating the spirit of the performance: ‘Whoever’s grandparents leave them a mountain, will climb it.’
StAnza: You’re visiting StAnza as part of your first poetry tour across the UK, which must be very exciting! How are you feeling about the tour?
I am profoundly grateful for the invitation to participate in the vibrant StAnza festival, further enriched by meticulously organized parallel activities by Highlight Arts, Shaeirat, and Moniack Mhor. I’m planning during my short residency at Moniack Mhor to delve deeper into a creative project I’m currently writing about Moroccan acrobats who captivated audiences in the United States and Britain in the twentieth century. They toured around the UK, USA, and Austria, where they were welcomed with open arms. Today, as I’m facing some visa complications to visit the UK that will hopefully be resolved, I long for the simplicity of being recognized for one’s artistry, just as a twentieth-century Moroccan artist has been.
StAnza: What are you most looking forward to about visiting StAnza Poetry Festival this year?
Exploring the festival’s brochure feels akin to uncovering a treasure trove brimming with cultural and artistic gems, reflecting the legendary dedication behind its curation. The prospect of engaging with fellow poets and artists, fostering intercultural dialogues, fills me with anticipation. The opportunity to interact with the Scottish audience, in particular, stands as my most cherished reward. I am wholeheartedly looking forward to these exchanges with great eagerness.
Don’t miss Soukaina’s performance of Nini ya Momo on Sunday 10 March, 3.30-4.30pm in the Byre Theatre’s Main Auditorium. The performance will also be available to live-stream.
