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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260426T103000
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SUMMARY:To Re-Cite: Ayat al-Kursi - Sound\, Faith\, and Collective Listening - workshops
DESCRIPTION:We warmly invite you to a workshop as part of the wider development of our newly commissioned project with artist Aliaskar Abarkas\, exploring sound\, music\, and listening through faith and collective experience.\nEach session brings together members of our community with Muslim backgrounds to share ideas\, and reflections on how sonic practices – from recitation and prayer to breath\, rhythm\, and silence – shape spiritual\, emotional\, and communal life. The starting point of the project is the Quranic verse Ayat al-Kursi\, whispered across generations\, transmitted as both lullaby and sonic protection. \nThis is a series of workshops forming part of a longer-term project\, with sessions taking place on Sun 26 Apr\, Sun 17 May\, Sun 31 May\, 21 Jun\, 12 Jul\, 26 Jul and 16 Aug 2026. Please book each session individually. \nTo Re-Cite is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery for Backyard Biennial.\n\nBook workshops on these dates:\nSun 26 Apr 2026\, 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 17 May 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 31 May 10.30am – 12.30pm; book HERE\nSun 28 June 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 12 July 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 26 July 11am – 1pm; book HERE\nSun 16 August 11am – 1pm; book HERE\n  \nAbout Aliaskar Abarkas\nAliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London. \nRooted in alternative and communal art education\, his practice stages choreographic encounters that move from individual elements into collective expression. Often in dialogue with historical sources\, Abarkas builds collaborative frameworks that invite participants to interpret and activate inherited scores through music\, exhibition\, and performance-making. \nHe is currently an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells / Rose Choreographic School (London\, 2024–26) and Lead Artist at Autograph Gallery (Acts of Solidarity\, in partnership with All Change\, London\, 2025–28). He holds a BA in Visual Cultures from the University of Tehran and an MA in the Theory of Contemporary Art and Politics from Goldsmiths\, University of London. Previous residencies include Cubitt Gallery and the Swiss Church (London)\, as well as Rupert (Lithuania)\, the Institute of Postnatural Studies (Madrid)\, Castro (Rome)\, Open School East\, and Syllabus V (UK)\, among others. \nHis work has been supported by institutions including the Barbican Centre\, ICA\, The Mosaic Rooms\, TACO!\, Pushkin House\, LUX (London)\, CAPC (Bordeaux)\, LOCALES (Rome)\, Scuola Piccola Zattere (Venice)\, and CIRCA. Upcoming projects include commissions and collaborations with Arts Catalyst (Sheffield)\, YDP Foundation (London)\, and the Singapore Art Museum. \nImage: Reverberance\, Living Rehearsing\, YDP\, London\, 2026. Photograph: Anne Tetzlaff
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/to-re-cite-ayat-al-kursi-sound-faith-and-collective-listening-workshops/
LOCATION:Clore Creative Studio Whitechapel Gallery\, Clore Creative Studio\, Whitechapel Art Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX
CATEGORIES:Community & Participation,Sound Art
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T150000
DTSTAMP:20260709T080116Z
CREATED:20260709T080116Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260709T080116Z
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SUMMARY:Listening to the Xeedho Archive
DESCRIPTION:Join researcher Ibrahim Hirsi and moderator Heather Marks for an open archive session exploring the research and sound archive behind Fozia Ismail’s A Song for the Xeedho.\nBOOK HERE\nThis informal session offers a behind-the-scenes look at the recordings\, questions and cultural histories informing the project. Ibrahim will share elements of his research into the xeedho — a Somali nomadic wedding vessel — and the oral traditions\, songs\, memories and forms of women’s knowledge connected to it. \nPart presentation\, part listening session and part open conversation\, the event invites audiences to think with the archive as a living\, layered space: one shaped by sound\, migration\, craft\, memory and what is passed between generations. \nA Song for the Xeedho – the Knot Makers is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery. \n  \nAbout Ibrahim Hirsi\nIbrahim Hirsi is a writer\, archivist\, and editor at Journal Gobanimo. He is a co-founder of Koor Archives and is currently working on his first monograph\, which explores the metre of southern Somali poetic forms. His work has been published in The Poetry Review\, Modern Poetry in Translation\, PBLJ\, and the anthology Before Them\, We (Flipped Eye\, 2022). \n  \nAbout Fozia Ismail\nFozia Ismailis a British Somali artist\, founder of Arawelo Eats and co-founder of dhaqan collective. Her practice moves across food\, sound\, textiles and found objects to create works exploring migration\, climate\, identity and diasporic memory.  \nRooted in Somali nomadic feminist pedagogy\, her work approaches everyday cultural practices as living archives of care\, knowledge and survival. Through collective acts of listening\, eating\, weaving and making\, she reframes domestic and communal space as sites of shared authorship. Central to her practice are inherited materials and objects connected to her mother’s Somali nomadic roots – vessels\, spices\, textiles\, cassette tapes and sound recordings\, which she transforms into sculptural\, time-based and archival works.  \nIsmail has exhibited internationally at the British Textile Biennale\, Southbank Centre\, Biennale Architettura Venice\, Weltmuseum Wien\, Playable Cities\, Osaka and Jodhpur Art Week.   \n  \nAbout Heather Marks\nHeather Marks is an artist\, researcher and producer working across archives\, film\, literature and public programming. Her practice explores Black and Global Majority histories\, with a focus on fugitivity\, fabulation and decolonial practices of repair. She is currently in residence at the National Portrait Gallery\, responding to portraits of 16th – 19th century Global Majority sitters in the Heinz Archive\, and at The Box\, Plymouth\, researching unseen collections in the South West Film & Television Archive. Her moving image work Fugitives in the Archive has screened at Spike Island\, Autograph ABP and Bristol Beacon. \nBOOK HERE \nImage: Listening to the Archive -Maya Mahindou Illustration for Camel Milk & Cassette Tapes two
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/listening-to-the-xeedho-archive/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://counterpoints.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Copy-of-Listening-to-the-Archive-Maya-Mahindou-Illustration-for-Camel-Milk-Cassette-Tapes-two.jpeg
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260815T170000
DTSTAMP:20260708T170112Z
CREATED:20260708T165909Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260708T170112Z
UID:10000625-1786809600-1786813200@counterpoints.org.uk
SUMMARY:A Song for the Xeedho: Climate\, Censorship and East African Futures
DESCRIPTION:Layla Mahmood\, East Africa Correspondent for The Observer\, joins Mohammed Elnaiem from The Decolonial Centre for a conversation on climate\, censorship and environmental change in East Africa.\nBOOK HERE\nTaking Fozia Ismail’s A Song for the Xeedho as a starting point\, the event considers what disappearing ecologies mean for nomadic life\, oral tradition and ways of knowing rooted in land\, movement and interdependence. \nLayla will be joined by an additional speaker (to be announced) for a discussion on climate\, power\, colonial legacies and who gets to narrate environmental change. \nA Song for the Xeedho – the Knot Makers is co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and Whitechapel Gallery. \nAbout Layla Mahmood\nLayla Mahmood is a journalist\, reporter and East Africa Correspondent for The Observer. Her work spans climate\, politics\, culture and social justice. She has worked with The Guardian and the BBC\, with a focus on investigative and people-led reporting that traces how political decisions are felt in everyday life. Her journalism has explored social and political issues across East Africa and the wider diaspora\, alongside cultural writing for publications including Glamour and Subbacultcha!. Layla has also worked as a producer and writer with Fully Focused Productions and Million Youth Media\, supporting storytelling rooted in lived experience and youth perspectives. \nAbout Mohammed Elnaiem\nMohammed Elnaiem is Director of The Decolonial Centre. He is an activist\, and also working on a Ph.D. in Sociology at Trinity Hall\, Cambridge\, where he is writing a dissertation on the relationship between capitalism\, colonialism and patriarchy. \nBOOK HERE
URL:https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/climate-censorship-and-east-african-futures/
LOCATION:Whitechapel Gallery\, 77-82 Whitechapel High St\, London\, E1 7QX\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Sound Art,Visual Arts
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