The Arts Center Celebrates UAE National Day with a Virtual Gathering of Poets, Musicians, and Storytellers

Hekayah | The Story shined a light on the diversity of the UAE, cultural dialogue, and the role of arts in an interconnected world

Press Release

As part of the celebrations for the 49th UAE National Day, The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) hosted an eclectic lineup of poets, spoken word artists, musicians, and storytellers for the sixth annual Hekayah | The Story.

Streamed online this year, the artists explored questions such as the meaning of home, nation, belonging, family, and the city as a living, changing place. Hekayah | The Story also embraced the wider concepts of what it means to live in an interconnected world and the role that the arts and expression play during a global pandemic.

The lineup of performers was selected by key players in the cultural, poetry, arts, and writing communities across the UAE; a collaborative curatorial process that resulted in multiple viewpoints, mirroring the incredible diversity of the UAE.UAE)

The full Hekayah | The Story artist lineup featured:

Maajed Ahmed – Calligraffiti (KSA)
Rasha Alduwaisan – Spoken word poetry (Kuwait)
Hoor Ali Alnuaimi – Spoken word poetry (UAE)
Mary Collins – Indie folk (USA/UAE)
Safia Elhillo – Spoken word poetry (Sudan /US)
Gohary & The Band – Arabic fusion music (Egypt/UAE)
Ian Keteku – Spoken word poetry (Ghana/Canada)
Maryam Khalifa Alshehhi – Spoken word poetry (UAE)
Zohab Khan – Spoken word poetry (Australia /Pakistan/UK)
Miyamoto is Black Enough – Spoken word, alternative jazz-funk (Trinidad/USA)
Maisoon Mubarak – Classic Arabic singing (Egypt/UAE)


About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 115 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.