“I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free. […] This is a time-travel exercise for the heart. This is collaborative ideation – what are the ideas that will liberate us all?”
- adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy

Awraq Festival is a platform for collective ideas and collaborative action, founded by Sabrin Hasbun in partnership with Bristol’s Palestine Museum.

Liberation and justice (in their absolute meaning – from individual empowerment to social, economical, and environmental decolonisation) should not be unattainable ideals, but constant movements we generate together. The festival wants to be a space where we discuss and apply the power of creativity, community organisation, and collective meaning-making toward the imagination and the actualisation of alternative futures.

Through engaging workshops, enlightening talks, artistic expressions, and interactive activities, we would like to see the participation and contributions of as many people as possible. This is our first year so we will learn a lot and there is no better way to learn together – organisers, participants, speakers – so we will also shape this festival as a way to think about and organise for our future festivals in a way that responds to all our needs and dreams.

This is the inaugural year of Awraq Festival and therefore we are still experimenting with its format.

To give room to improvements and further ideas, we are starting with a simple yet impactful programme over three days, from the 17th to the 19th of May 2024. Our festival may be small in scale, but our ambitions are vast so we put together a line-up of incredibles artists, speakers, and activists.

Finally, this year, in view of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the occupation of all Palestine, the festival is dedicated mainly to Palestinian voices and their allies in the deep belief that the liberation of Palestine is an essential step in the liberation of the whole world.

Whether you’re an activist, artist, thinker, writer or someone who wants change, Awraq Festival welcomes you to be part of this transformative movement. Explore our program, participate in discussions, share your ideas, and collaborate with people who are committed to liberate us all.

Any funds raised through tickets or donations will support some festival costs, including travel expenses for speakers, with the remainder allocated to Bristol’s Palestine Museum for diverse projects and initiatives with other charities and organisations.

website: awraqfestival.com
instagram: @awraqfestival