Habibi Festival is back for a fifth year with performances and talks on stage hosted by afikra, which we'll be releasing on our Quartertones series. Day 1 opens with a solo performance by Maii Waleed, an artist from Alexandria, Egypt, in her debut at Joe's Pub. She sings tracks from her upcoming EP, including "Neptune" and "Sama". Then violinist Layale Chaker takes the stage with her quintet, including a pianist, a drummer, a cellist and a double-bassist. She opened her set with a piece called "Anatomie of Titus – Fall of Rome". She discussed her album "Radio Afloat", which explores the sacred relationship between people and their land, and the grief and reverence that many Arab artists feel—especially in the diaspora—for this connection. She also mentioned her album "Inner Rhyme" inspired by the 12 meters in classical Arabic poetry. She shared that music, especially instrumental music, serves as a wordless art of suggestion, allowing listeners to attribute their own emotions to it. Chaker also performed a piece called "Southern Sky", inspired by a childhood memory of her village in southern Lebanon, near the border, and the starry nights she experienced there. Her final pieces were "Ocean to Ocean" which was inspired by a long poem by Ounsi el-Hajj, and "Nocturnal Backburn" that talks about native plants regrowing after a controlled fire. The performance is followed by a Q&A with Layale Chaker who explains that the violin was an instrument her mother chose for her, but one that has become an extension of herself.
Habibi Festival is back for a fifth year with performances and talks on stage hosted by afikra, which we'll be releasing on our Quartertones series. Day 1 opens with a solo performance by Maii Waleed, an artist from Alexandria, Egypt, in her debut at Joe's Pub. She sings tracks from her upcoming EP, including "Neptune" and "Sama". Then violinist Layale Chaker takes the stage with her quintet, including a pianist, a drummer, a cellist and a double-bassist. She opened her set with a piece called "Anatomie of Titus – Fall of Rome". She discussed her album "Radio Afloat", which explores the sacred relationship between people and their land, and the grief and reverence that many Arab artists feel—especially in the diaspora—for this connection. She also mentioned her album "Inner Rhyme" inspired by the 12 meters in classical Arabic poetry. She shared that music, especially instrumental music, serves as a wordless art of suggestion, allowing listeners to attribute their own emotions to it. Chaker also performed a piece called "Southern Sky", inspired by a childhood memory of her village in southern Lebanon, near the border, and the starry nights she experienced there. Her final pieces were "Ocean to Ocean" which was inspired by a long poem by Ounsi el-Hajj, and "Nocturnal Backburn" that talks about native plants regrowing after a controlled fire. The performance is followed by a Q&A with Layale Chaker who explains that the violin was an instrument her mother chose for her, but one that has become an extension of herself.
Every year Habibi Festival takes listeners on a journey of the sounds wafting through the airwaves and living rooms of cities spanning Marrakech to Baghdad. This performing arts festival (now in its fourth year) is a collaboration between the Director of Joe's Pub Alex Knowlton, artist/composer/curator Yacine Boulares, and curator/producer Meera Dugal who are bonded by the goal of creating more joyful spaces for performance, conversation, and storytelling from this part of the world.
Explore Habibi Festival 👉 https://www.instagram.com/habibifestival/?hl=en
0:00 Welcome to Habibi Festival 2025
14:02 Honoring Artists and Their Courage
18:00 Maii Waleed's Joe's Pub Debut
26:13 "Neptune": A Song of Hope
31:19 "Sama": Believing the Sky is Open
43:24 Layale Chaker Performs: Music as a Witness to Resistance
1:02:22 "Southern Sky": A Lebanese Memory
1:35:19 "Ocean to Ocean" and "Nocturnal Backburn"
1:45:25 afikra Q&A With Layale Chaker
1:47:01 Layale's Inspiration: Arabic Poetry and "Inner Rhyme"
1:50:01 "Radio Afloat": People, Land, and Collective Grief
1:52:16 The Wordless Art of Instrumental Music
1:54:10 Her Story With the Violin
Composer and violinist Layale Chaker was raised in Lebanon and is renowned for her beguiling and complex sound that masterfully intersects classical contemporary music, jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation, treating art as a vital crossroads where ancestral and contemporary voices meet. An award-winning artist and Jerome Hill Fellow, Layale released a double portrait album in 2024 on In a Circle Records: Vigil (featuring her classical works with the ETHEL Quartet) and Radio Afloat (with her chamber jazz quintet, Sarafand). These works reflect on the intertwined destinies of people and the natural world, building upon the success of her highly-praised 2019 debut album, Inner Rhyme.
Connect with Layale Chaker 👉 https://instagram.com/layalechaker
Maii Waleed is a singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist born and raised in Alexandria. She was once a part of Telepoetic, an Electro-Rock Egyptian band performing their first gig on 100live music festival for electronic arts. She dropped her first album, Moga, in 2013 which was produced with Zeid Hamdan.
Connect with Maii Waleed 👉 https://instagram.com/maiiwaleeed
Hosted by Helena Reyad 👉 https://instagram.com/helanareyad
Theme music: Peninsular, Tarek Yamani 🔊