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Episode 65 in English: Noon Festival, part 2: Meet Louna


Louna, co-founder of the space be’kech (a queer, Muslim, women-led community space in Berlin, Germany), joined us for this episode.  Be’kech combines the words “Berlin” and “Marrakech” to reflect the cities of origin of the co-founders (Louna’s roots are in Marrakech, Morocco and Nina’s are in Berlin).  We also talked about Noon Festival, which is happening in Berlin in that space until May 31.  We talked about be’kesh and the many beautiful ways it is utilized, and we discussed a project that Noon Festival is supporting.  The project is led by the organization Masjid al-Rabia, and it’s called Black and Pink Crescent.  The Chicago-based organization supports access to spiritual care and community to incarcerated queer and trans Muslims.  During our episode, we talked about the broken prison system in the U.S. and how the system affects mainly folks who have identities that are marginalized.

See more about Noon Festival: https://www.facebook.com/events/370757770206900/

Follow be’kech: https://www.facebook.com/bekech.berlin/

Read about Black and Pink Crescent: https://masjidalrabia.org/the-black-pink-crescent 

A thread mentioned at the end of the episode (please read this!!): https://masjidalrabia.org/the-black-pink-crescent

Mentioned in episode as well:
Hammam Talks cohosts: Rasha Hilwi & Abir Ghattas

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Episode 48: We’re Raising a Camel with Tania Safi

We are incredibly honored and grateful to have talked with Tania Safi! Tania grew up in Sydney, Australia, and has done extensive work in media journalism internationally. Tania is a filmmaker; she was head of video for Buzzfeed Australia and then moved to Los Angeles, where she was the senior video producer for Bring Me and Buzzfeed Entertainment.

Nadia Khayrallah co-hosted this episode with us and we had a very fun and meaningful discussion. Tania Safi’s presence in the media has made us feel represented. It is not often that we get to see queer SWANA representation, and Tania has given that to us and to so many fellow queer SWANA people.

Tania has created such beautiful work including her film “Traub Laus” which earned a SIGNIS award and a United Nations Plural+ International award. You can watch the film here: https://vimeo.com/55482316

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