SATURDAY,

JANUARY 10 – Opening Day 

2–2:10 p.m.: Welcome and Introduction—Sulafa Khalid. 

2:10–2:20 p.m.: Where will the funds go?
Short Presentation including a video by Jalila Kuku.
Presenter: Rayan Mohamed ElTom. 

2:30 – 3 p.m.: Honoring Islam Zein Alabadeen: his work, life, and love for arts, people, Paris, and Sudan.Speakers: Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, Mohamed Alasbaat, Mutasim Sid-Ahmed, Hind Al-Tahir with the presence of all the artists. 

Panel 1

3–4 p.m.: A Conversation on Memory and Resistance in Times of War
(Arabic with French interpretation)
Speakers: Alaa Sattir, Doaa Hussein Marshall, Khalid Albaih, Khalid Shatta, and Mohamed Kehail.
Moderator: Samira Ibrahim

This conversation brings together Sudanese artists Khalid Shatta, Alaa Sattir, Khalid Albaih, Mohamed Kehail, and Doaa Marshall, exploring how art functions as a tool for memory, resistance, and survival during war and displacement. Through painting, illustration, murals, and political cartoons,, the artists examine how creative expression documents lived realities, challenges dominant narratives, and preserves cultural memory in times of crisis.

As violence continues to threaten lives and cities in Sudan, the artists use visual work to document what is happening and to show the world what is unfolding. Their images capture loss, resilience, and resistance, creating shared records of the present outside official accounts. The discussion looks at art as both documentation and political expression, and at how creative work helps preserve identity and communicate resistance.

The conversation is moderated by Samira Ibrahim, a French journalist of Egyptian-Sudanese heritage with extensive experience covering Africa and the Arab world. Samira will guide the dialogue, connecting the artists’ practices to broader questions of memory, resistance, and collective storytelling. She helps illuminate how visual expression can sustain social and political engagement, while highlighting Sudan’s stories on both local and international stages.

Together, the panel reflects on how art preserves identity, shapes political consciousness, and carries Sudanese stories forward through shared visual memory.

Panel 2

4–5 p.m.: Songs, Salt, and Gold
Speakers: Hind Eltahir, Nisreen Kuku, and Omer Eltijani
Moderator: Mohamed Al-Asbaat.

In times of conflict and cultural rupture, everyday practices—such as the songs we sing, the food we share, the jewelry we wear, and the images we create—become powerful carriers of memory, identity, and resistance. This panel explores how these cultural forms hold history, negotiate belonging, and affirm continuity in the face of displacement and loss.

Hend El Tahir and Mohamed El-Asbaat reflect on the legacy of Sudanese female musical pioneers, including Hawa Jah al-Rasoul Mohammed (Hawa Al-Tagtaga) and Asha Al-Falatiya, examining how music has long challenged power, expressed struggle, and sustained collective memory—resonating with Sudanese communities across generations.

Omer Eltijani discusses The Sudanese Kitchen, a decade-long project that blends ethnography, archive, memoir, and art to document Sudanese foodways. The project reveals cuisine as a living archive—preserving resilience, creativity, and cultural knowledge through everyday practice.

Nisreen Kuku explores Sudanese jewelry as embodied memory and narrative, highlighting how ornaments preserve social histories, rites of passage, beliefs, and intergenerational knowledge, while resisting cultural erasure.

The discussion also touches on the Sudanese Jirtig wedding ritual, recently inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as an example of living heritage carried through sound, adornment, and ritual. Moderated by Mohamed El-Asbaat, the panel traces how music, cuisine, jewelry, and art function as living languages of memory and resistance.

Panel 3

5–6 p.m.: Cinema as Memory: Archiving Sudan’s Stories
(Arabic with French interpretation)
Speakers: Israa Elkogali, Eman Hussein Sherif 
Moderator: Sara Greirra

As violence threatens lives and cities, artists and filmmakers use visual work to document what is happening and to show the world what is unfolding. Images and films capture loss, resilience, and resistance, creating shared records of the present that exist beyond official accounts.

This panel looks at cinema and visual art as ways of recording memory, identity, and culture in the context of war, displacement, and rupture. It focuses on Sudanese filmmaking and visual practice as tools for preserving history, revisiting heritage, and asserting cultural presence. The conversation highlights the legacy of Hussein Shariffe, whose films continue to serve as key records of Sudanese cultural memory, and the ongoing work to archive and share his contributions.

Building on this, Issraa Elkogali reflects on her filmmaking and multimedia practice, which links art and activism to document diverse Sudanese experiences across Sudan and the diaspora. Through films, installations, and visual storytelling, her work explores belonging, ritual, and identity across borders.

Moderated by Sarra Grira, the discussion also draws connections to Palestinian cinema, which offers a powerful example of visual culture as an archive in the face of displacement and ongoing violence. Through this lens, the panel considers how cinema and visual art sustain memory, amplify marginalized voices, and carry cultural histories forward for future generations.

Panel 4:

6 –7 p.m.
Panel: Bridging Research and Activism: Supporting Sudanese Women Through Displacement and Uncertainty
(Arabic with French interpretation)
Speakers: Marie Bassie, Mawada Adam, Rana Bilal
Moderator: Mayada Adil 

This conversation brings together three women professionals—two doctors and one researcher—working with Sudanese women affected by war and displacement in Cairo and across transnational contexts.

Marie Bassi, a political scientist and coordinator of CEDEJ following its relocation from Khartoum to Cairo, presents Akhir Faysal – Faysal Last Stop. Grounded in her research on displacement and Sudanese diasporic life, the project documents the everyday geographies, economic practices, and personal histories of Sudanese women displaced to Cairo, creating a participatory archive that highlights experiences often missing from official narratives.

In dialogue, Rana Bilal and Dr. Mawada Adam bring their experience with Collective Circles, supporting Sudanese women displaced to Cairo, Chad, Uganda, and Kenya since the war erupted. Their work focuses on sustaining dignity, leadership, and connection through regenerative activism, relational practices, and inclusive dialogue, addressing collective grief, intergenerational trauma, and the role of the body in navigating hardship.

The panel highlights how Bassi’s research-based approach and Rana and Mawada’s activist-practical approach intersect: both center the voices, experiences, and resilience of Sudanese women, connecting lived experience with methods for sustaining political, social, and emotional continuity under crisis.

The conversation is moderated by Dr. Mayada Adil, a Sudanese doctor, UN SDG Young Leader, and gender equality advocate. She guides the discussion to illuminate these intersections, showing how research, care-based practice, and collective organizing inform each other, and how solidarity, political engagement, and resilience can be nurtured across scholarly, artistic, and activist frameworks.

Together, the panel reflects on how research, artistic practice, and regenerative activism can sustain political life, community continuity, and collective strength while war continues.

7– 10 p.m.: Exhibition opening, reception, musical performance, and meet the artists.