On Friday 8 December 2023, the activities of the first cultural festival for our expatriate people’s creators in Lebanon, organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts in cooperation with the Syriac League in Lebanon, concluded under the slogan “The Syriac Creator Shines Without Borders,” at St. Jacob of Serugh Hall in the Sabtiyeh area of the capital Beirut.
The festival was opened with a speech by the Syriac League, delivered by its president, Habib Afram, in which he pointed out, “We are one blood, one cause, whose title is freedom, citizenship, and equality. Our bet, despite all the difficulties, is to remain in our land,” stressing that “the East is our land, and the sky is also part of our faith. It is difficult for us talk about taking root in a time of siege and humiliation, but there is no alternative to it.”
Then, the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, delivered his speech in which he pointed out that “the doors of the General Directorate are open for cooperation with all institutions and intellectuals among our people who, despite their estrangement, the Directorate will continue to fulfill its duty toward them,” stressing that these activities that the Directorate is holding come from the unlimited support of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the person of its President, Mr. Masrour Barzani. Despite the difficult economic conditions that the region is going through, its support continues for Syriac intellectuals and artists, not only in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, but in neighboring countries as well.
Then, Fr. Andrew Khazaal, who attended as a representative of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon and Tripoli, gave his speech, after which the festival activities continued, which began with a hymn by the child Malak Shukri and then another hymn by the young woman Lavinia Adam, after which the young artist Jad al-Haddad performed a solo performance on the oud titled “Baghdad is Burning.”
After that, a number of poets continued to recite their poems in Syriac and Arabic, with three poets from Iraq participating: the poets Ramzi Hormuz Yako, Issam Shaba Filfil, and Ablahad Yako, in addition to the young poet and storyteller Micheline Boutros from Lebanon.
The festival’s activities included a number of artistic performances, some of which were performed by the young artist Youssef Samir and others by the young man Nawar Jamil. The festival concluded with the distribution of gifts of appreciation to the participants in addition to the preparatory committee that participated in its preparation and organization.
