 Today we've chosen to take you on a trip down memory lane in the old creeks of Deira and we're going to be introducing you to some of the best literary talents we have in the country. The setting for our override is a historical trade route and we've chosen it as a tribute to the Wikipedia principles of free flow of information, the power of community and sustainable development. Let's go. Today and just for you, we're taking a boat into the Dubai Creek, which is the heart and soul of the city, with three of Dubai's favorite poets and performers. First up, we have Dr. Afratik. Dr. Afra is an Imanati scholar and poet. She has completed her PhD in media and creative industries at UAE University. Dr. Afra also has a master's degree in diplomacy and has been published in international journals. Her research focuses on mapping the Arab literary sphere, education, literacy, social media effects and collective memory. She's won numerous awards and her poetry has been featured on stages around the world. Her art explores a broad range of topics which include heritage, culture, identity, legacy, self-acceptance, grief and almost everything in between. She writes and performs a blend of English, Arabic and French. She's a founding member of Untitled Chapters, a community of Imanati women writers. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Afra. I'm so excited to be sharing these poems with you today. This first poem is a poem that answers the question that I get asked a lot, which is, why do you do what you do? I once walked into a classroom to teach a workshop and as I looked at the charming faces of the entire second grade, I mustered all of my enthusiasm and I said, I'm a poet. To which one of the children replied, wow, you have the most boring job. I said, I am a poet and it is my job to take words, fold them into tiny paper airplanes, send them off into the world and hope they get where they need to go. This is what we do, unapologetically. We write stories, songs and poems, turn everyday objects into extraordinary how wondrous it is to see cardboard tubes and imagine them into spy glasses, blue sea swishing in the distance. How wonderful it must be to have words dancing across stories to know that page is not blank. It is a canvas with outstretched arms waiting to hug its next ideas to dissect and reconstruct our world because reason tells us that only impact is measurable. Where there is impact, the energy of an object is converted to work. This is about putting words to work because if we have learned anything, it is that collectively we can rise. Skip through stars like there were pebbles on a quiet river, you and me and us and we have the power of stories within us, but maybe I'm just optimistic outside of the box. So read stories, write poems, put your words to work. So read stories, write poems, put your words to work because here lies a story and a poem and once upon a time they do not sing or rhyme and they will not become unless you make it so so if you do nothing else make it so the next poem I want to share with you is a poem that I love because it's about loving who you are and it was born of the prompt imagine you turn out to be the love of your life under the gilded chambers of your heart marveling at everywhere it's been I wonder if there is room for me I stand in amazement at the doors though they are closed they're breathtaking carved and painted gold veins like delicate flower filled trellises winding wisdom woven into the fibers despite the rumors and lack of welcome math I stand in the doorway with a pie in one hand because I know better than to show up at your home empty handed I'm terrified I wonder if you will like me because like me you are skeptical of literally everyone adult ache just present enough to tell you that no matter how many poems you write into existence love is not something that is meant for you I know no matter how many times I try you probably won't open the door but if you do I tell you I left a piece of myself with the best clockmaker I know so our existences can be stitched together at exactly the right moment if only for a moment long enough for me to tell you I bartered to unbind you from your deadlines and meetings the six alarms you set yourself every morning all three minutes apart because you like odd numbers and even spaces when the only thing you should be setting is music to this beat so you can dance like you would have danced at all the parties you weren't invited to that seventh grade birthday party on a Thursday pretending to be interested in your blue shoelaces because you were the only one who wasn't included and who needs their party anyways I'd show you that the northern lights are only a matchstick in the dark and you are the entire horizon if I could give you anything I'd give you this basket full of everything you needed but never received closure assurance that you were on the right path time if only to see that nothing was ever really broken time if only to know how much it can do I'd smash all the moments you thought you weren't good enough and mosaic them into a disco ball then I'd ask you to dance I know you don't dance but I'd ask you to dance to create movement in the solitude you've called home for too long we will waltz into the people we will be better for becoming and yes I know disco balls don't go with the waltz but you have a flair for the dramatic and I have a wild streak I know there are things you swore to never immortalize in your poems a broken grandfather clock a bruised bookshelf a conversation in the hallway the weight of grief but someday one day we will tell the story about your gilded heart with the carved doors to the world about how you open the door and there it was your face staring back at you pie and gift basket in hand endless staircases under your feet and you will say welcome home we've been expecting you thank you Dr. Afra for that brilliant performance which echoes this amazing atmosphere of the Dubai Creek up next we have Danabel Gutierrez Danabel is a multi-award winning writer actress and photographer she's the author of poetry books along to be the river and until the dreams come and chap books eventually the river surrenders and softer born in Las Piñas and raised in Cairo Vienna and Muscat Danabel now lives in Dubai and is currently working on her next book tears across the earth we also have Arkham born and raised in the UAE with roots in Oman and Zanzibar Arkham is a young Emirati soul singer trying to make a difference with music and conscious entrepreneurship his music reflects the embodiment of the UAE where the old values meet the new and progressive a mix of old-school soul and neo soul beats with lyrics rooted in positivity, introspection, love and search for purpose all this brought together with vocals that are reminiscent of Motown and the early soul movement please join me in welcoming Danabel and followed by Arkham hi everyone I will be reading two poems for you today this first one is called superstitions which is a little hard to give an introduction to so I'll let you just have the experience of it superstitions from the soil I was raised the elders believed in the powers under it to counter us all lick your finger and touch the stomach the forehead the feet else make an offering to the ballette or the mound from which you failed to pay your respects they say to grow longer hair cut the ends let the lock swim sa ilog sadagat sa kanal it doesn't really matter or it does but who can say for sure none of this is true whatever they told you whoever they are however inclined you are to believe in the significance of moles points on a landscape that is your body or stars if you like to believe you are the sky on the face meaning luck on the side of nose meaning grief on the feet meaning run on the nape meaning chased on palas in sing and meaning no one has told me how to relinquish control to surrender to cover my lips with an abanico when I smile they say do it they do not say how and I forgot even why the blushing phantom will appear alone at dusk in the damp dark green it's transparent wing lattice fades pink tempo on low or motionless will fly fast if disturbed or hide it reemerges out of habit it happens you get it I'm gonna I know more than anyone how this works uprooted only to find the channels are deeper so instead cut yet all the parts remain like a phantom limb my brain rewires reassesses all sensations of faith felt or not felt like the violet flame from the hands of those who should love me how they have set my life on fire I phoenixed my way out I had to at mula saabo I still sweep dust inward and never after sunset I still turn the lemon colored plate when someone leaves at dinnertime babangun parinaku before sunrise to meet the first Sun even if I see nothing beyond my hand I will hope for something to show up at dawn at daybreak an unkindness of ravens are a single one calling a new day in panibago omaga the clouds eating all of heaven in colors of the breakfast cereal aisle or the painted eggs hidden in the santan bush I am rebirth daily year after year I wish only for light illow at the end I take the glass and break it scars on my hands more than I can count put my best Sunday dress on all floral and flow throw salt over my left shoulder and stroll under the trees whether I believe it I say tabi tabi book like they said like they said I thank the earth the sand and all that is under it for my feet for forgiveness I look up salang it ha ha to swallow the yellow yolk of the Sun this second poem is called owed to the love of my life and it is my love letter to today missing the city during the pandemic I am jealous of American poets and their big Apple love poems sonnets to the streets and fire exits romanticizing bagels in yellow taxis someone told me I would fit in New York like it's easy like I could grow wings like I've never been denied maybe another city would make me a better poet a better lover perhaps I am devoted to you even when my mother told me to flee to ice I planted my feet and grew hands I miss you within a fortnight I miss you even now while we are dust apart in this bed city-large how we are almost one unable to be seen without the other a year and a half later in the garden in my bedroom jealous and seething of all the reckless love other people get to have with you I wince at what they call you when you're not listening they don't know you like I do I am hanging on a branch one side open an apple hollowed out by wasps like a ballroom archway with translucent walls shedding self and skin there is no name for this love unowned not belonging to each other like saffron tea and styrofoam cups faces lit by the blue of the car stereo like whispering prayers to lesser deities who never respond still I make believe or in secret knockings at secret restaurants floating down the creek for a dirham sunsets on the metro fairy lights on the boulevard two-hour drives through mountains of stone and seven colored sands fruit stalls and carpets how you would point to the camels on the highway occasionally gazelles hi my name is Arkham I'm an Emirati soul singer and my single few soul songs for you it's original songs for you the first one's called heavy it was about the last two years that we all been going through some turmoil and it's about hope at the end of the challenges we've gone through it's called heavy see the world's gonna change but I'm gonna get by are you gonna get by we're gonna get by cuz life's so heavy now everything's so new yes life's so heavy now everything heavy so much a lot of now see the weights on my shoulders I'm building me up I've got my head held high and the world's gonna change in a blink of an eye and I'm gonna get by you gonna get by we're gonna get by cuz life ain't so heavy now everything heavy one is just hoping you we're hoping you life ain't so heavy now everything is so brand new I'm gonna make it by I'm gonna make it by with you by my side life ain't so heavy now thank you so much, thank you so much the next song is called towards the light it's a song to remind us that we all star dust and that one day we'll return to the stars goes a bit like this then time I will tell you I'm gonna pass you by home door unto those you love you'll eventually know why then I I've been broken on my line then in need then darkness I will call you sheep into your night with that salvation baby just look towards the light towards the light towards the light towards the light watch out now watch out now didn't hang girl ever consume you well it's born from regret to see your choice is how I made you you know that's the fact didn't kind of suffer beg you but you're so hard on by the world you watch the hand away only the ways when you say didn't hate ever taunt you we can make you cry when dry your eyes my brother see love will never die, never die towards the light towards the light towards the light towards the light come on now yes I'm floating now and there we have it poetry in motion it's been such a pleasure sharing this boat ride with all of you and with our performers Dr. Afra, Danabel and Arkham thank you and goodbye superstition from the soil I was raised the elders believed in the powers under it to counter usog lick your finger and touch the stomach, the forehead, the feet else make an offering through the ballet or the mound from which you failed to pay your respects whether I believe it I say tabi tabi po like they said like they said I thank the earth the sand and all that is under it for my feet for forgiveness I look up thank you I hope to swallow the yellow yolk of the sun hello from the Wikimedians of UAE user group we are delighted to take part in wikimania 2022 and later this year in October we will be hosting the very first wiki arabia conference in the region right here in Dubai which we hope some of you will be able to attend in person