On Saturday 7th February, from 6pm we will have our debut event at The Edge, which is part of Friction Arts. For this second collaboration with Hayati Open Mic, we have curated a beautiful and soulful collection of short films which explore grief tenderly.

The evening will compromise of a selection of short films which explore themes of grief, resistance, remembrance and community. Joining us from London, we have Rohan Ayinde, Zarina Rossheart and Tayo Rapoport, the creators of 'ęmí : freedomsong', with Rohan performing a poetry piece of his.

As always we will have food to nourish and an open mic session to invite you to share your words and art.

FILMS ::

- Night, Ahmad Saleh, 2021 (16')

The dust of war keeps the eyes sleepless. Night brings peace and sleep to all the

people in the broken town. Only the eyes of the mother of the missing child

stay resilient. Night has to trick her into sleeping to save her soul.

- A Night We Held Between, Noor Abed, 2021

A Night We Held Between takes as its starting point Song for The Fighters, found in the sound archive of the Popular Art Center Palestine. As if in a maze of sounds and places, the film evokes history as a permanent present tense, a collective act of imagination.

- The Poem We Sang, Annie Sakkab, 2025 (20')

An experimental documentary that meditates on love and longing, the love of one’s family and the longing for one’s home, contemplated through overcoming the trauma of the loss of a family home and of forced migration, transforming lifelong regrets into a healing journey of creative catharsis and bearing witness.

- ęmí : freedomsong, Rohan, Zarina, Tayo, 2025 (5')

Inspired by bell hooks’ All About Love and Camille Sapara Barton’s Tending Grief, this short film Reflects on the Yoruba concept of ęmí {the breath that animates life}. freedomsong invites audiences to connect with their voices and find the courage and language to transform their individual and collective grief into a culture of love and radical change.