After moving to Liverpool from Yemen in 1995, Taher Qassim started to notice a change in one of his younger daughters.
Speaking to friends also of Yemeni descent living in the city, they picked up on how their children had started to raise issues around such things as their names and clothes. As the few pupils of Arab heritage in south Liverpool primary schools, Taher recalls, they found it difficult to display and celebrate a culture which stood out from the rest of the class.
Hearing this, the former public health official at Liverpool City Council joined with fellow parents and began going from one house to the other having meetings, discussing ways to establish a stronger connection with their country’s traditions. The importance of learning Arabic was underscored, and so it was decided who was going to do the teaching, how much it was going to cost, where it was going to be.
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Taher’s eldest daughter, Afrah Qassim, 48, was one of five teachers who volunteered to give lessons and run after school activities centring on learning Arabic and the region’s wider culture. “It was a celebration,” remembers Afrah, “and I think afterwards my sister was so proud of who they are and where they come from.”
This work laid the foundation for what is now Liverpool Arabic Centre. It also paved the way for an event which is now into its 25th Year, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.
“The focus at first was our children and the language and we felt strongly that our language is what keeps the culture alive,” added Taher. “When we were running the classes regularly, more and more parents brought their children to these after school activities. It was the foundation for what we have now."
That “now” is the quarter century mark for Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, a celebration which has gradually grown to be the UK’s longest running annual festival of Arab art and culture. This year’s event officially got under way on Thursday, July 6, and is set to run until Sunday July 16 - culminating in an event at Sefton Park Palm House.
The programme for 2023 features a wide range of music, performance, visual art, poetry and film. While the celebration is now a key part of the city’s cultural calendar and a platform for artists to launch their careers, its beginnings as a festival, following on from the Arabic School, started out with a humble transcription for the Bluecoat art gallery.
The gallery required help translating a leaflet for a music event. Taher assisted, and following the success of the gig, it was decided a group would come together to programme what he described as a “weekender”.
Afrah, who is now chair of Liverpool Arab Arts festival and the founder of Liverpool-based charity Savera UK, pitched in to help with the event in its early stages. “I was involved in one way or another, but at the beginning stages I was more helping my dad,” she says, adding: “I didn't have any choice at that time. We were just part of it as a family. That was the beauty of it. We have always supported our dad.”
Afrah added: “We saw the importance of keeping our culture alive. But also I think when we moved here to the UK, we didn't feel like we were belonging to a community because it was very non-existent.
“The Arab culture was very hidden. Nobody knew anything about the Yemeni communities which had been here for many many years."
The event in turn provided a platform and Taher credits the impact of the 2008 European Capital of Culture and the festival becoming an independent event away from the Bluecoat’s programme as the two moments that enabled it to grow to what it is today. While there was a strong Yemeni influence to begin with, he adds that a wider celebration of Arabic culture was crucial to its impact and progress.
Taher said: “Being part of the [event at the Bluecoat], we realised at an early stage that if we wanted to develop this idea further, it has to be an Arabic wide festival. Otherwise it is not sustainable as a Yemeni community event, as that is only one part of it.”
While bringing a greater spotlight to the city’s diverse communities and cultures from around the world, Afrah believes the event has broken down boundaries for families here in Liverpool. She recalls a story contrasting the audiences in the early days of the festival to now.
Afrah said: “I remember the first time we held an event and it was a Yemeni singer in the Windsor Street library. Aside from me, my sister, my mum and a female friend, the majority was men from the community - we didn't see any women there.
"Fast forward 20 years later, if you go to the Palm House [for the family day] the dance floor is full of all diversity, all young, all genders. That is what I call a breakthrough and change.
“You were not able to do those things before, and that is what makes LAAF so different. It is a role model showing what can be done - not by fighting but just by doing what we believe is right.”
While Taher helped to found the festival and drive it on towards the celebration it is today, he has taken a slight step back to the position of trustee. It’s a role that provides the elevation to look back on the achievements and impact of an event which started out as Arabic lessons for a group of children.
“We are very proud of where we are now,” said Taher, “our future is important. I believe the foundation is there - very strong leadership, strong team, programme of a variety of activities. The future hopefully looks bright."
