Neo-Hakawati Nights with Omar Offendum & Zafer Tawil

Join us for the opening of the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ spring Buffett Symposium on Brave New Futures: a performance by award-winning Syrian-American rapper and poet Omar Offendum alongside acclaimed Palestinian multi-instrumentalist Zafer Tawil masterfully playing the oud and ney. This performance is co-sponsored by A&O Productions.

The show, , is a spin-off experience of Offendum's off-Broadway hit . It's a genre-defying experience that blends spoken word, rap, electronically produced beats, and live music into a contemporary reimagining of the traditional Arabic hakawati practice. Hakawati is an Arabic word that signifies a communal storyteller who narrates culturally resonant tales, folklore, legends, and oral histories.

Drawing from Offendum’s deep engagement with Arabic poetry and hip-hop lyricism, his unique performance style draws upon the hakawati traditions of Damascus while remaining deeply rooted in the stories and streets of New York.

Following this performance on the evening of Thursday, April 9, Offendum will join an exciting lineup of speakers at our Buffett Symposium on Brave New Futures Friday, April 10. He will discuss the arts of social change with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bing Liu and conceptual artist Ellen Harvey. The morning will also feature a discussion on the future of human relationships with Qing Wang of the Weirdo Podcast and Nataliya Kos'myna of MIT's Fluid Interfaces group. Later, Reality Reload's Allison Yang will join Shorenstein Fellow Shuwei Fang to discuss new media, and climate activist Vanessa Nakate will join New York Times columnist David Wallace-Wells to discuss planetary futures. The day will close with a discussion of the future of work with Myna Mahila founder Suhani Jalota and Data Science Nigeria CEO Olubayo Adekanmbi, moderated by USAID's former Chief Economist, Professor Dean Karlan.

Watch Zafer Tawil's recent appearance on Ms. Rachel via Instagram >>

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