Staging Place: Building Creative Community in the UAE

Join us for a conversation with Khaled Esguerra, Juan Gonzales, and Carlos Páez González – contributors to Wasafiri 122: The UAE Issue – with accompanying song and theatre performances, at Project Space, Alserkal Avenue in Dubai.

Guest co-edited by Laure Assaf and Deepak Unnikrishnan, this special issue is a multifaceted project exploring the United Arab Emirates’ literary and creative scene –– away from monolithic representations of the region. In a compelling conversation published both in the print issue and online (see Part 2 of the conversation on Wasafiri.org), artists and community-makers Khaled Esguerra, Juan Gonzales, and Carlos Páez González discuss their own creative practices, trajectories, and perspectives on the UAE’s scene.

In this event, which returns to and enriches the conversation by inviting audience members to participate, the speakers explore how shifting migrant identities, interdisciplinary and intercultural methods, urban planning, the passage of time, and more, shape our experiences and abilities to collaborate creatively and build community in the UAE.

The conversation will be moderated by Laure Assaf, accompanied by a choral performance by Carlos Páez González and Stephanie Tadros, and an excerpt from Metro Diaries, a performance, conceived by Juan Gonzales on how various people occupy the transient, liminal space of the Dubai metro.

Copies of 122: The UAE Issue will be on sale at the event. You can also purchase a print copy online here.

This event is supported by the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts and Humanities Research Kitchen Al-Mashhad.

Wasafiri is the UK’s leading magazine for international contemporary writing. Launched in 1984, it is now renowned for publishing some of the world’s most distinguished writers including Chinua Achebe, Anita and Kiran Desai, Bernardine Evaristo, and Abdulrazak Gurnah, amongst many others. Its name stems from the Kiswahili word for ‘travellers’, which reflects the magazine’s longstanding engagement with cultural travelling and its continuing commitment to extending the established boundaries of literary culture. The magazine draws widely across modern culture and the arts, publishing a lively and informed mix of fiction, poetry, interviews, essays, and reviews.

Laure Assaf is an anthropologist and an Assistant Professor at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her research and teaching focus on youth, urbanity, migration, and social hierarchies in the contemporary United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the broader Gulf region.

Khaled Esguerra is a photographer, artist, and designer from Abu Dhabi. His artistic practice tackles the complexities and nuances of migrant identity, urban narratives, and claiming space in the Gulf, situated by his experience growing up and living in Abu Dhabi. He primarily works with photography and other image-based methods on research-driven, long-term projects.

Juan Gonzales is a Filipino migrant and multidisciplinary performance-maker based in Dubai. He began his artistic journey in the Philippines, where he studied and practised theatre, learning early on that art must engage with social issues. This belief continues to inform his work today. Juan is a co-founder of 63Kolektib, a grassroots art collective in the UAE dedicated to creating performances that explore the experiences of the Filipino diaspora. Currently, he is working on Metro Diaries, a physical theatre performance that delves into the complexities of urban life and migration.

Carlos Páez González is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, educator, and game designer based in Abu Dhabi. His work focuses on creating participatory spaces where one can explore different ways of being in the world.

Host or Publisher Alserkal Avenue