Grinding Saffron: A Night of Poetic Lesbian Sisterhood
Date and time: Saturday, July 11, 2020, 9 to 10 pm British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Register here.
Lisa Luxx and Dayna Ash are two LGBT+ poets of Arab heritage and two best friends. This exclusive evening, we invite you into an intimate exchange and discussion between the artists, sharing their own poems on queerness, identity and longing, with nods to the history of Arab lesbian culture.
Lisa Luxx is Liverpool Arab Arts Festival Artist-in-residence for 2020.
Minimum age: 16.
Artist bios
Lisa Luxx is a queer writer, performer, essayist and activist of British Syrian heritage. She writes for freedoms, for healing, to mobilize and to inquire.
Winner of the Outspoken Prize of Performance Poetry 2018, Luxx was also shortlisted for both Peace Poetry Prize 2016 and Sabotuer Awards Best Spoken Word Performer 2017. She has been nominated for the Arts Foundation Fellowship in Poetry. Luxx’s poetry, essays and opinions are published internationally in newspapers, magazines and anthologies including by Hatchette, Saqi, i-D, Dazed, Tate Britain, The International Times, Tribe de Mama (US), Sukoon (Lebanon), The Numinous (US), Verve Poetry Press and Wasafiri.
She regularly headlines literary events in the UK and the Middle East, including shows at Royal Albert Hall, Latitude Festival and Station Beirut. She’s done readings for Burberry, Selfridges and her local Women’s Center. Her poetry has been broadcast across channels including BBC Radio 4, VICE TV and ITV. She was named one of the top four queer poets by Diva magazine.
She has lectured on the philosophy of language in mental health for TEDx, spoken on panels about refuge at the Tate Modern and given a talk on sexuality for The Psychedelic Society. She is also a poetry educator in high schools, Pupil Referral Units and has taught at School of Everything summer school at the University of the Arts London (Central Saint Martins).
Founder of The Sisterhood Salon, a feminist literary gathering in Beirut. She authored an essay on the Economy of Sisterhood for Saqi Books anthology Smashing It, and continues to develop theories around sisterhood. Her work is also concerned with displacement, adoption, mixed heritage existence and the lesbian experience.
Sometimes cited as Lisa Minerva Luxx, she splits her time between London, Huddersfield and Beirut.
“Her poems are sensitive and revolutionary – always kind, always fierce.” – Dazed magazine
