Subhiye

the memo club and Ahlan Club invite you to join for an exploratory Subhiye of shared food, stories, and collective imagination — forming our own gatherings or reshaping the ones we inherit.

The table we build together is shaped by the cultures, memories, and histories of each collaborator. Every dish carries a place, a person, a lineage; together, they become a shared meal through which we remember, nourish, and meet one another.

Subhiye has no direct English translation because it names something larger than language’s ability to contain. Rooted in the Arabic word sabāh صباح, meaning ‘morning’ a Subhiye is the ritual of gathering with neighbors, friends, and loved ones over coffee, breaking bread, and conversation. It is an offering of time as much as food—a practice of lingering, listening, and beginning the day in one another's company. Though its forms have shifted across generations and geographies, its heart remains the same: to gather without urgency, to share what we have, and to affirm that community is something we make together.

The participants are invited to imagine their own Subhiye through the practice of handmade paper. For the memo club, papermaking is itself a communal ritual: a collective of hands tearing, soaking, blending, forming with food, flora, and fauna, and pressing together—echoing the gestures of kneading dough and breaking bread. Like a shared meal, paper is made through care, patience, and many hands working in concert.

Using this handmade paper, participants will create a collage that dreams into being a gathering of their own. Who is seated around your table? What stories are told? What fills the room with warmth? Where does this gathering take place, and what does it ask us to remember? Together, we'll share a meal, make with our hands, and imagine new ways of being with one another—honoring the gatherings we've inherited while creating those still to come.

Venue: Alserkal Arts Foundation, WH51, Alserkal Avenue (pin)
Time: 12PM - 4PM
Date: Sunday, 09 August 2026

Click here to RSVP

MENU

To Dip

Pickled eggplant

Dibs-dill Labneh; Pomegranate molasses and dill infused Labneh

Lunu Miris; Sambal

Zaatar & Zeit Zatoun; Zaatar with olive oil

Seeni sambol; Caramelized & spiced onion relish

To Share

Foul Medames; Stew of cooked fava beans

Beid bel Basterma; Scrambled eggs with pastrami

To Break

Egyptian Flatbread

Palestinian Kaak

Pol Roti

Pandesal

To Crunch

Spring onions

Jarjeer (rocket leaves)

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

To Indulge

Sugarcane molasses with Tahina

Orange marmalade with cream

Woodapple Jam

Pani Pol pancakes; Coconut spiced filled crepes

Taho; silken tofu and sago pearl

To Quench

Mango Juice

Coconut water

Pomegranate juice

Ginger tea

Marameyieh (sage tea)

Shay bel Laban (milk tea)

Calamansi

Biographies

Andrew Riad (b. 2000, Cairo) is a Coptic Nubian Egyptian multidisciplinary artist and poet exploring the intersection of poetry, research, performance, and gesture. He works with archives, text, moving and still images, culinary happenings, and soundscapes to undo a monolithic history and propose a [re]imagined and silenced history revealing ostracized narratives as original sources of truth and fact. His projects imbue an emancipatory framework and understanding of language, of archive, and in that, gestures towards an opportunity for play and imagination to build towards what he calls a futurenarrative. For him, language is the experience of sound and ritual; of symbol and gesture and as such, is a site for resurrection, imagination, and [re]integration.

Riad started Ahlan Club to break bread together, to archive oral histories relating to our experience of gathering and rituals surrounding food. Ahlan Club co-creates with artists, collectives, writers, and farmers to build towards a collective archive rooted in our shared moments and our imagination.

the memo club is a collective founded by three emerging artists based in Abu Dhabi, whose work revolves around memory, identity, and community-building. the memo club is a community initiative, bringing people together to reconnect with tactile experiences, starting with print.

the memo club was born out of this need: a space for adults to come together, when the 9-to-5 can feel all-consuming, when the expectations of life can leave little to no room for artistic practice. We wanted to create something for friends, and friends of friends, to gather towards something that could look like reclaiming time, thought, and materials.

Sumayya (b. 1996, Colombo) is a cultural and creative practitioner based in Abu Dhabi. Her work sits at the intersection of community, storytelling, and cultural communications exploring how people gather.

Sumayya's primary mediums are photo, video, paper, and sculpture. In the past, she has also performed as a spoken-word poet in the UAE, and alongside the memo club, sumayya is also the co-founder of hot&lit(erate); a reseading circle based in Abu Dhabi. Alongside her independent practice, she works in arts and culture, with a focus on audience development, community engagement, and narrative strategy. She is a creative with a background in Media Studies and experience spanning various industries within the field of communications for organisations regionally and globally.

Zoe Cusi (b. 1997, Abu Dhabi) is a Filipino multidisciplinary artist living and working in Abu Dhabi. Her artistic practice explores the idea of connection - what it means to build, lose, and form something inherently and deeply human; Though most may argue that the definition of ‘connection’ is broad or vague, Zoe believes that is where its beauty lies. It has the ability to shape-shift, mould, and adapt to a world of narratives and perspectives, whether by force or choice. A storyteller by both trade and virtue, Zoe uses paint, poetry, paper, clay, photography, and oral history to tell stories of her lived experiences. Zoe is a recipient of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship (2025) and holds a Bachelor of Communications in Public Relations and Journalism.

Nada Almosa (b. 1999) is an Palestinian artist and creative writer. Her practice navigates memory, identity-making, and play through mixed media, photography, and creative writing. Her works draw inspiration from her Palestinian heritage as well as the desire to preserve memory and chronicle stories of diaspora. She is a graduate of Literature & Creative Writing from New York University Abu Dhabi (2021). Nada has participated in the VICE residency by Exit 11 Performing Arts Company (2022), a mentorship program with Nujoom Al Ghanem (2023), the Spectrum: Photographers in Residence program at Manarat Al Saadiyat (2024), and the Teaching Artist Fellowship at Manarat Al Saadiyat (2025-26). She has published works in Corniche, Mizna, Strange Horizons, and Wasafiri magazine.

The Kitchen As Studio unfolds through three-month cycles of convivial interventions, inviting culinary practitioners to activate the Foundation's kitchen through participatory meals that nourish curiosity, foster critical discourse through food, and keep the table open for whoever comes next.