This is Our Story - Storytelling Series

Integral to Stay a Little Longer’s celebration of diversity and language, will be our Storytelling Series, curated by Shereen Saif.

Shereen Saif is an Indian-born UAE-bred multi-disciplinary artist, who is known for her physical storytelling style that integrates elements of music, dance and theatre. Her current movement vocabulary is grounded in her training in the Indian classical traditions of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathak, while her acting draws inspiration from her training in India at Natanakairali and Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research. Her solo “A Woman’s Mind” was awarded the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation Production grant (2021) and premiered in 2022 with the support of Alserkal Avenue, HIBA Art Project and The Junction.

The second and last Storytelling session on 5 April will include stories told in the following languages:

English: Shereen Saif

Arabic: Mohammed Alnabulsi

Urdu: Tarannum Ahmed

ASL: Victor Sitali

Rhythm: Shereen Saif + Prashant Yeware (tabla)

Storyteller bios:

Jordanian writer, trainer and Easy Read expert with a passion for promoting the right to read for people with disabilities, Mohammad AlNabulsi works as a Technical Operations Officer at Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services. He has been working with non-profit organizations in the field of disability for over twenty years. As a theatre director and trainer, he has supervised drama projects at the the Aman Center for Special Education in Jordan. Winner of the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Children's Literature in 2020 for his fiction "The Ghoul of the Library”, Mohammad writes regularly on disability, cinema and books.

Anchor, moderator and writer Tarannum Ahmed is known for her exceptional oratory skills in Urdu and Hindi. She has hosted numerous musical, theatre and poetry shows in the UAE, Kuwait and India. She has had the privilege of moderating talk shows with renowned personalities like Indian actor and director Nandita Das and motivational speaker Dr. Syeda Arfa at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) in 2018 and 2021 respectively. She has also hosted shows at Jashn-e-Rekhta, the largest festival of Urdu language and literature.

Victor Sitali is an artist, photographer, designer and painter from Zambia, living in Dubai for the past 14 years. He has been hearing impaired since the age of three, and found a way to express his voice through painting. Mentored by UK artist Trevor Waugh in 2012 in oil and watercolors painting, Sitali is a figurative painter whose work focuses on portraits of African faces, birds,eyes, and landscapes. In March 2013, Sitali was awarded the ‘Best Artist’ and ‘Highly Recommended’ awards at the First Annual Ras al Khaimah (RAK) Fine Arts Festival. He also received an honorable mention among 1700 artists worldwide for the International Emerging Artists Award (IEAA) in 2012 - 2013. Victor is also one of the first people of determination to be awarded the UAE Golden Visa.

Prashant Yeware, is a creative art person by profession, and a percussionist by passion. He began his training in Tabla at the age of 10 under Shri Chodankar and continued his learning with Shri. Madhavji Tare. At the age of 14, he did his first professional recording for a devotional album with Marathi Film Music Director Vishwas Patankar. While Tabla is his main instrument, he also acquired proficiency in other percussion instruments including the Dholak, Dholki, Congo drums, Tumba and Djembe. A Faculty member at Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts (Dubai), Prashant has accompanied live performances and recordings in India and the U.A.E.

8.30-9.30PM
The Yard