For the third year running, from 31 May to 15 June, Casa Árabe will be offering the programme of The Thousand and One Nights of the Book Fair at Casa Árabe, with five concerts in its garden, opposite the Parque del Retiro. All the information and registration for the concerts can be found at this link.
The continuity of this programme consolidates the good relationship between Casa Árabe and the Book Fair, two fundamental cultural venues in Madrid’s springtime, which every year fill the days and nights with books and music from other parts of the world.
As on previous occasions, on Fridays and Saturdays, on the verge of the Fair’s closing time (8:45pm), a parade led by the musical group Al-Maran and the oriental dancer Neftis Paloma will take the route between Casa Árabe’s Balqís Bookshop stand (number 77) and the institution’s garden, opposite the Paseo de Coches in the Parque del Retiro.
Once there, the diplomatic cultural institution proposes different performances, starting with the duo made up of the Syrian guitarist Yazan Ibrahim and the singer Blanca La Almendrita from Jaén (Friday 31 May), the unmistakable voice of Raquel Lúa (Saturday 1 June), the duo from Burgos Fetén Fetén (Friday 7 June) -who will be preceded by the performance of the Palestinian dance group Jafra-, the melodies of the Algerian singer Neila Benbey (Saturday 8 June) and the urban artist from Madrid Delarue (Saturday 15 June).
In addition to the performances in Casa Árabe’s garden, the institution is organising several book presentations during the Fair, including El laberinto de los extraviados, by Amin Maalouf (Monday 3 June), and Mediterráneo, motivos para comenzar el viaje, by Pilar Sampietro (Friday 7 June).
On Monday 10 June, the seminar The Thousand and One Nights Revisited, organised in collaboration with the prestigious Emirati institution Sheikh Zayed Book Prize, will be held. The event will feature presentations by Luis Alberto de Cuenca, Mounira Soliman, the translator Salvador Peña, Professor Paulo Lemos Horta and Margarita Castells. All of them will offer an analysis of this classic of oriental literature with innovative approaches. To close the day, there will be a concert by Abeer Nehme, a famous Lebanese singer.
To complete the programme, at the stand of Librería Balqís, in addition to books by authors or on Arab themes, there will be signings by authors such as the journalist Antonio Pampliega, the singer and poet Marwán, and the professors Eduardo Manzano, Ignacio Álvarez Ossorio and Gonzalo Fernández Parrilla, among others. All the information regarding dates, times and conditions of access to the concerts will be available at this link.
