Habibi Festival 2025 Feat. Huda Asfour, Layale Chaker, Mai Elgizouli, Maii Waleed, Maryam Turkey, Mohamed Abozekry Sextet & Rasha Nahas

2025 HABIBI FESTIVAL SCHEDULE AND LINEUP
Wed, Oct 8: Maii Waleed + Layale Chaker
Thur, Oct 9: Maii Waleed + Rasha Nahas
Fri, Oct 10: Maryam Turkey + Mohamed Abozekry Sextet
Sat, Oct 11: Mai Elgizouli + Rasha Nahas 
Sun, Oct 12: Huda Asfour + Mohamed Abozekry Sextet

Created with the goal of giving a snapshot of contemporary and traditional musics of the South West Asia North Africa (SWANA) region, Habibi Festival aims to take listeners on a journey of the sounds wafting through the airwaves and living rooms of cities spanning Marrakech to Baghdad. This performing arts festival, now in its fourth year, is a collaboration between the Director of Joe's Pub Alex Knowlton, artist/composer/curator Yacine Boulares, and curator/producer Meera Dugal who are bonded by the goal of creating more joyful spaces for performance, conversation, and storytelling from this part of the world.

Website

Huda Asfour
Huda Asfour believes in the necessity of transcending borders in both life and music. A polymath with works in the fields of music, biomedical engineering, signal and image processing, and social work. She is a natural storyteller whose music, through the tenderness of her oud and the lyricism of her compositions, challenges taboos and stereotypes. An exceptional improviser who has over the years collaborated with artists spanning countries from the USA to China.

Layale Chaker
Composer and violinist Layale Chaker was raised on the verge of multiple musical streams in her native Lebanon. Her complex sound universe, described by NPR as “beguiling” with “bright and beautiful strands… gorgeous, wine-dark swirls,” lies at the intersection of classical contemporary music, jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation. Her practice is committed to art as both sanctuary and crossroads—a place where ancestral narratives meet contemporary voices in a continuous reimagination of the world we inherit, live in and bequeath. In 2024, her work Qarar/Jawab premiered at the Venice Biennale and Dawning, a double concerto, premiered with the New York Philharmonic. Her debut chamber opera, Ruinous Gods, premiered at the 2024 Spoleto Festival before its European debut at Wuppertal Opera. She also recently released a double portrait album on In a Circle Records, featuring both "Vigil" with string quartet, and "Radio Afloat" with her chamber Jazz quintet, Sarafand; which she will be performing at Habibi Festival.

Mai Elgizouli
Mai Elgizouli is a Sudanese singer, songwriter, filmmaker, and visual artist from Omdurman, Khartoum. Raised in a family of artists who nurtured her love for music and creative expression, she carries her songs and personal life experiences in her Sudanese Arabic, delicate language. Her music, influenced by Sudanese sounds from the 1980s and 1990s, blends folk fusion with diverse contemporary styles.

For Mai, music is a language a shortcut to opening deep and personal conversations. Her songs explore themes of love, loss, and healing, using music as a deeply personal form of expression. Having lived in Cairo for several years, she has expanded her cultural and artistic perspective. Since moving to New York, she has performed at the International House, connecting with audiences through her intimate storytelling and emotional performances.

Maii Waleed
Maii Waleed was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt in 1988. She had been an artistic child, not missing a chance of participating in creative projects in her community in fields of music, dance and drama. In her teenage years, she played the drums in the all-girl Metal band Mascara. She was also once a part of Telepoetic, an Electro-Rock Egyptian band performing their first gig on 100live music festival for electronic arts. She dropped her first album, Moga, with lebanese Zeid Hamdan produced, in May 2013. Over the years Maii had collaborated with various artists in her community as well as internationally. In the year 2015 she released tracks with Jordanian electronica trio Zaed Naes. That was later followed by a couple of EPs with Zeid Hamdan within the umbrella of their collaboration project Maii and Zeid. Maii had formed Ritza an electronic pop band, the was met with success in Cairo. After a series of tours, Maii decided to look deeper into her self, embarking on a whole journey towards Alternative medicine learning and professional training. Now a new cycle begins with deep recognition of her path, music is once more central. With so many new songs up her sleeve. Maii wishes to continue her quest of her authentic storytelling through her music.

Maryam Turkey
Maryam Turkey is a multidisciplinary artist and musician whose work blends Iraqi folk traditions with contemporary, genre-fluid experimentation. Reflecting her Middle Eastern diaspora, she sings and composes under her own name—often collaborating with New York musicians and incorporating the SP-404 sampler. Through her singing, she transforms fragments of heritage into contemporary soundscapes that are both immersive and avant-garde. Maryam’s projects often bring together leading musicians from New York’s experimental and jazz scenes. She has an ongoing improvisational collaboration with Shahzad Ismaily. Her debut EP, produced by Jesse Harris, was released in 2024. She recently signed with Otherly Love Music Label for her first full-length album, currently in production, produced by Benjamin Lazar Davis and featuring Kenny Wollesen and Will Graefe, set for release in 2026.

Mohamed Abozekry Sextet
The work of oud master and musical polymath Mohamed Abozekry resonates in time and of place, as he excavates and renews the deep frame of Egyptian classicism. With a new sextet featuring musicians working across and around two continents he continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be contemporary. 'Roh El Fouad' (The Heart’s Soul), Abozekry’s fifth album, released in 2024, fuses oud, bass, drums, keyboard, percussion, saxophone, and vocals to form the latest chapter in Abozekry’s improvisational exploration of Egyptian music without a predetermined template. “With brilliant, inventive virtuosity that goes far beyond technical mastery…in Roh El Fouad Abozekry’s compositions are interwoven with jazz, Arabic modes, and swirling ardor.” Le Monde, May 2024

Rasha Nahas
Rasha Nahas is a multifaceted artist known for her distinctive approach to songwriting, storytelling, and performance.  The Palestinian singer, composer, actress, and instrumentalist’s unique sound is rooted in her early training in classical guitar and her formative years in Haifa's underground music scene. Her genre-defying style weaves the traditional and popular musical influences of her homeland with the raw intensity of electric rock.

Her debut album, Desert (2021), was a personal chronicle of her migration from Haifa to Berlin. This was followed by her second album, Amrat (2023), released through leading independent UK label Cooking Vinyl. Marking her first venture into Arabic-language lyrics, Amrat explores themes of urban and rural duality. Recorded at 67 Studio in the occupied Golan Heights, the album features contributions from notable musicians in Palestine's indie music scene and propelled her to tour across Europe, South America, the UK, North Africa, and West Asia, including shows at SIM São Paulo, Glastonbury Festival, Midem, Sziget, WOMEX, Berlin International Film Festival, Palestine Music Expo and more.