A beloved community event goes online
MABELLE Iftar Nights is an annual intercultural festival which marks the holy month of Ramadan. In the Mabelle neighbourhood, this has become a time of community connecting and creating in Mabelle Park. Over the years, hundreds of neighbours have come together to make and mark this important time in our community.
This year we’ve had to move our beloved community event to a digital platform. Together with a team of over 30 artists, we’ve created a month-long, intercultural community arts festival that weaves together music, puppetry, illustration, audio art and community voices to tell the story of a MABELLE Iftar Night that can can be experienced in your own homes. Along the way, there are numerous opportunities to join in and help us tell this story.
Art Everyday
April 27 - May 23
Follow us to enjoy and participate
Explore a Virtual Iftar Night
Our month-long festival included over 30 artists and 150 community participants working together to tell the story of a MABELLE Iftar Night in eight parts throgh songs, stories, shadow puppetry, illustration.
Visit our Virtual Gallery
Our artists shared interactiveactivities and workshops over the phone, social media and video call to 150+ community members all month long. Tour our Virtual Gallery to see what we made!
Join in at the Virtual Art-Making Table
Click on the images below to enlarge the activity instructions.
Every week, we will share two art activities that reflect and respond to the festival's themes and stories. All activities can be completed at home, using only the materials you have on hand. Each activity will involve different art forms, and you can do any and all of them, regardless of your age and artistic experience. If you complete any of the activities please send them back to us to be included in our Virtual Gallery.
Sing With Us
A message from Composer and Artistic Director, Hussein Janmohamed:
“This track is called Lighting Our Lantern Hearts, and it is based on text written by a community member, reflecting on her experiences of the breaking of the fast, the Iftar, that happens every day during the month of Ramadan. We encourage you to listen to the audio track, record your voice, and send it to us, which then we will do our best to include in a final mix that will be released online at virtualiftarnights.ca in a few days.”
We welcome singers of all experience levels!
To add your voice, all you have to do is:
1. Wear headphones and set up somewhere quiet.
2. To practice, learn the tune and words by listening to the guide singers, or by reading the musical notes. Then, practice singing the tune with the guide singer (Shireen Abu-Khader). The goal is to synchronize your singing and breathing to the guide singer.
3. Record your voice on your smartphone, while listening to the guide track. It is important that you sing with the playback in order for us to be able to synchronize all the recordings in the final stages of editing.
4. Email your audio recording to shifra@mabellearts.ca
Thank you for taking part!
Cook With Us
Cook with us! Each year, The Mabelle Ladies Cooking Circle, women from the Mabelle neighbourhood, share their personal recipes with the community, by preparing and serving treats for MABELLE Iftar Night celebrations. This winter, the cooks worked with chef, speaker and food activist, Joshna Maharaj, to take part in a customized training program to share recipes and develop skills related to starting their own food-related businesses. Now, you have a chance to try some of these recipes in your own home! Follow us each Saturday to learn about a new recipe!
Visit our Virtual Gallery
to learn more about these recipes & how they have been prepared throughout the month!
Join in.
Throughout Virtual IFtar Nights, we shared art-making activities which offer you the opportunity to add into the story of Virtual Iftar Nights. Although the festival has ended, we still invite you to explore and enjoy our interactive activities. As you respond to the participatory activities, please send us what you make, so that we can feature it as part of the project. We look forward to hearing from you!
You can also share your work by posting it and tagging @mabellearts on social media.
Artistic Team
Artistic Director & Composer: Hussein Janmohamed
Artistic Producer: Shifra Cooper
Project Coordinators: Christen Kong & Irene Flatley
Podcast Creator: Christen Kong
Music Editor: Arie van de Ven
Additional Musical Arrangements: Maryem Tollar, Ernie Tollar, Waleed Abdulhamid, Samidha Joglekar
Illustration: Banafsheh Erfanian
Shadow Puppetry: Shadowland Theatre (Anne Barber, Sequoia Erickson, Brad Harley)
Artmaking Activities: Jumblies Theatre & Arts
Recipe Creation: Joshna Maharaj & The Mabelle Ladies Cooking Circle
Video Editor: Adrienne Marcus-Raja
Activity Facilitators: Sharada Eswar, Michael Burtt, Melanie Fernandez-Alvares, Tijana Spasic, Sam Rowlandson-O’Hara
MABELLEyouth Leaders: Rafia Abdalla, Nuha Johar, Nada Johar, Remaz Salam, Tasmeen Syed, Hodan Ibrahim, Nura Nurhussen, Nada Nurhussen
Musicians: Waleed Abdulhamid, Shireen Abu-Khader, Shaho Andalibi, Bo Bardos, Daev Clysdale, Sharada Eswar, Hussein Janmohamed, Samidha Joglekar, Sam Rowlandson-O’Hara, Ernie Tollar, Maryem Tollar, Jackson Welchner, Martin van de Ven, The Gather Round Singers (conducted by Shifra Cooper), Guelph Chamber Choir, Raise Her Voice Chamber Choir (Oakville Choir for Children and Youth), Sarv Choir
Guest Artists: Penny Couchie, Animikiikwe Couchie, Faten Toubasi, Tamyka Bullen, Latasha Lennox, Oshan Starreveld, Karis Jones Pard, Sam Egan
Lead-up Community Workshop Facilitators: Leah Houston, Hussein Janmohamed, Christen Kong, Banafsheh Erfanian
Visit the Virtual Gallery for full list of Community Contributors
About MABELLEarts
MABELLEarts is an arts company. We use art and design to transform neighbourhoods with the people who live there. The art we make with people is sometimes ephemeral, sometimes permanent, but always created to spark and sustain connections between people and place. Connected people are healthier, more resilient, more civically engaged, more accepting of each other and better able to respond to change. Connected places are safe, more vibrant, prosperous, beautiful and livable. People connected to place feel that we belong.
Co-creation at MABELLEarts is an invitation to play and explore new possibilities, in order to create the world we long to see. Using creative inquiry and play as a design tool, the art we make together begins to change the physical and social environment. At first the change is fleeting, but increasingly, as connections between people and place take root, we chart a course for lasting neighbourhood transformation. Along the way people, perceptions and systems also change for the better.
Artistic Director: Leah Houston
Director of Programs: Elizabeth Rucker
Director of Finance & Fundraising: Karen Kew
Director of Community Mobilization: Nicolette Felix
Newcomer Engagement Lead: Annie Katsura Rollins
Youth Mobilization Lead: Sergio Guerra
Communications Lead: Billy Main
Fundraising Lead: Claudine Crangle
Community Mobilizer: Tasmeen Syed
Youth Mobilizer: Rafia Salam
