Al-Usra wal-Sufra: Family and Feasts, a workshop with Ali Al-Jamri Manchester Multilingual City Poet in the Manchester History Festival Hub where the Manchester City of Literature IMLD exhibitions are.

This summer, children in two Arabic Saturday schools engaged with their informal Arabic, read poetry and wrote their own.  

Children might struggle to understand and reproduce the formal Arabic of the classroom, but every child knows how to ask their parents, “When is dinner ready?” With the family dinner as Ali’s starting point, the name emerged easily: Al-Usra wal-Sufra, Family and Feasts. 

In this workshop, Ali will use the dollhouse created for the summer exhibition to work with children, encouraging them to write in both Arabic and English, whichever comes naturally. Ali’s focus will be on creative expression over grammatical quality.  

We have created a page showing the public transport options for reaching each IMLD event venue and a page with various itineraries to help you turn IMLD into a day out.