Motivated by the belief that stories shape us, what we are told, what we are not and who does the telling, Radical Love was founded by Irish actress Róisín O’ Loughlin in 2016 to unearth lost stories and silenced voices.

The first exhibition was 2017’s #femalelust which explored themes of love and lust with a female gaze, inspired by ancient Arabic poetry by women. It ran for 3 weeks at The Crypt Gallery, London before the WOW festival at Chester Storyhouse, Gallery X Dublin, lighting up buildings across Ireland for the HerStory Festival, and finally closing at a sold out show at the Queen of Hoxton in 2018 with a total live audience of 6,000.

Rise, Habibi is our second show.

Saqi Books is the publisher of Abdullah Al Udhari’s ‘Classical Poems by Arab Women’, the collection of poetry showcased in both the ‘#femalelust’ and ‘Rise, Habibi’ exhibitions. Saqi is a leading independent publishing house of trade and academic books on the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in London in 1983, but with its roots in Lebanon, Saqi’s publishing programme has led to a rigorous reassessment of Arab cultural heritage. Saqi has been at the forefront of establishing Middle Eastern culture in the UK and beyond for more than four decades.

Saqi’s publishing – encompassing art, photography and cookery books, language, literature and philosophy, history and current affairs and much more – is recognised all over the world. We offer an independent platform for writers and artists from all places and cultures. Our authors have attained international prominence not only for the quality of their prose, but for their authoritative and innovative contributions to public debate.

Shubbak is Europe's largest Arab Culture Festival with an annual audience of 50,000. Shubbak (meaning ‘window’ in Arabic) supports and celebrates the diversity of Arab and South West Asian & North African (SWANA) artists' creativity and innovation through its professional, participatory and engagement programmes, national touring and biennial multi-artform festival. Working nationally and internationally, we commission, initiate and develop projects that encourage a wide range of creative approaches in an artist-centred, audience focused process.

SHUBBAK FESTIVAL 2025

Join us this May and June across London and beyond for Shubbak 2025. From vibrant public squares to intimate galleries, from gardens to theatres, and into digital realms, Shubbak 2025 highlights art as a site of connection and transformation. Together we’ll take in brave new visions of our futures, share in the healing properties of radical joy and entwine the common threads of our collective liberation.