From Mangroves to RAKFAF
I woke yesterday to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed breakfast and coffee on the deck of the hotel.
Mid-morning, I rented a kayak so I could explore the forest of mangroves that grow in Khor Ras al Khaimah. Mangroves are a unique ecosystem that serve many important functions. The mangroves here are grey mangroves (Avicennia marina), which is the most common species in the Arabian Gulf.
There are many many birds, fish and tiny crabs that live in this collection of mangroves.
I love adventuring in places where the rules are: Good luck! Make good choices! They took me and my kayak on a little zodiac across the harbor, dropped me in the water, pointed me in the direction of the mangroves, and told me to call if I wanted a ride back to the marina.
I spent an hour and a half on the water, happily watching the thousands of birds. It was a pretty breezy morning, which was a nice counter-effect to the blazing sunshine. Meclizine is a great drug. But… I forgot to take it, and looking through a camera while on choppy water is a great recipe for motion sickness, so for the second half of my journey, I just enjoyed the sights and sounds through my own two eyes (and ears) and focused on not feeding the fish my breakfast.
Flamingos have always struck me as sort of comical birds. After seeing so many of them, I decided to read about them, and it turns out they make life-long friends! Like humans, flamingos make friends for life (natinalgeographic.com)
My experience with herons in general is that they’re very shy birds. They fly off as soon as they sense your presence, and they make a racket telling you about their dissatisfaction. But, this western reef-heron landed in the shallow water directly in front of my kayak, and seemed totally unperturbed by my presence.
I got a kick out of this guy who wandered into the giant flock of flamingoes. I could hear “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” in my head. (Star Trek reference)
It took a few hours for the motion sickness to subside, during which I enjoyed a nap and some time relaxing by the pool.
And then I was off to Artists Night. The artist bus departed from the hotel lobby at 6:30, and off we went in our cocktail best.
Al Jazeera Al Hamra is an incredible blend of cultural heritage and contemporary art. It was once a pearling village, but in the 1970s it was abandoned, and it became the home of RAKFAF in 2019. It was absolutely stunning lit up at night, and the festival provided us with an incredible meal, two live bands and incredibly warm hospitality. There are 150 artists here from all over the world. I met people from Iran, Philippines, Netherlands, Spain, Wales, France, Poland, Italy, India, Pakistan and Russia to name those I can remember. It was a blur of new names and faces. I met the festival guest curator, festival director, and many, many others. Every kind of art you can imagine is represented here: painters, sculptors, film makers, digital media artists, installation artists, poets.
During the programmed part of the evening, the two young women whose poems were selected as first place in their respective categories (Arabic and English) shared their work. I was so moved by Anum Farooq’s poem “Reflect” which took first place in the English category. Her words struck a chord in my heart. I’ve reflected before about how the world can sometimes feel so impossibly big. To hear the words of a young woman from the other side of the world (she is an artist from Pakistan who is based in the UK) which echoes the song of my heart with such clarity, reminded me to seek out the moments that make the world feel smaller; that promote connection and heal division as we all muddle through the experience of being human.
It was my first time seeing the festival site and seeing my display. After dinner, we had a chance to wander around the site (it’s huge!). It’s difficult to describe the experience, but I was overwhelmed by a myriad of emotions when I walked into Bayt 10 for the first time. It’s even more incredible in person than I imagined it would be. I spent so many months planning this display from afar, seeing photos, videos and architectural drawings, but not really having a concept of the space.
To see it in person is such an honor and it’s an incredible gift to be here. I haven’t resorted to pinching myself, but this whole experience is surreal.
I’ll have time to take more photos of the site over the next few days. Last night was a bit of a rushed blur!
There were a few minor glitches, as there are bound to be when working from thousands of miles away: two upside-down photos, one of which is a photo not meant to be part of the display at all. These things happen. They’ll both be righted before the grand public opening this evening, and although they can’t print the correct photo at this point, I’m thrilled with how the display turned out.
I feel excited for the grand public opening of the festival tonight, and the week of workshops and events to follow.
