Nour Festival 2012

The 2012 Nour Festival runs until December 1st and celebrates the best in contemporary arts and culture from the Middle East and North Africa. The Festival is being staged at various venues in West London, including free events at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and a photo show on the Portobello Wall (pictured) in Golborne.

The Nour Festival includes film, exhibitions, talks and debates, literature, music, politics, visual arts, fashion and cuisine. Apart from the Golborne venues, events are also on at the Tabernacle, Leighton House Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Mosaic Rooms, the Ismaili Centre and the Science Museum.

Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre events – all free

Khayaal Theatre: Tales from Arab Lands
Saturday 10th November, 6.30-8pm
Award-winning Lebanese actress and storyteller Alia Alzougbi will be telling tales from the Arab world, stories filled with humour, wit and wisdom.

Science Museum at the Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre
Glorious Blood
Saturday 13th October, 2.30 to 3.30pm
A show for 7- to 11-year-olds and families
The Arab physician Ibn Nafis first described the circulation of the blood in the 13th century. Learn more about him and about the blood that flows round everyone's body. This show is for those with an interest in blood, guts and all things gross!

Water Transporter
Saturday 3rd November, 2.30 to 3.30pm
A workshop for 11- to 16-year-olds, maximum 35 participants
Learn about the Kurdish engineer, artist and craftsman Al Jazari (1136-1206). One of his inventions was a water carrying system that used hydropower. Workshop participants will be asked to move water across a two-metre gap using everyday items and lots of ingenuity.

Colourful Kaleidoscopes
Saturday 10th November, 2.30 to 3.30pm
A workshop for 7- to 11-year-olds and families, maximum 35 participants
Iraqi scholars Al Kindi (801-73) and Ibn Al Haitham (Alhazen)(965-1040) laid the foundations of modern day optics. This workshop explores how we see the world around us and participants will make their own kaleidoscope.

Portobello Wall – Tea & Coffee

Now until March 2013
Open air, Portobello Road between Cambridge Gardens and Golborne Road
This series of photographs, a mix of documentary and fictional scenes, celebrates the culture of tea and coffee drinking. The exhibition offers an insight into the journey of tea and coffee from their source countries to the cafés of North Kensington, mirroring journeys made to the UK by residents with North African or Middle Eastern heritage.

Nour Festival website