1-3 p.m. ET Saturday, July 19, 2025
Concert of Colors Forum on Community, Culture & Race – The Homelands in Our Bodies: Embodying Artivism
In-person at Spot Lite Detroit or Online via Livestream
FREE with RSVP
Register for in-person attendance
The Concert of Colors Forum on Community, Culture & Race, one of the Arab American National Museum’s signature annual events, is a dynamic gathering of artists, activists and advocates who use art and dialogue as a tool for advocacy and community building. This year’s theme is titled “The Homelands in Our Bodies: Embodying Artivism,” and is inspired by Mahmoud Darwish’s Unfortunately It Was Paradise where he writes, “Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body?” The forum includes a keynote speech by Ijeoma Oluo, followed by a conversation with panelists Cyrah Dardas, Firas Zreik, SouFy and Tongo Eisen-Martin, with moderator and AANM artist-in-residence, Raed.
This year’s program will be presented both in person at Spot Lite Detroit and virtually online. Spot Lite Detroit is located at 2905 Beaufait St, Detroit, MI 48207.
Concert of Colors, Detroit’s annual diversity festival, will be happening July 16-20! More info + full concert lineup
Meet the Keynote Speaker
Ijeoma Oluo (ee-joh-mah oh-loo-oh) is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling first book, So You Want To Talk About Race, as well as Mediocre and Be a Revolution. Her work on race and gender has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NBC News; and she has been featured on The Daily Show and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Named on the TIME 100 Next list and The Root 100, she’s been awarded the Harvard Humanist of the Year Award, the American Humanist Association’s Feminist Humanist Award, Gender Justice League’s Media Justice Award, and the Equal Opportunity Institute’s Aubrey Davis Visionary Leadership Award.
Meet the Panelists
Cyrah Dardas is a Queer, eco-romantic artist and care worker of the Persian diaspora living in Detroit/Waawiyaatanong, Anishinaabe territory. Cyrah uses her art practice as a tool in remembering the lost relationships between humans and non-human beings by regulating and healing our collective nervous system and body to restore interdependency. Cyrah’s work is informed by their experience as a parent, her work in childcare, in growing food, as a member of artist cooperatives and through their work with natural fibers, earth pigments and botanical inks. Their practice is deeply rooted in ritualized art making, using the process as well as the work itself as a tool for grief composition and collective healing.
Composer and Qanunist Firas Zreik is a Palestine-born New Yorker who has transformed global perception of the Qanun. His treatment of the instrument preserves its identity as a vital part of the Maqam tradition, and stretches its potential as a cultural chameleon enhancing a range of fresh, evolving sounds. Firas’ music is honest and authentic. Comfortable in both heavily orchestrated and spontaneous settings, he creates waves of layered expression and lyricism among his fellow artists. In live performance, Firas conjures a complexity of emotion that shape-shifts throughout his sets. He enters fragile places and sits inside them. This commitment to stark exploration has sent him around the world, performing at storied venues, intimate clubs and international festivals.
SouFy is an Ojibwe music artist, organizer and cultural worker rooted in Southwest Detroit (Waawiyaatanong). His roots are from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation. His music highlights the urban Native experience. Taking aim at the Flint water crisis, SouFy’s song, “Pay 2 Be Poisoned,” was featured on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, CBC Canada, Indian Country Today Media Network, Native Trailblazers and cited in academic journals. He released his first official solo LP, The Ogichidaa Project, in 2017. In 2018, Soufy was nominated for Best New Artist at The Indigenous Music Awards in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2020, SouFy co-founded Michigan’s First Indigenous Music Festival called Vibes With The Tribes, which premiered as a virtual show. In 2021, the first live festival was successfully launched in Southwest Detroit. He now serves as the artist manager and director of the festival.
Originally from San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin is a poet, movement worker and educator. His curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, We Charge Genocide Again, has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country. He is the author of Someone’s Dead Already, Heaven Is All Goodbyes, Waiting Behind Tornados for Food, and Blood on the Fog. In 2020, he co-founded Black Freighter Press to publish revolutionary works. He was San Francisco’s eighth poet laureate.
Meet the Moderator
Raed‘s journey in music began in their teens, booking shows and honing their skills as a community radio DJ. This experience laid the groundwork for their studio production work with local bands and fueled a decade-long career. Their creative exploration also led to collaborations in short-lived bands such as Chantaines and Lachrymatory. In 2019, Raed launched Tagine Dream, a project crafting guttural horror soundscapes that blend their love of new wave with subtle influences from SWANA music. Beyond performing, Raed is the founder and curator of YallaPunk, a queer and trans SWANA multi-disciplinary arts fest that has been reshaping the SWANA narrative since 2017. Their dedication to community arts was recognized in 2022 with the Transformation Award from Twelve Gates Arts. Raed also shares their expertise as a former adjunct professor in the Digital Media and Entertainment and Arts Management programs at Drexel University.
In partnership with
Made possible in part by
