This past weekend, the Barzakh Festival returned to the NYU Abu Dhabi campus. The festival featured a night souk-style shopping experience that included rich street food from food trucks and 40 locally based artisan stalls, with items ranging from handmade soaps, candles, local artwork, jewelry, home decor, pottery, and so much more. Coupled with the extraordinary music, the experience was exhilarating for everyone present.

Photo credits: Raya Tabassum

Barzakh, a word of Arabic origin, translates to “separation.” It is the point where saltwater and freshwater meet and coexist, but never dilute the other. The Barzakh Festival, effectively, is the meeting point of global music streams, reflecting the diversity of experiences and identity. This edition of the festival included contemporary and traditional music from Lemma from Algeria to Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino from Italy. Not only was the music stage incredibly inclusive and diverse, but Barzakh also supported small, local businesses, including a stall by Syrian migrant women, as young as 16, who handcrafted jewelry, tote bags, and pouches with traditional Syrian techniques and designs.

Photo credits: Raya Tabassum

While festivals such as this are an absolutely joyous occasion, with an atmosphere capable of giving you the break from academics, work, and the day-to-day stresses of life, it is also imperative that we recognize the greater influence it has. Negaar Rowan, Class of 2024, shared with The Gazelle, her conversation with Souad Asla, lead singer of Lemma. Rowan was struck by Asla’s experiences at not only NYUAD’s festival but also on her recent tours.

Asla grew up learning music in Algeria but trained as an actor outside the country, where she expressed feeling as if she could not find her space in the arts, given her racial background. Talking about the history of music in her country, she mentioned how the particular genre of music she now plays used to be practiced by people from older generations, something the youth would almost look down upon. Lemma became one of the forces to change that perception, as Asla talked about how young kids approach her to express sentiments of belonging and the joy produced by her music.

Since the backup singers and band mainly comprised older women wearing traditional clothing and hijabs, Alsa felt as if audiences weren’t able to relate to or connect with them, nor their art and performances. However, as they’ve returned from recent tours, Lemma is pioneering yet another change in the world’s understanding of African music. They’re proving to the world that women of all ages — as old as 80 — and backgrounds can create art for everyone to enjoy. More importantly, the band is preaching that those who practice wearing hijab, which was often a barrier for them and those before them, are not defined by it. They believe that their music is not just an African niche, but is now being incorporated into mainstream music, creating a “bigger, united Africa.”

Rowan further conversed with the singer about identity, and the struggles of creating a band of women who had to leave their families to travel around the world in order to create art and preserve their heritage. “It was heartwarming to watch them,” she adds, “they were absolutely delightful.”

It is what Lemma, and subsequently, the Barzakh Festival, stands for, what truly matters. Barzakh not only is the meeting place for global identities, it is also where they grow and strengthen.