Qisetna

With stories from the narrow alleys of Old Damascus to the cotton fields of Deir Ezzor, Qisetna is at the frontier of Syrian arts and culture, a place where ordinary people write about their precious memories and so reclaim their cultural identity. Qisetna touches people from New York and Stockholm to Cairo and Tokyo, sharing not only Syria’s ancient oral heritage – the art of hakawati (storytelling) – but also the most recent works of its contemporary artists. Our international team produces interviews with the most talented and creative Syrians across borders, and publish the content both in Arabic and English. The stories here have become an important digital archive of Syrian experience which has been recognised by the Community Archive and Heritage Group of the Year award in 2017 when we received Award for Excellence as an extraordinary example of an archive both preserving the voices of displaced and fractured communities for the future and acting as an engine of community resilience in the present. This is an archive at its best: raw emotion, portraying real life and its impact on individuals and families, community leadership and involvement, a focus on tomorrow - the younger generation - and an excellent website for outreach and advocacy. This archive will become an outstanding research tool for the future. But it is also – evidently – succeeding in its principal short-term goal of community building. Qisetna’s work includes storytelling workshops for young people in Syria and Turkey, UK storytelling workshops to share culture and build community and appearances at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival.