In this concert performance, Liv Runesdatter introduces two outstanding Arab artists.

Writer Mansur Rajih and oud master Ahmad Al Khatib are two important and insightful artistic voices, with life stories, quality, and creative power that resonate across much of the Arab world. Both live in exile, in Stavanger and Gothenburg, respectively.

Mansur Rajih (1958) is referred to as Yemen’s ‘national poet’; a highly esteemed poet, democracy advocate, and human rights activist. Rajih was imprisoned for fifteen years before sustained international pressure eventually led to his release, and in 1998 he became Norway’s first city of refuge writer. Mansur’s poetry is closely tied to his history, and in his prose, he emerges as a sharp observer of society. As a writer, he has much to express and does so with rare poetic intensity. While he was in captivity, his poems were smuggled out and published in newspapers and journals across the Arab world. From his exile in Stavanger, he writes and publishes in media and journals around the world. He is a strong voice for peace, reconciliation, and justice. His poems have been translated into many languages, and four of his poetry collections have been published in Norwegian.

Ahmad Al Khatib (1974) is a Palestinian born and raised in a refugee camp in Jordan, where his family has lived since being forced to flee in the 1960s. He started learning the oud early on and later studied music history and cello at Yarmouk University in Jordan. After completing his studies in 1997, he moved to Ramallah, where he taught at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in the department of Oriental music, eventually becoming its head. In 2002, the political situation forced him to leave Palestine, and he continued his work through distance learning, producing a series of oud tutorials and transcriptions of classical Arab works. In 2004, he settled in Sweden, where he earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology and music education. Currently, he is employed as a professor and lecturer at the University of Gothenburg. He has released several albums and toured in the Middle East, India, the USA, Europe, and Brazil.

In the fall of 2022, the trio will perform 30 concerts organized by Kulturtanken Møre og Romsdal.