shaneera (canceled)

Berlin-based Kuwaiti composer and artist Fatima Al Qadiri performs her new EP Shaneera with live audio visuals. A love letter to Arab queer icons in five energetic club tracks, the album deals with gender identity and performance in the Gulf. The titular “Shaneera” is the English mispronunciation of the Arabic word “shanee’a” (شنيعة) which literally means “outrageous, nefarious, hideous, major and foul.” But as queer slang now used in Kuwait and some Arab countries, Shaneera refers to the positive figure or act of a gender-defying persona, of being an evil queen. You know a Shaneera when you behold one.