For our festival’s 13th year, MABELLEarts is taking Iftar Nights on the road! As our beloved MABELLEpark prepares for a major building project, we’re staging Mobile Iftar Nights 2023, a traveling festival pilot in new locations where people live. We’ll share traditional foods for breaking the fast prepared by Mabelle Avenue local cooks and tour performances that share our community Iftar Memories with asylum-seeking, refugee, and newcomer audiences.

Our Teams

  • Singer and Chef Rahaf Alakbani will lead our Iftar experienced cooks on Mabelle Avenue, along with new friends from Arab Community Centre of Toronto, to create hundreds of delicious handmade traditional Iftar treats for sharing with MABELLEpantry clients on Mabelle Avenue and with Afghani residents at the COSTI refugee shelter hotels through Ramadan.

  • Puppeteers Afsaneh Zamani and Alex Montagnese will perform Memories of Iftar, a puppet show featuring the childhood stories of clients of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto. Puppets illustrated by Banafsheh Erfanian, stories narrated by Maryem Tollar and directed by Annie Katsura Rollins.

  • Syrian Musicians Rahaf Alakbani (vocals) and Ismaeel Abufakher (bozok) will share traditional and original songs with our Pantry and shelter audiences, with opportunities to sing along!

Funders

Credits

Mobile Iftar
Elizabeth Rucker - Artistic Producer
Annie Katsura Rollins - Director
Afsaneh Zamani - Puppeteer
Alex  Montagnese - Puppeteer
Maryem Tollar - Narration
Banafsheh Erfanian - Illustration
Translator -  Narges Baheej
Cadman Brooks - Sound Technician
Sequoia Erickson - Scenic Build

Musicians
Rahaf Alakbani - Vocals
Eesmael Abufaker - Bozok
Naghmeh Farahmand - Tabla

Food
Rahaf Alakbani - Food Lead
The Mabelle Avenue and ACCT cooks
Rob Howard  - Iftar Market Lead

Communications & Graphic Design
Billy Main Pardo