A panel conversation and live music from U-Cef and the Arab League

A lively panel of journalists, academics, artists and activists with first-hand experience from the region, will debate how the media has shaped our ideas of the “Arab Spring”. The panel includes Dr Fatima El-Issawi, LSE journalist, analyst, and Research Fellow whose current project looks at transformations in the Arab media industry within the current uprisings; Vanessa Hogkinson, a visual artist whose work engages in dialogue with Islamic art and culture; Dr Anne Alexander, Cambridge University research fellow who studies the use of digital media by movements for political and social change; and Khalid Abdalla, British-Egyptian actor, star of The Kite Runner, an active participant in the Tahrir Square protests and a founder member of citizen journalism collective Mosireen. It is chaired by Turi Munthe, founder of citizen journalism website Demotix (www.demotix.com).

DJ U-Cef And The Arab League will brew an excellent brew of traditional Maghrebi music fused with dub, jazz and fresh urban beats that will transport you from West London deep into the heart of the Sahara. Born and raised in Rabat, U-cef (aka Moulay Youssef Adel) absorbed much of his native Morocco’s traditions before moving to New York and then to London. His first CD ‘Halalium’ was a milestone in Moroccan urban dance music, and inspired a whole generation of rappers, b-boys and pro-tools adventurers, from Tangiers to Taroudant and Melilla to Marrakech. www.u-cef.com