Poems of Praise and Remembrance -Youssef Kromah & Sukina Pilgrim

Poems of Praise and Remembrance with Youssef Kromah (USA) and Sukina Pilgrim (UK)

Ticket at the door: £7 / £5 concessions

Join us for an evening of Poetry of Praise and Remembrance with Youssef Kromah and Sukina Pilgrim, using their words in remembrance of Allah and His Messenger (saw) in the blessed month of Rabi ul Awwal.

Youssef Kromah is an award-winning poet, best-selling author, speaker, community activist and international television host at Huda TV in Cairo, Egypt. He was first featured as a spoken-word poet on Russell Simmon’s HBO series Brave New Voices and later as a featured guest speaker on CNN’s Who’s Black in America.

Youssef’s ability to captivate and enthral audiences with his poignant words and power-packed performances has taken him all over the United States and abroad, including Cuba, Hong Kong, Palestine, Ireland, Thailand, Morocco, London, Egypt and many other countries.

Youssef serves as a khatib for over 10 masjids in the Delaware Valley region, as well as assistant imam at Masjidullah in Philadelphia. Youssef is currently pursuing a degree in Islamic Studies at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, with hopes of following a career track in Islamic Scholarship, while continuing his art, da’wah work and youth development initiatives.

He will be sharing from his new poetry collection ‘Woke: In Wake of The Wide Awakening’ a masterful collection of poetry, traversing through the inner-dimensions of human fragility, the magnetism of love, and the noxious effects of unchecked racism and systematic oppression. The author pens every poem as if it were his very last, pulling not a single punch, and using not a single word sparingly.

Sukina Douglas is a Spoken-Word and Hip Hop artist, Workshop Facilitator and Event Organisor. She makes up one half of the Muslim female Hip Hop duo, Poetic Pilgrimage and has performed across the UK, Europe, the USA, North and South Africa with her group sharing their unique blend of conscious Hip Hop and impactful poetry to engage communities.

She has facilitated creative writing workshops across the world empowering communities to use the written word as a tool for dialogue and engagement. Born in Bristol to Jamaican parents Sukina was raised in a Rastafarian inspired environment however in 2005 she converted to Islam and embraced the Sufi path 4 years later, since then she has played an intrinsic role within the British Muslim creative communities as a performer and event organiser.

Her work has been featured on the BBC News, World Service and Asian Network, ITV, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera and has been written about in the Huffington Post, Daily Mail, The Voice and many other international media outlets. In March 2015 Al Jazeera screened a documentary about her group called Hip Hop Hijabis.

Sukina made her theatre debut in 2016 in a production called Malcolm X at the KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre) in Brussels which was critically acclaimed and is currently touring across Belgium. She recently gave a Tedx Talk in Antwerp on the healing power of poetry.

Sukina holds a she holds a BA (Hons) Degree in English Literature and Caribbean Studies and is currently pursuing an MA in Creative Industries and Cultural Management.