Sharjah: The 16th edition of the Sharjah International Narrator Forum (SINF) begins on Monday under the patronage and in the presence of His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, under the theme ‘Juha: A Common Human Heritage’ at the Sharjah University City Hall.
Organised by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage (SIH), the forum will be attended by narrators, storytellers, performers and experts from different countries. A number of activities, including intellectual seminars, round table meetings, workshops for children, and cultural cafés, will take place. The events will be held in different venues, including the Arab Heritage Centre, tourist sites in Maliha, Heart of Sharjah, and other venues.
According to Abdul Aziz Al Musallam, chairman of SIH, the activities are designed to keep the narrators’ chronicles alive within society, and the event aims to highlight the importance of narrators as living human treasures.
“The forum will tell the tale of heritage in Sharjah and the story of the land and its people delivered by word, melody, popular knowledge and tradition,” he said.
This year’s edition will see the honouring of the fallen figures that have made significant contributions to the promotion of narration, poetry, and Arab heritage. Among those remembered are Ammar Abdul Rahman Al Sanjari, who died in a car accident in Al Ain in October 2015, Faleh Hanthal, PhD, an Iraqi historian, and Ahmad Rashid Thani, an Emirati cultural guru and scholar.
