​Arab.AMP is a platform for experimental live art, music and ideas by artists of the SWANA diaspora, the region, and our allied communities.

Arab.AMP, curated and directed by Leyya Mona Tawil, celebrates the plurality of SWANA voices operating in futurism, hybrid and transgressive form. 

Rooted in Oakland-CA; Arab.AMP operates in partnership with venues and festivals inter/nationally. A program of DANCE ELIXIR 501c3, we produce concerts, tours, artistic commissions, gatherings, and residencies for the communities we serve. 

​​Read more:
Kunafa and Shay podcast: Arab Experimentalism & Futurism with Leyya Mona Tawil
HowlRound (November 2024)

El Grito Podcast: From Resistance to Co-optation: Dance in the context of Palestine.  
Leyya Mona Tawil interviews Leila Mire (October 2024)

In a repressive climate, our museum is a rare safe space for pro-Palestinian voices by Diana Abouali
Museums Association (UK, August 2024)

Zina's Buqalah Podcast: The Right to Return & Resolve to Stay: A conversation w. Nadya Tannous, Host of AMP Folktales (Oakland, July 2023)

Southwest Asian and North African Artists and Their Barrier to Access by Elmaz Abinader
Arab.AMP/Tawil participation in the Zamin Project
Hyperallergic (26 Aug 2021)
​
We Place Ourselves; the social choreography of Arab Experimentalism 
Essay by Leyya Tawil
Detroit Research Journal - Vol. 2 (2016)

Essay'd 135 Tawil & Khoury
by Steve Panton (4 Feb 2020)

Tawil & Khoury discuss Arab Experimentalism
​CEC Artslink Assembly (Dec 2018)

5 Questions/ Tawil interviews Dirar Kalash
Fusebox Festival's Written & Spoken (Nov 2018)

Tawil, Lime Rickey International, Arab Experimentalism - Interview with Trina Mannino
Dance Enthusiast (31 Oct 2018)

Press:
WPFW - Shay Wa Nana / Zein El-Amine Interviews Leyya Tawil
WPFW 89.3 Washington DC  (21 Dec 2020)

WHFR Interview/Live Performance:
Leyya Tawil, Sharif Sehnaoui, Dominic Cramp
w. Morgan B & Scott Boatright
WHRF 89.3 Dearborn (27 Nov 2019)

Faster than Sound
​by Rachel Rascoe
Austin Chronicle (12 Apr 2019)
Regarding Arab.AMP's cancelled tour for Dirar Kalash

Impressions: Lime Rickey International's Future Faith at Abrons Arts Center
by Erin Bomboy
Dance Enthusiast (14 Mar 2019)

Alone in the Wind: Mike Khoury at MoHA
by Christine Gwillim
FUSEBOX Festival Blog (April 2019)

DIRECTOR/CURATOR

Leyya Mona Tawil

ARAB.AMP Advisory Board/

Adam Fong
Ben Hall
Emily Jacir
​Mike Khoury
Ali Rosa-Salas
​Sharif Sehnaoui

DANCE ELIXIR Board of Directors/

Denise Beirnes
Maysoun Freij
​Kathy Zarur
​Zari Lionudakis
Brent Miller

PARTNERS/

TAC: Temescal Art Center / OAKLAND
ARAB AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM / DEARBORN
The Lab / San Francisco
CEnter for New Music / San Francisco
ISSUE PROJECT ROOM / NYC
DARING DANCES / ANN ARBOR
Fusebox Festival / AUSTIN
Entropy Stereo / REDFORD-DETROIT
Rhizome DC / WASHINGTON DC
Pieter Performance Space / LOS ANGELES
​The Invisible Dog Art Center / BROOKLYN
PORTLAND INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART / PORTLAND
Al bustan seeds of culture / philadelphia
​
Logo Design by Christopher Gazaleh​​

Arab.AMP is a program of DANCE ELIXIR - a 501c3 organization. DANCE ELIXIR is supported in part by the California Arts Council, the Hewlett Foundation, City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program, Live Music Society, East Bay Fund for Artists at the East Bay Community Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Investing in Tomorrow Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation NEW Program, Alameda County ArtsFund, and a host of people like you.