Asilah cultural festival to kick off Friday

The twenty-third international cultural festival of Asilah will kick off on Friday.

The festival, held Under the aegis of King Mohammed VI, features colloquies, paintings and engravings exhibitions, music shows and other cultural activities.

The festival--to run till the end of August--will be attended by intellectuals, searchers and artists from Algeria, Bahrain, Belgium, Benin, Cape Verde, Chile, China, Congo-Brazzaville, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United States.

The Moatamid Ibn Abbad summer University, held part of the festival, will feature at its 16th edition colloquiums on culture and the city, Euro-Arab cooperation in cinema and arts, the genesis of Moroccan painting: experiences of the fifties and sixties and the Arab novel: evolution and prospects.

The 6th Arab-African cultural forum, which is also held part of the festival, will award its poetry prize to Cape Verde poet, Vera Duarte. The Prize is names after Congolese poet and playwright Felix Tchicaya U Tam'Si who passed away in 1989.

Shows will be given by artists from Brazil, Hungary, Iraq, Portugal, Senegal, Spain, Syria and Tunisia.