Dr. O Presents: Exploring The Queer Arab Glossary with Marwan Kaabour

20 June 2025

On 6 June, Dr. O presented 'Exploring The Queer Arab Glossary with Marwan Kaabour' as part of Lisson Gallery's Finding My Blue Sky exhibition curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif.

Dr. O invited artist and designer Marwan Kaabour into the subterranean gallery at 27 Bell Street on the 1 year anniversary of ‘The Queer Arab Glossary’ for an interactive talk and quickfire Q and A followed by book signing. 'The Queer Arab Glossary' by Marwan Kaabour is the first published collection of Arabic LGBTQ+ slang. This bold guide captures the lexicon of the queer Arab community in all its differences, quirks and felicities.

Finding My Blue Sky invites each viewer to contemplate or cross the boundary between thought and feeling, combining a critical response with the urgings of memory and history. For Kholeif, the cumulative effect could be: “An exhibition as pure expression of feeling. I have done this the only way that I know how – by invoking the voices of the artists that I have journeyed with, or vicariously through, over the years.”

Photography by Jon Lowe.

Explore our events programme for Finding My Blue Sky