Shabbak Festival

Pipe Dreams

Pipe Dreams is a zine publication documenting shisha culture in North West London created and co-produced by Zain Dada.  It tells the stories of shisha cafe owners & other Arab businesses- on their experiences of turning an industrialised area of London into a cultural hub for Arab diasporas across the UK. The zine also features an interview with Toronto-based curator, Mitra Fakhrashrafi who researched the impact of a by-law in Toronto which banned shisha in 2015.

This publication formed part of Shubbak Festival 2021 - Europe’s largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture. The production team consisted of British–Tunisian photographer Sana Badri, artist and filmmaker Nur Hannah Wan, writers Zain Dada and (and co-produced by) Nabil Al-Kinani, and graphic designer Walid Bouchouchi.