Canadian Arab Book Fair in Mississauga Reintroduces Arab Heritage in Canada

Canadian Arab Book Fair in Mississauga: A Cultural Platform Reintroducing Arab Heritage in Canada

Since its launch in 2023, the Canadian Arab Book Fair in Mississauga has grown beyond the traditional idea of a book fair. It has become a cultural platform that celebrates Arab heritage through literature, visual arts, music, intellectual discussions, languages, and community engagement.


Founded and organized by Egyptian Canadian writer and publisher Reham Taimeh, the fair carries a clear cultural vision: Arab heritage is not one single voice or one fixed image. It is a wide and diverse memory that stretches from the Middle East to North Africa, carrying within it different languages, identities, artistic traditions, and historical experiences.


This vision appears clearly in the way the fair selects its guest of honour countries. Each edition brings together one country from the Asian side of the Arab world, commonly known as the Middle East, and another from North Africa. This approach is not simply a programming choice. It reflects a deeper attempt to present Arab identity as a broad cultural map, rich in diversity and resistant to simplification.


From its first edition, the fair did not limit itself to books. In 2023, its program included heritage performances such as Egyptian tahtib, a Pharaonic themed theatre performance for children, and an Islamic arts exhibition. In 2024, the Palestinian cause was present through readings of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry in Arabic and English, drawing engagement from both Arab and non Arab audiences. The same year also featured Iraqi traditional music through the Iraqi Maqamat ensemble, which introduced audiences to maqam as one of the oldest and most distinctive forms of Arab musical heritage.


In 2025, the fair’s commitment to cultural diversity became even more visible with Algeria and Kuwait as guest of honour countries. Algeria opened its participation with traditional musical performances by a group that travelled from Ghardaia, a region known for its distinctive Mzab heritage and architecture. The program also included a literary panel that brought together Algerian writers from Arab and Amazigh backgrounds, presenting a more complete image of Algeria’s cultural and linguistic richness.


This year, with Tunisia and Oman as guest of honour countries, the fair expanded its reach even further. Before the Mississauga edition, the fair toured across Canada from the east coast to the west coast, covering more than 5,600 kilometres. Through this journey, Reham Taimeh brought Arab poetry, storytelling, music, and heritage to Arab and non Arab audiences across the country.


The Mississauga edition featured more than 40 programs, workshops, and panels, with the participation of over 100 artists, writers, historians, academics, cultural organizations, and government partners. This scale gave the fair a strong institutional character and positioned it as a serious cultural project rather than a one time annual event.


One of the key highlights this year was the celebration of Tunisian poet Aboul-Qacem Echebbi, the fair’s featured literary figure. His poetry was read in Arabic, English, French, and Amazigh. The fair also hosted a special poetry evening titled “Voices and Poems,” where poets read their own work in their mother tongues. Palestinian poet Ruba Shaaban read in Arabic, Chro Zand read in Kurdish, Salima Saadi read in Amazigh, and Palestinian poet Amal Fatayer shared her Arabic poetry. The evening turned language itself into a vessel of memory, longing, identity, and belonging.


The artistic workshops also reflected this wide cultural vision. They included wood burning, an Arabic calligraphy workshop led by Egyptian calligrapher Maher Ibrahim, and an Amazigh calligraphy workshop led by artist Salima Saadi. The inclusion of Amazigh calligraphy was a particularly notable addition, highlighting a form of visual and linguistic expression that is rarely present in Arab book fairs.


Music played an equally important role in creating a shared cultural space. Tunisian band Nouvelle Cadence, led by Walid Gharbi and featuring Karim Cherad and Yasser Belsadek, performed alongside Algerian artist and poet Mehdi Felfoul and Syrian musician Elie Assaf. Together, they created a musical scene that brought together different Arab voices, rhythms, and memories in one performance.


The fair’s intellectual program was also broad and layered. A panel on Arabic literature was moderated by Lebanese novelist and critic Salim Bouti, with the participation of Egyptian novelist Osama Zeid and Palestinian novelist Taysir Khalaf. Another panel focused on Omani literature and was presented by Tunisian Canadian writer Monia Mazigh, giving space to a literary tradition that is often underrepresented in Arab cultural events abroad.


Questions of identity and diversity were also central to the fair. One major panel, moderated by Marcus Zakaria, explored diversity in Middle Eastern and North African societies. Participants included Dr. Caroline Azmy, assistant professor at Carleton University, Egyptian novelist Mina Adel Gayed, Chro Zand, and Salima Saadi. The discussion brought Coptic, Amazigh, Kurdish, and Arab voices together on one platform, challenging fear of the other and presenting diversity as a natural part of the region’s social and cultural reality.


The fair also addressed timely and sensitive issues, including Islamophobia and the role of writing and fiction in confronting racism. In one session, Baraah Arar moderated a discussion with Lamees Al Ethari, professor at the University of Waterloo, and Monia Mazigh, professor at Carleton University, both of whom write and lecture on these issues in Canada. Another session focused on interfaith dialogue, featuring a Yemeni writer and Egyptian writer Khaled Salem, in conversation with cultural moderator Rabab Akili.


One of the fair’s notable initiatives this year was the launch of its first scientific and medical forum as part of the program. This step expanded the meaning of Arab heritage beyond arts and literature, emphasizing that Arab cultural legacy also includes science, medicine, knowledge, and intellectual contribution.


In this sense, the Canadian Arab Book Fair in Mississauga is not simply a seasonal cultural event. It is a platform that reintroduces Arab heritage in Canada as a living, diverse, and evolving presence. Through books, poetry, music, language, art, science, and dialogue, the fair presents Arab culture as something larger than geography and deeper than stereotypes. It shows how heritage can remain alive when it is given vision, care, and the space it deserves.