Liberation at the Back Lane Parliament curated by Caelainn Hogan

Tuqa Al Sarraj is a contemporary visual artist and filmmaker based at Flux Studios in Dublin. She studied Fine Art media at the National College of Art and Design (2021). Al Sarraj has also previously studied contemporary art at the International Academy of Art Palestine (IAAP), Ramallah (2017). Tuqa has exhibited as part of group exhibitions in various international cities, including Oslo, London, Ramallah, Creil, Dublin, Limerick, and Sligo. Her multidisciplinary practice includes mixed media, collage, photography, video, performance, and multimedia installation. Al Sarraj navigates themes of memory, loss, and exile through social dialogues and personal conversations, delving into the complexities of identity and cultural heritage. She utilizes storytelling and family archives to evoke both personal and collective narratives. She is a member of PalArt collective in London, and Angelica Network in Ireland.

Osaro Azams is a multi-award-winning audio-visual artist with a fascination for West African mythos. Her recent work delves into the literal Black arts of lonesome prayers, sensual poetry and guttural vocal chords which she infuses in her live performances during the spring and hermit seasons. Founder of the Fried Plantains Collective , Osaro celebrates the melodious voices of African and Irish artists through her event 'Black Jam' which took place at Abbey Theatre, The Complex, Bello Bar and at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in France.

Annemarie Ní Churreáin is a poet from the Donegal Gaeltacht. Her books include Bloodroot (Doire Press, 2017), The Poison Glen (The Gallery Press, 2021) and Ghostgirl (Donegal County Archives, 2023). Her work has been shortlisted for the Shine Strong Award for Best Debut Collection (IRE) and for the Ledbury Hellens Best Second Collection (UK). She is the recipient of an Irish Arts Council’s Next Generation Artist Award and a co-recipient of The Markievicz Award. Ní Churreáin is the current poetry editor at The Stinging Fly Magazine.

Chrissy Donoghue Ward is a Dublin-based poet and storyteller. Her stories are from the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community. Chrissy has a long history of activism and community engagement and is passionate about education and the opportunities it provides for all. The Fairy Queen is her first book for children.

Caelainn Hogan is a writer and journalist with work published in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, VICE, The Guardian, The Dublin Review and others. Her book Republic of Shame, published by Penguin Ireland, investigates the ongoing legacy of the religious-run institutions in Ireland that incarcerated thousands of women and children.

Jude Hughes is a founding director and the Chairperson of The Association of Mixed Race Irish (AMRI). He was born in Dublin and brought up in Ireland. He trained as a tailor and runs his own business in central Dublin. Jude has many years experience dealing with issues of racism faced by Black and mixed race people in Ireland. He was a co-founder of Harmony which was set up in 1986 to address the racism faced by people of colour in Ireland at that time. He was involved in the Anti-Apartheid movement since 1968. It was the anti-apartheid movement that precipitated the founding of Harmony as Irish people who were in mixed marriages became concerned at the racism faced by their own mixed race children. Harmony was instrumental in achieving legislation to deal with racial discrimination in Ireland and was the precursor to the emergence of our organisation today. Jude lives in Dublin with his family.

Day Magee is an artist, performer and writer based in Dublin. Engaging their ontology as a creative material, their work explores the intersections of queerness, illness, and religiosity. Across multimedia, their practice interrogates bodies in time and space enacting phenomenological narratives - the stories they tell themselves about themselves through living.