Warm Memories from Hearth Summit Kuwait

I recently participated in the Hearth Summit Kuwait, which is by far the best event I have ever been to, and the most heart-aligned among events where I didn’t go already knowing most of the people there. It feels odd saying that now, because in just 3 short days (well ok 2 of them were quite long haha) I got close to soooo many people and shared so deeply.

First of all, I had heard of the concept of Hearth Summit before. I had been invited to the global one before, but could not go, and my friends Mays and Mia had gone to that one and told me all about it. So when Mays told me to look out for an email invite from Hearth Summit Kuwait, I was three things: ecstatic to be invited, nostalgic for the location of my birthplace, Kuwait, and later on, absolutely humbled that after meeting me one or two times on Zoom, they invited me to do THREE sessions! The second spot in the opening plenary, focusing on creating welcoming communities of belonging; a panel on play in education, and a workshop with my good friend Mays on promoting equity and care in education.

The organizers truly did an incredible job organizing this. I only saw the tip of the iceberg in the amount of time they spent with me to help me prepare each session in ways that would work well for the context and audience, and explaining their values in detail and what other speakers were doing. I also heard from Mays about the extensive research they did in their community to come up with the themes. Every single workshop I attended touched me so deeply. When I arrived, everyone from the organizing team hugged me and I felt like I’d known them since forever! Organizers introduced me to new people, including other speakers and the person organizing the upcoming Hearth Summit in Morocco inshallah. I got to know all sorts of people for different reasons all around.

The opening activities involved a “story slam”, which is like a mad/wild tea speed networking thing, but the questions were all about memories of Kuwait (they had alternative options for people who had never lived on Kuwait, though).

The next activity was a mapping activity. I came early to do a tech check then noticed some people doing the pre-work for that, and I went to work with them, helping put some tape on the ground to make it easy to see numbers on a map of Kuwait. We later did this awesome activity of mapping 3 of our Kuwait memories. We had a card and we would choose a place in Kuwait and put a sticker of a certain color to indicate whether it made us feel Belonging, welcomed, safe, or surface or excluded or such. And we would write our story. You would Walk around and see what other colors people put in different places. Then they’d ask us to stop and find someone and pair up to share our stories … then in groups of four… share again.. then two groups of four would make an 8 and those became your “family circle” for the event, with some slots for us to share reflections. That conversation was beautiful.

Then came my plenary. Zooz al-Mahdi, stand-up comedian started us off, introduced the event, did some standup, then introduced me. It was hilarious that when we were doing a tech check earlier, Zooz asked if I wanted her to say anything special. I told her that I dreamt she said I was “born and raised in Kuwait” then she and Giuli laughed and said that yes,that was written in my intro!!! So I hadn’t dreamt it!!! It just wasn’t on the website, just buried in one of maybe 100 emails we had exchanged haha.

My opening plenary was so much fun. I asked participants to find someone new and introduce themselves… then used Slido to get the audience sharing how they felt and what they were grateful for and such… then I shared the event community agreements, then some of the ideas of Intentionally Equitable Hospitality and talked about how it does not always just work easily, we have to work for it. I then shared MY experience of feeling like I belong at the conference SO FAR, and invited participants to use Slido to share ways the event made them feel welcome. I read as many as I could aloud and commented on them. Some of it was super funny, some of it really touching. Some people’s names were highlighted which was lovely.

The rest of the event was all amazing. I got my first experience of a somatic practice with Zeena Ismail, which made me realize we could do something similar to mad/wild tea but slower, with some embodied centering and deeper questions and just slowing down and taking a walking break in between talking to people. I bet it would help introverts a bit to take it slow and take breaks in between dialogue.

I also experienced playback theater – love this concept of someone in the audience sharing a story and then the actors would emote elements of it back to them. Love this concept of showing someone you’ve heard them by reflecting your interpretation back… and how it can actually help us become more empathetic humans. I wish I had activity had a chance to practice it and not just watch actors, but I understand it needs training so as not to be offensive in responding or interpreting someone else’s words/stories.

I got to hear so much unique and beautiful music at different points. The event had 3 main themes: art for social change, intergenerational healing and ecological Belonging. So there was also a lot about the land and Kuwait and its hhistory and there was a film at the beginning that made me cry. Like a little bit before my plenary talk.

I also got to experience Oud + meditation, which was new to me and such a beautiful experience. I learned some new breathing techniques… and realized when we breathe in through our mouth it is energizing, whereas when we breathe in through the nose, and out through them mouth, it is calming. I knew the latter… but the former was new to me.

There was lots of time for informal conversations also due to prayer break and long lunch breaks and some time in between sessions and family circle time, so I got to know so many people and conversations were beautiful.

Another validating and heartwarming thing was how I kept hearing people in plenaries and reflections saying “as Dr. Maha said on day 1…” like multiple times, and during the closing as well!!!

The last day, I was part of a plenary panel on play in education and we intentionally made it playful among us and with the audience as well, picking questions from a bowl, and asking each other, then also throwing some questions using balls to the audience and whoever caught it would answer. It was FUN!

And after lunch I gave the workshop with Mays and the participants were lovely and in their final reflections they wrote some beautiful things, and I am so glad we asked them to write their takeaways before leaving.

I have so many ideas of how to organize future events, to honor our embodied experience more, to slow down without losing social connection, to make space for moments of connection.

Oh, I also got to do henna on my hands. Photo coming… the conversation I had with Fatima, and of the organizers, while doing the henna was such a beautiful moment of heart connection!

One little thing that is funny about in-person events is that there are soooo many tiny details you could miss. E.g. time it takes people to move between sessions and get lost on campus meant some stuff started late or had to be cut shorter. The plenaries were slightly too long, like 2.5 hours, which meant two things: I needed a bio break during almost EVERY plenary, AND it was difficult to focus, though each event in the plenary too between 10-30 mins, from films, to music, to poetry reading, to a few lectures, to panels… it was still a lot. Perhaps I would have 3 plenary sessions, one before lunch and one after lunch, and one at closing? And each would be 45 mins to an hour.

We had family circle time only once each day. I am OK with this, and the flexibility of adopting new people to our family circle who had not come the first day when circles were formed. I wonder if we could have had slightly more family circle time, but I felt it was just enough.

One funny encounter happened. We were in our first family circle, and someone was hovering nearby, so I said hi and asked if she wanted to join, introduced myself, and she said, “I know you”. Which confused me, but I thought maybe she meant she knew I was on the program as a speaker. She didn’t join our family circle. Later at dinner that day, she sat next to me and I discovered she worked for the Welbeing Project who are the umbrella under which Hearth Summits are organized. Turns out she is the one who works with folks who want to organize regional summits! I hope one day we can organize one in Cairo inshallah. I would love to share this type of soul-uplifting and nourishing experience with so many around me. Hopefully one day inshallah.

I wish there weren’t so many amazing things happening in the same timeslot, or that they would repeat them. Morning sessions were 3 each time: something with movement, something with art where you use your hands and make, and something more reflective like poetry or meditation with music. The later workshops, though, were 2.5 hours each and the choices were all so amazing I always felt torn! But the good thing is family circle and other social time meant we shared with others and learned about their experiences.

Every person I had just a 5 minute conversation with left a mark on my heart and I hope I get opportunities to see and hug them all again! I am hoping this is not the last Hearth Summit I take part of and I have learned so much about organizing future events in general.

The header image is from the mapping activity of the first day, area 24 is Reggae, where I lived for most of my childhood in Kuwait. Not a very well known residential area, has no like malls or shops or businesses…. just quiet compounds and residential buildings. I forget what each color circle means, but the meanings vary from belonging and safety to exclusion and feeling unsafe or observed.