Qissa Festival: Celebrating Newcomer & Refugee Writers is an annual multidisciplinary arts festival that celebrates the creative work of newcomer and refugee artists in Canada. Bringing together literature, storytelling, music, performance, film, exhibitions, and community experiences, the festival creates space for artists to share original work while engaging audiences in deeper conversations about migration, memory, belonging, labour, language, identity, and creative practice.
At the heart of the festival is a commitment to expanding how newcomer and refugee artists are seen and understood. Too often, immigrant stories are expected to focus on hardship, resilience, gratitude, or integration, while artists with established careers elsewhere are recast as “emerging” upon arriving in Canada. Qissa Festival offers a different approach, creating space for artists to develop and present original work on their own terms and showcasing the breadth, complexity, and diversity of newcomer artistic practice.
Each edition of the festival is developed through a collaborative creative process. Writers and artists participate in a series of workshops where they collectively explore a central theme, exchange feedback, and develop new original work. These artistic pieces become the foundation of the festival’s programming, shaping panel discussions, performances, screenings, readings, and public conversations.
Designed as a curated experience, the festival invites audiences to move between artistic disciplines. Alongside literary panels and performances, audiences encounter exhibitions, film screenings, musical collaborations, participatory arts activities, community conversations, and food experiences that reflect the diversity of newcomer communities across Canada.
The festival is rooted in the belief that art can create meaningful connections between people, challenge dominant narratives, and open new possibilities for understanding migration and belonging.
Produced by Qissa, the festival builds on our broader mission of documenting, preserving, and sharing immigrant stories through oral history, literature, exhibitions, film, and community-engaged artistic practice.