How Berlin's Arab queers are building their community

As the co-founder of the ADIRA Drag Festival, Lebanese performance artist, drag performer, DJ and cultural organizer Hassandra has become an essential part of Berlin's queer artistic landscape. "Adira" is an Arabic slang term used in Levantine queer culture to describe someone with a strong presence — someone powerful and accomplished.

It is also the name of a Berlin-based collective that curates events and club nights celebrating the diversity of queer Arab* culture. The asterisk signals the inclusion of non-Arab ethnic minorities and people with diverse identities and roots in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Among the collective's events is the ADIRA Drag Festival , which celebrated its third edition in Berlin in late October. This year's theme, "Who's Your Diva?!," brought together drag performers paying tribute to legendary figures from across the Eastern Mediterranean who have become queer icons — from Egyptian music legend Umm Kulthum to Turkish star Bülent Ersoy and Lebanese pop icon Haifa Wehbe.