Brutiful Tales - Amplify and co-create for Palestine with Brutiful Tales
- samia tossio
- Jun 10
- 5 min read
Please join us at the Official Launch of Brutiful Tales - a powerful new project amplifying Palestinian voices through talks, real-life storytelling, and collaborative silk painting, with Special Guest Speaker, Nadia Sawalha.
My name is Samia Khalaf Tossio and I believe that community is ‘communication in unity through diversity and inclusion.’ I see art and culture as ‘weapons of mass creation’ - tools to connect, share and inspire solidarity, imagination, love and collective hope. A community artist, vocalist, and public speaker, I launched SamiArt in 2008, ‘to inspire and share through playfully creative communication.’ A British-born Palestinian with German and Italian heritage, I live by my mantra, ‘Love Life, Life loves You.’ In my spare time, I volunteer for causes that I am passionate about and currently serve on the Leadership Team at Sutton Friends of Palestine. By celebrating our cultural diversity, respecting our one planet, and ‘holding the humanity line’ we create a better now, and future, for the good of the whole and for the sake of all of our children. This one life is temporary, it is at times beautiful and brutal - what I call ‘brutiful’. When we actively choose to be humanKIND we make life more beautiful for all of us.
Programme Highlights…
✨Special guest speaker Nadia Sawalha, Ambassador of Children Not Numbers, Activist, British-born Jordanian
✨Welcome from Vibushan Thirukumar, Co-founder CEO - Oru Space, First Generation Tamil Sri Lankan Refugee
✨Brutiful Tales project by Samia Khalaf Tossio, Playfully Creative Activist, founder of SamiArt, and daughter of a Palestinian Refugee
✨Live stream from the Occupied State of Palestine (internet connection permitting)
When & where…
🗓 Saturday 21 June
🕓 Doors 16:00 | 🕓 Start 17:00
📍 Town Hall Oru Space, 7 Throwley Way, Sutton SM1 4AF
🥙 Light vegetarian buffet & refreshments provided
🎟️ https://momence.com/s/117632386
🕓 18:30 - 20:00 Collaborative silk painting on the rooftop
This is a free event but we encourage you to donate to the crowdfunder: https://gofund.me/6c22cc5f
What else…
🕓 19:00-23:00 Celebration of Summer Solstice with Rooftop
Sunset Sessions from Trinco by Oru
🎧 Solidarity-infused grooves curated by Paolo Tossio DJ & Friends
🥙 Buy Sri Lankan pizzas, nibbles, and beautifully infused organic cocktails and mocktails, hand-crafted by Dondee
Rooftop rules…
👟 No stilettos - the grated roof collects rainwater
🥕 Respect the community veg patches
🐔 Respect the chickens! PS these groovy chicks laid eggs after the first sunset session.
***Come for the stories. Stay for the solidarity, connection, and co-creation - for Palestine,
for the good of the whole.***
Brutiful Tales is a creative activism project. It amplifies Palestinian* voices through talks and real-life storytelling events that share their lived experiences under occupation. It builds cross-community connections through participatory workshops uniting UK and Palestinian communities.
Silk-painted murals, ‘Silk Roads’, are co-created and exhibited in partner locations as powerful symbols of solidarity, hope, resilience, and cultural identity. Connecting communities creatively through the peaceful and therapeutic medium of silk painting, the project champions empathy, kindness, shared humanity and aligns fully with 2025's Refugee Week theme: 'Community as a superpower.'
The Brutiful Tales Journey. In March 2025, I returned from a transformative visit to Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. We travelled as a creative/cultural delegation with Sabeel-Kairos UK, via Jordan. The stories we heard from the organisations and community groups we met - told with raw honesty, aching beauty, and natural resistance - inspired me to do what I do best: share. Thus, ‘Brutiful Tales’ was born.
“We give the children and young people something other than death to think about” - Mohammad Rabah, Director, Palestinian Circus School
Before a talk begins, the audience is invited to respond visually to what they see and hear by putting pen to paper. Some examples here:
These creative responses will be transferred to silk fabric using ‘RESIST’ outliners at community events. I am bowled over by the deeply emotive artworks and messages so far contributed - from simple doodles to intricate designs and written messages.
There are now 32 contributions ready to be transferred using gutta and/or cold wax ‘RESIST’ for the first of what I intend to be many ‘Brutiful Silk Roads’. The collaborative silk painting will also happen at community events.
*Brutiful Tales can expand to include other indigenous voices living under oppression and/or occupation.
Head to my website for the origins of SamiArt and The Silk Road.
My first project as a newbie freelance community artist back in 2008 - only 10 metres long! Designed by all ages and abilities at diverse community groups, then painted at the launch of an Art Festival in High Street, Sutton. See more:
To be involved in co-painting the first ‘Brutiful Silk Road’ you will need to attend the launch event on Saturday 21 June at Oru Space in Sutton where I will also be launching the crowdfunder to support my ability to deliver this long-term project and its objectives.
So what are the project objectives?
Brutiful Tales aims to build playfully creative bridges between communities through talks, real-life stories, collaborative art, and non-violent communication.
The goal is to:
1) foster cross-cultural community connection while humanising lived experience and highlighting the impact of occupation.
2) co-create ‘Silk Road’ murals in partner locations that reflect shared narratives of resilience and hope and exhibit these silk painted murals in both the UK and Palestine - creating cultural bridges which symbolise identity through creative solidarity.
3) tour ‘Brutiful Tales’ to engage schools, cultural festivals, and communities in meaningful conversations on displacement, justice, empathy, and belonging.
On a personal note,
it is an honour to have permission from globally renowned Palestinian artist, Sliman Mansour, (pictured) to incorporate one of his artworks as a feature of the first ‘brutiful silk road’. He reminded me so much of my Yaffa-born father, Haji Marwan Khalaf Elyafi (1940-2019) who never spoke in anger nor with hatred about his life since 1948. He simply stated, ‘Resolve the problem in Palestine and watch many of the world's problems disappear.’
‘We must rehumanise ourselves’ - Sliman Mansour
How do we get involved in the UK? Can Brutiful Tales happen as an online event?
Book a Brutiful Tales talk & design evening/coffee morning or a half-day/one day event to include the silk painting activity, and SamiArt will come to you. Yes, this can happen as an online event, get in touch to discuss logistics of this.
For educators at home/school/college, Brutiful Tales can be PSE curriculum-linked with workshops on cultural identity and youth-led storytelling.
For arts organisations and cultural festivals the emphasis is on collaborative murals, digital storytelling, and live performance art.
For activists, the focus is on BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) advocacy, legal campaigns, and/or amplifying prisoner testimonies.
Contact: info@samiart.co.uk, subject header ‘Brutiful Tales’ to schedule
a call to discuss in person and online events.
Follow IG @brutifultales for all events open to the general public
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