May 14 at 7:30pm at National Sawdust 

The critically acclaimed song cycle, built around poems written in Amazon customer reviews, marks Sinno’s solo debut and first lyrical excursion into the English language.

Video work by Sinno and Matteo Zamagni accompanies original “pop songs” exploring the overlaps of consumerism, mental illness, and environmental crisis 

New York Arab Festival (NYAF), New York City’s premiere multigenre two-month-long Arab and Arab American art and culture festival during Arab American Heritage Month, presents the New York premiere of Lebanese-American artist, rockstar, and activist H.Sinno’s (Hamed Sinno) solo performance Poems of Consumption on Wednesday, May 14, at 7:30pm at National Sawdust (80 N 6th St, Brooklyn), the women-led, Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based non-profit cultural institution. Curated by theorist and artist Adham Hafez, NYAF is known for presenting cutting-edge genre-defying projects, such as “Poems of Consumption”. Known for their fearless artistic voice and formal experimentation, Sinno’s multimedia “anti-spectacle”—created with video artist Matteo Zamagni and composer-arranger Paul Stroud—weaves their poetic Amazon reviews into a sonic, visual exploration of late-capitalist desire and grief that “exudes intense intimacy,” with vocals “brooding and potent, torn between heartbreak and hedonism” (Financial Times).

Originally commissioned by the Barbican Centre and Shubbak Festival in 2023, Poems of Consumption places lush string arrangements next to hardcore EDM, field recordings, and influences ranging from ASMR and pop to dabke and musical theater. “I sometimes delve so far into theatrics that I skip the exit at musical theatre, keep going past kitsch, and come out the other end at complete melodrama,” Sinno told GQ Middle East of their process composing and producing the song cycle. The visual dimension is equally prodigious: video art by Zamagni and Sinno saturates the space with a relentless barrage of receipts, product images, broken animations, and phantasmagoric overlays. 

The result is a production that’s danceable and devastating, maximalist and deeply introspective, covering themes like ennui, surveillance capitalism, heartbreak, boycotts, and orientalism. A rare blend of high-concept critique and emotional honesty, the performance lays bare Sinno’s experiences with depression, guilt, and fleeting pleasure shaped by the rituals of consumption. “I think we all know what consumerism is and what’s happening to the environment, and if you’re a climate denier, some queer, neurodivergent musician from Lebanon is not going to change your mind,” Sinno told The Line of Best Fit in 2023. “[Poems of Consumption] is about this very vulnerable, almost shameful relationship with buying things…the shame and the gratification of it, and I think, in a lot of ways, that’s where the politics happens. I’m not yelling at anyone. I’m actually just being publicly filthy.”

The May 14 performance is presented by New York Arab Festival as part of NYAF’s 2025 edition and 4th year in partnership with National Sawdust as part of National Sawdust’s banner 10th anniversary season (full performance schedule here) and NYAF’s 2025 programming (full program here). Tickets are standing-room only and expected to sell out (tickets).

About H.Sinno

H.Sinno is a composer-performer, writer, and designer based in New York. They have been the lyricist and front-person for Mashrou Leila since 2008, engaging conversations around representation, free speech, freedoms in the Middle East. They have a BFA from the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut, and an MA in Digital Musics from Dartmouth College, where they analyzed the vocal organ and digital vocality as sites of political negotiation. Their writing has been published by Poetry Project, Frieze Magazine, The Derivative, Theater Magazine, Bard College & others. Their debut full-length opera, Westerly Breath, was in development at The Industry Los Angeles, and opened at the New York Met Museum in January 2024. Westerly Breath braids Egyptian mythology, and architectural history into a semi-autobiographical portrait, leveraging myth, monument, and memoir as vectors of dismemberment and remembrance. Their solo debut, Poems of Consumption, opened at London’s Barbican Centre in July 2023, and is currently on tour in the US. Partially inspired by Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, Poems of Consumption is a song cycle built on poetry published in Amazon customer reviews, covering themes like ennui, surveillance capitalism, heartbreak, boycotts, and orientalism, with compositions that juxtapose harsh electronica with the whimsy of a string quartet.

About New York Arab Festival

New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is a multidisciplinary festival spanning all genres of art, culture, design, cuisine, philosophy, and intersecting industries. It programs arts and culture from the Arabic-speaking region and the Arab diaspora and showcases Arab American artists. NYAF was established in 2022 to commemorate Arab American Heritage Month and fight the erasure of Arab and Arab American identities from NYC, a place Arabs have called home for over three centuries. NYAF is organized and run by its founding members: Artistic Director and Curator Adham Hafez, Urbanist and Curator Adam Kucharski, and founding Senior Producer Cindy Sibilsky. NYAF is produced by HaRaKa Platform and powered by Wizara LLC in partnership with many celebrated institutions in NYC and worldwide. NYAF 2025 runs April 1–May 31. Discover our programming at www.newyorkarabfestival.com and @newyorkarabfestivalofficial

About National Sawdust

National Sawdust is a dynamic non-profit cultural institution that commissions, produces, and presents programming rooted in sound and supports multidisciplinary artists and arts organizations in the creation of innovative new work. Founded in 2015, National Sawdust operates out of an intimate space, equipped with a state-of-the-art Meyer spatial sound system, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where it is one of the few remaining cultural venues. The New York Times has described National Sawdust as “a triumphantly successful performance space that stands for a hip, sophisticated brand of new music.” Composer Paola Prestini, who co-founded National Sawdust, serves as its artistic director, alongside managing director Ana De Archuleta, making National Sawdust one of the few New York cultural institutions led by women.

National Sawdust provides artists across musical genres and artistic disciplines with comprehensive support including commissions, workshops, residencies, public performances, recording, mentorship, and professional development. It aims to be not only a home for its community of artists, but also a place for audiences to discover wide-ranging music at accessible ticket prices. The institution’s mentorship initiatives counteract industry barriers and the historic marginalization of diverse communities in the arts, providing artists and arts workers with guidance, resources, and relationships with established visionaries to accelerate their careers.

Founded by Kevin Dolan and designed by Brooklyn’s Bureau V, National Sawdust is constructed within the existing shell of a century-old sawdust factory, preserving the authenticity of Williamsburg’s industrial past while providing a refined and intimate setting for the exploration of new music. At the venue’s core is a flexible chamber hall, acoustically designed by renowned engineering firm Arup to provide the highest-quality experience of both unamplified and amplified music.

Press Contact

Blake Zidell and Caitlyn Tella at Blake Zidell & Associates: 917.572.2593, [email protected]  and [email protected] and

New York Arab Festival Producer, Cindy Sibilsky, 917.587.1394, [email protected] 

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