*Merging of the Tide* is a collection of poetry presented as a book, an album, and a performance. Born out of a quest for belonging, the poems explore identity, uprooting, queer love, and the silent pain of desire, against a backdrop of immigration and memory.

Caught between the weight of distance and the tenderness of her hands, this book is both a story and a love letter, tracing the slow realization that home is not a place, but a presence—a love that endures no matter what.

 During this residency, the artist will work on the performance-based development of this publishing project. 

"Merging of the Tide " by Dayna Ash is part of Through Breath We Continue Through Breath We Continue : a collaborative project between the Lips Festival and the Beirut Art Center for the co-production and support of interdisciplinary projects. The project, designated as part of the Mediterranean Season 2026, involves the selection of three projects currently in production, a residency period, support, and a public presentation at the Lips Festival #3 — Souffle. The project—co-curated by Elena Biserna, Ibrahim Nehme, and Nour Sokhon—emerges from a shared interest in breath and voice as platforms for life, connection, and interdependence. In a context marked by ecological, political, and economic crises, it reaffirms the desire and the material and symbolic right to breathe and speak—to exist. The selected artists, Dayna Ash, Shatr (Sarah Huneidi, Theresa Sahyoun, and Nadine Makarem), and Nour Sokhon, present narratives rooted in the present but open to imaginaries of reconstruction, reparation, and justice. Faced with a present that is polluted and suffocated by massive destruction, they claim air and audibility as common goods—both biological and political, environmental and social. Through poetry, spoken word, images, and music, their projects transform speech and performance into a space for collective healing and breathing.