Layan Srour is a Detroit-based artist and curator whose practice moves between sound, performance, and archival modes of cultural memory. In works spanning sound, visual art, poetry, and film, she explores how narrative mediums operate within frameworks of remembrance, shaping histories of movement, displacement, and belonging.To Layan, Beirut is not just a city, but a constant source of resonance and inspiration.

Layan’s artistic vocabulary is deeply shaped by her upbringing in Beirut’s underground scene in music, visual art, and film. She is one half of Taqsim, an Arabic electronic and experimental duo, with Yvonne Pruneau, rooted in improvisation and personal soundscapes recorded in Lebanon. Drawing on these textures and a search for the feeling of home, Taqsim blends synthesizers, sampled drums, and layered soundscapes to connect Detroit with Beirut’s resilient energy. Their work has been featured in New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music Festival and Third Place [MusicFest].

She curates Jalasat / جلسات (Arabic for “gatherings”), a performance series presented by the Arab American National Museum and the City of Dearborn, which highlights local musicians and small businesses. Through this series, she reframes site-specific performance as a point of community care, cultural exchange, and collective storytelling.

Beyond performance, Layan holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music from Wayne State University. In Detroit, she has collaborated with organizations including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Jazz Festival, and Girls Rock Detroit—engaging in projects that merge creative practice with cultural advocacy, education, and community-based artistry.

She is also the writer and creator of “40 Minutes With”, an interview series with the Arab America Foundation documenting the stories of Arab and Arab-American musicians across the United States. Through these extended dialogues, she maps how artists navigate heritage, belonging, and sound—contributing to an evolving oral history of Arab musical expression.