Sally Shalabi is a professional storyteller known as Shalabieh Al Hakawtieh, a playful name inspired by her family name and her profession. Shalabieh’s tells stories from Bilad Al Sham (the Levant) as well as other traditions and regions. Her repertoire includes folktales, testimonies and oral histories, contemporary stories. Sally has been working in the oral tradition since 2005 and has performed at various venues and festivals locally and internationally.  Sally’s practice is a continues process of research and development of which the performance is one part. This process results in a newer version of the stories she works with. These new tellings respect the traditions and the story whilst also reflecting more contemporary concepts and values.
Sally has presented various shows of including Khair Ya Tayer, a storytelling performance that tells the story of the Palestinian Nakba through testimonies and oral histories. Khair ya Tayer was performed in Amman (2017 and 2019), in Nablus (2018), Bahrain (2018), and Ramallah (2019). She has also been working on developing a contemporary telling of the bio-epic Sirat Al Thaher Baybars and has been telling stories from the epic every year since 2017, thus becoming being the first woman to tell the epic of Al Thaher Baybars (the Mamluk king) in a public space.
Sally is also a writer and translator. She has translated two anthologies from the Syrian folktales series “Timeless Tales” and written various audio pieces. Some of her productions include: Shalabiyat (2015- 2019), Hiyaket Al Kalam (2020), Journey into Madness (2021), Palestine was and Is – for Youths )2021), as well as having her own storytelling channel Shalabieh Al Hakwatieh on SoundClound.
Sally Shalabi has been awarded a grant for her project “Hikayat Shalabieh” by Abdulhamid Shoman Foundation in 2019 and a research grant for her project Zaghareed by AFAC in 2021.