An invitation to SWANA/Middle Eastern and BIPOC community to creatively reflect on our relationship to migration, immigration, and what it means to be uprooted from our homelands.
About the workshop:
Within a trauma-informed environment, the workshop invites participants to reflect on aspects of their (or their family's) migration stories. We will be using photographs/personal objects to guide us in sharing migration stories through poetry, asking: how do we trace our lineage? What does the landscape of home look like in our memories? Can we balance the pain of leaving home behind while celebrating the safety of new beginnings through migration?
This workshop draws inspiration from the Arabian Peninsula and Levant's historical use of poetry to preserve ancestral stories, legacies, and homelands. We'll explore the basic structure and writing styles used in some of the poetry from these regions. You do not have to be fluent or an expert in English poetry or a Middle Eastern language (such as Arabic) to join this workshop.
Registration is required, limited spots available:
About the Facilitators:
Tamara Hijazi is a Palestinian-American photographer and writer based in Chicago specializing in film and multimedia portrait work. Her work is often inspired by plants and greenery, 1970s/1980's fashion, poetry and experimental texts. Tamara primarily focuses on photographing musicians, painters, and other artists, specifically from her MENA/SWANA community; her goal is to elevate, celebrate, and give agency to SWANA/MENA creatives with visuals that embody their needs and ambitions rather than tokenizes them. She is currently expanding into multimedia work incorporating portraiture, ceramics, and embroidery/textiles that center ancestral storytelling and herbalism-inspired, interactive community pieces.
Farah Salem is an interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Farah’s studio practice is rooted in photography, expanding through video, performance, fiber-materials, and installation. Her origins in photography influence the ways she uses materials to sensorily embody concepts she grapples with. In her studio practice, through relational merging and mapping of human and geological bodies, she visions their liberation. By doing so, she examines hemes of agency, making the invisible visible, and potential erosion of socio-cultural conditioning distorting our shared realities. Her visual arts and somatic-centered art therapy practices are independent however they intersect in her professional training, informing her artistic exploration of how trauma manifests in the body. Incorporating tools from ancestral healing wisdom for the recovery of the somatic experience while relating to the natural world.
Farah holds an MA in Art Therapy and Counseling from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Farah is trained in Somatic Experiencing, EMDR and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. Her artwork has been featured nationally and internationally at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), EXPO CHICAGO, American University Museum (Washington DC), United Photo Industries/Photoville Gallery (New York), Patel Brown (Toronto), Engage Gallery (Chicago), Bolivia Biennial, Paris Contemporary Art Fair, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE), and Contemporary Art Platform (Kuwait). Farah completed the Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, Hatch Residency at Chicago Artist Coalition, ACRE Artist Residency, Per|Form at Contemporary Art Platform(Kuwait) and Journey to Turkey Residency with Crossway Foundation (UK). She is the recipient of the 2024 3Arts Award, and is the 2017 Laureate Winner: International Women Photographers Award.
This workshop was supported by Ignite Fund