Poeticwear is a project I ran independently from 2020 to 2025 that featured a collection of hand-painted poetry (and hand-made textiles) using verses and themes from SWANA poets and musicians. The intention was to create a visual archive of our region’s poetry and music, and to engage intimately with a variety of social issues while centering the Arab woman as a divine vessel of transmission.
The StoryAl Ab bil Jims; ‘the father is in the body—
My father was a very talented musician and artist and writer who gave it all up for religion. Prayer rugs remind me both of who he became and who he was: the man behind the beard, behind the haunted look of a Muslim who felt forced to suffer, who believed he had to choose between his instruments and god. I wanted to visually capture the war between music and prayer, this unnecessary war, as all wars are.
In many men lives this battle between the evil and good in them, but I really believe my father had a very special good in him, a good the earth was hungry for. In a way this story is not only about my own loss, but about the world’s. He had this way of holding a hen that makes you cry. But those same hands have also killed a rooster out of rage..
*you may read the journal that accompanies this piece here. (psd: artisfreedom)
