Al-Bustan is thrilled to present ARTist––Reframed, a photography exhibit featuring emerging SWANA artists in their domains, shot by Chicago-based Arab-American photographer Tamara Hijazi.
On view from June 18-September 10 Exhibit @ Al-Bustan’s Hub
3645 Lancaster Avenue
Purchase photo prints of the exhibit and zines! Browse through the catalog (click on the image).
Artist Statement:
SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) artists like myself often have to navigate an art world that expects them to bring forward a particular narrative. To replicate and represent tragedy. To create art that is filled with exaggerated elements of SWANA culture. To make a massive political statement which supposedly carries the community’s identity and its place in the art world.
This project seeks to break away from such expectations by creating a photographic series by up-and-coming SWANA, primarily Arab, artists. By engaging in an understanding of art that does not follow the binary of either “traditional” or “modern” and “political” or “apolitical”, but instead reminds us of the spectrum of the diaspora experience and that we own the narrative we weave into it.
Loss. Intimacy. Mental health. Migration. Love. Religion. Family matters. Liberation. Our art is everything and everything in-between.
To bring this intention forward, I focused on capturing portraits and personal video interviews. I see these elements as part of the act of understanding, breaking down, and revisiting the idea of becoming. What does it mean to be an artist of the diaspora? What is the purpose of our art? How do we create while navigating the physical distance from the traditions, language and familial histories of our ancestors?
Who are we, and who do we see ourselves becoming?
It’s important to note that these photographs are a conversation––through countless text messages, late-night phone calls, and expansive vision boards, every artist participated in the photographic process. Every artist helped select the theme, outfits and locations. As a photographer, I never enter a space with the intention of simply photographing my vision. Instead, my photographic process is a reflection of my heritage: it is a heritage that values, and puts into practice, community and respect. Because our community is my strength and the backbone of my work.
As someone who has been forced from her indigenous home and is now living in diaspora, I want to make clear that we are residing and conducting this project on indigenous land. We must recognize the repeated violations of the sovereignty, territory, and water of the indigenous communities who live and have lived across Turtle Island for centuries. My respect to all indigenous citizens, who are constantly fighting for representation, decolonization and liberation. Within our lifetime, inshallah.
Photo credit––Kelli Oliver + Tamara Hijazi
Tamara Hijazi (she/her) is an Arab-American photographer specializing in film, portrait and artist work. She began her journey by playing around with old point-and-shoot cameras while exploring the hills of Birzeit, Palestine at the age of 10. She is most passionate about film and the ways we can use light to replicate the intimate feeling of film within digital narratives. After her migration to the United States at 17, Tamara grounded her work in portraiture as a way to better understand the relationships between diaspora, homeland and heritage. Her current style uses natural landscapes to explore the way emotions manifest and rest in portraiture.
When she’s not working, Tamara spends most of her time baking to the softness of Majida Al-Roumi and trimming the 42 plants taking over her Chicago home.
ABOUT THE FEATURED ARTISTS
Abeer Najjar is a self-taught chef, food writer and the founder of Huda Supper Club. Born on the south side of Chicago to Palestinian immigrants, her culinary approach reflects her family’s heritage and city upbringing. Abeer works to preserve culture and stimulate conversation about identity by using food as a canvas for storytelling. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, NPR, LifeTime and other publications and spaces both nationally and internationally.
www.abeernajjar.com | IG: abeernajjar_ | Twitter: abeernajjar_ | Facebook: facebook.com/abeernajjar
Alsarah & the Nubatones were born out of many dinner conversations between alsarah and rami el aasser about nubian ‘songs of return’, modern migration patterns and the cultural exchanges between sudan and egypt. A common love for the richness of pentatonic sounds, and shared migration experiences, expanded the conversation to include armenian – american oud player haig manouki- an and french born togo raised bass player mawuena kodjovi. Under the leadership of alsarah, the brooklyn based group’s sound grew into what they have dubbed as ‘east – african retro-pop’.
www.alsarah.com | IG: alsarahandthenubatones | Twitter: Alsarah5000 | Facebook: facebook.com/alsarahandthenubatones/
Chicago has become home to many budding talents throughout the years and Palestinian-American singer-songwriter, Amira Jazeera is no exception. Equipped with GarageBand and childhood curiosity, Amira began making music at the age of 13. Immediately falling in love with the process, she created her own makeshift recording studio and the rest was history. In 2019, she released her first single, Whoever, which was her formal introduction as the self proclaimed “Arab Pop Princess.” As a Palestinian woman, Amira is shifting the narrative and offering inspiration for young girls like her who don’t get to see themselves represented in media.
Her honey-like, smooth voice dances across dreamy soundscapes as she explores ideas of self empowerment, identity, and more. Meeting somewhere between R&B and Pop, Jazeera’s voice lends itself to the versatility displayed in all of her songs. Amira’s tracks have garnered attention in over 80 countries, appearing on Spotify’s editorial playlist Arab X and featured in publications such as Chicago Reader and Lyrical Lemonade.
We are all floating through space on a ball of rock, why not just follow your dreams?
linktr.ee/amirajazeera | IG: amirajazeera | Twitter: amirajazeera
Eliza Karazah is a Chicago painter and pretender of other mediums. She has an imaginary relationship with the late poet, Nizar Qabbani and makes work obsessing over his words and trying to get them into physical form. Karazah also makes figurative work but is still figuring that part out.
www.etsy.com/shop/harakaatshop | IG: kweenkaraza
Esraa Warda is a New York-Based performance/teaching artist that preserves and transmits traditional North African dance forms She is a community-taught dancer under the mentorship of women elders in her family and artists across Morocco and Algeria. She is a firm advocate in the power of intergenerational transmission, women-led traditions, and decolonizing euro-centricity, Orientalism, and oppressed bodies in dance. Warda is a rebellious spirit who challenges patriarchy and misogyny towards dancers in her community and neo-colonialist impositions on North African culture.
During the COVID-19 quarantine she has created her own online dance initiative “The Chaab University” – an online community education series teaching popular North African dance forms such as Rai through dance workshops, lectures, discussions, and film screenings. Warda is also the founder of “The Chaab Lab” in New York, a project that creates collaboration and exchange with North African music and dance with other African-rooted traditions, such as Garifuna, Afro-Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban. She is a co-producer of “Rhythmology” a North African resource CD tool intended to teach musicians and dancers North African and Amazigh rhythms, as well as preserve knowledge of these rhythms. Despite her love for teaching, Warda spends most of her time being a student of music from elders in North Africa with her current focus on Chikhat from various traditions such as Moroccan Chaabi/ Aita, and Algerian Meddahatte. North African music and dance is her life.
Warda has been featured in Vogue Arabia, Al Jazeera Francais , NBC Asian America – and has taught all over the world from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago all the way to the National Algerian Centre in London. Warda collaborates with world musicians such as Bnat Houwariyat, Morocco’s premier all women percussion ensemble based in Marrakech, and has performed at places such as Hassan Hajjaj’s Mi Casa es Su Casa Exhibition, NYC’S Museum of Modern Art PS1, Cuba’s Havana Habibi Festival, and Marrakech’s Festival Ghiwane.
www.esraawarda.com | IG: wardadance | Facebook: facebook.com/esraawardadance
fajjr+ali is a pop duo composed of vocalist Fajjr Khan and songwriter Ali Andre Ali. They combine poetic and heartfelt storytelling with a contemporary sound, bringing a new image to American pop music. With constant media focus on the Middle East, South Asia, and Muslim women, fajjr+ali hope to shed light on a different facet of their beautiful and varied cultures. They released their debut EP eleven90 in June of 2019, which features production by Grammy Award-winning producer Shafiq Husayn. Their album is an eclectic mix of pop and soul that offers a diverse sampling of their talents as songwriters and musicians. They are currently recording their second body of work and hope to release more later this year.
www.fajjrplusali.com | Instagram: fajjrplusali | Twitter: fajjrplusali | Facebook: facebook.com/fajjrplusali | TikTok: fajjrplusali_official
Karina Adriana Dandashi is a Syrian-American writer, director, and actress living in Brooklyn, NY. She has worked under independent film companies such as A24 and Stay Gold Features. Her films aim to explore nuances in identity through the intersection of family, religion, and culture in Arab-American and Muslim communities. Her debut short film, SHORT SHORTS, is a coming of age about an American Muslim teenage girl who uses clothes to inform identity between two cultures. Her second short, BARZAKH, uses the Sci-Fi genre to reflect upon the sociopolitical divide in the United States and the treatment of Muslims, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. Karina is the 2021 Silver Sun Diverse Voices Filmmaker Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center, where she will continue to make work that reflects her passions and values.
Instagram: KarinaDandashi | Facebook: www.facebook.com/karina.dandashi.9/
Lena Elmeligy is a writer and director with a focus on Chicago production and experience in journalism. She graduated from Northwestern with a major in RTVF and minor in Middle East and North African studies. Since then, she’s been working on independent and commercial film and television productions in Chicago, writing and supporting creative projects by independent filmmakers in Chicago. She is also in leadership with Mezcla Media Collective, where she develops programming and helps build a network of Chicago-based womxn and nonbinary filmmakers of color. Her mission as a filmmaker is to infuse the process of production with the same values and ideals as she does in her writing, by elevating people into positions where they tell their own story, have autonomy over the means of their productions, and are adequately compensated for their labor and talent. She is currently the writer and director of Ghareeb Mini Series, the head organizer for Mezcla’s new mentorship program, alumni coordinator for Northwestern’s Prison Education program and main facilitator for a sponsored partnership between Mezcla and Northwestern.
Instagram: lenaelmeligy
Martin Yousif Zebari (he/they) is an Iraqi-born, Assyrian-American, actor, writer and advocate based in Chicago. His first full-length play, Layalina, was developed in Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs in early 2021. Layalina was workshopped at Mt. Tremper Arts at a week-long residency and will have a staged reading as part of National Queer Theatre’s Criminal Queerness Festival in late June. A ten-minute version of the same play appeared in Broken Nose Theatre Company’s Bechdel Fest in 2017. As an Actor, he has worked nationally with Atlantic Theatre Company, National Queer Theatre, The Angle Project , Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Court Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival and has appeared in NBC’s Chicago Med. Martin holds a BFA in Acting from the Arts University of Bournemouth, England and is represented by Stewart Talent Chicago.
Instagram: martinyousifzebari
Miriam Elhajli is a Venezuelan-Moroccan-American composer and vocalist whose work is influenced strongly by the folkloric musics of the Americas, modern jazz, and contemporary classical music.
Elhajli grew up playing music of varying traditions on street corners and stages before studying at Berklee College of Music. Currently based out of Brooklyn, NY, she performs around town as a mime, puppeteer, and itinerant singer alongside working as a researcher at The Association for Cultural Equity founded by Alan Lomax. Elhajli’s debut record OBSERVATIONS (2020) and her follow-up THE UNCERTAINTY OF SIGNS (2021) are set to be released independently on Elhajli’s label Numina Records this year.
This record for me is a synthesis of jazz and folk traditions where improvisation, joy, and community are the crux of the matter. We played these songs live and straight to tape aiming to capture the essence of each song whether we played as a full ensemble, trio, or solo. It took some time to get this record out, but here it is – a seed and snapshot.
Website: www.
NAXÖ is an Egyptian nonbinary multidisciplinary sound artist and sound healer, based in Chicago. Music is fusion of Middle-Eastern North-African folklore within groovy electronic polyrhythms and basses, drumming structures influenced by rock, jazz, trap, trance and psychedelic music. NAXÖ is featured for their works on Chicago Reader, Chicago Zine Fest, Windy City Times, Philly Weekly, and others. Growing up in Egypt, NAXÖ performed & produced with some of the finest fusion bands, teams and projects in clubs, theaters, festivals and others for over a decade. NAXÖ uses sound and music to explore psychological narratives, subjectivities, and streams of consciousness to navigate personal transformations featuring transparent voices calling to resist, embedded deep within a wider frequency, energy and vibration.
NAXÖ just dropped a new album – May 2021 – called TESA’A (in Arabic: تسعى / تسعه) which is a double entendre for both number 9 and being a seeker. Number 9 meaning in numerology represents the great mental and spiritual realizations, it is the number of the initiation, because it marks the end of a phase of spiritual development and the beginning of another higher stage, symbolized by the passage from the units to the tens, guiding and empowering with wisdom and a humanitarian heart delivered to the world. The album is 9 songs on queer culture/migration, transness, postcolonialism and re-imagining a better world, with deeply grand vocals, ecstatic synths and the kind of percussion that finds its way to your core!
Arabic Lyrics Translations in English are available on: https://naxoriental.bandcamp.com/ | Music & Social profiles: linktr.ee/naxoriental
Symone Salib is a first generation Cuban/Egyptian muralist, street artist, and educator based out of Philadelphia. Through acrylic paint and illustration she works to highlight the lives of people, with a emphasis on BIPOC. She focuses on vibrantly sharing the stories of people in hopes we can connect and resonate with humans who are different from ourselves. She strives to spread joy and create a space where people are not only seen but heard.
Website: symonesalibstudio.bigcartel.com/ | IG: symonesalibstudio
