Honored to contribute to @far___near ‘s most recent issue:: Vol. 5 is dedicated to divergent voices across Asia and its diaspora. Mine is a love letter made while I was on the verge🫀🩺💔
In her artist takeover spread from Issue Four "A Sense of Place," Daleen Saah (@dal333n ) shares images of her father's and grandfather's official documents. “How can I show you that Palestine is a place?”
"'Keep Your Identity Card,' reads my great-grandfather's ID-carrying case. Continuing the Palestinian exile into today, Israel systemically confiscates Palestinian ID cards, revokes citizenships, and refuses renewals. My family and community tries to conceal their Jerusalem or Palestine IDs when crossing Israeli-manned borders, because these cards are often taken and never returned. Keeping our old, expired IDs might be one way we can come home when Palestine is free. The photo to the right in the forthcoming spread shows my dad and his friends at a party in Ramallah, sometime in the 1950s. They were forced into exile in 1967, and we are their descendants. We (all) want to come home.
Identification cards, certificates, and photographs from my family give us one lens with which to show that Palestine is a place. While erasure and exile aim to make Palestine abnormalized and hidden, Palestine is a place; it always has been and it always will be.” —Daleen Saah
See the full spread by purchasing a copy of Issue 4 from your local stockist or online at deemjournal.com/shop.
SOORA (صورة) is a wordless periodical that functions as an evolving visual anthology, with each issue curated by a single artist.
SOORA Issue 02 is by Daleen Saah.
Proud to join @arabamericanmuseum as AANM Creative Director 🪬⛓️💥🎱💥
Over the past few months, I’ve worked with our amazing team on new ways to amplify the museum’s 20-year cultural imprint — which includes the largest collection of Arab American artifacts, special exhibitions, artist residencies, museum shop, and deep community fabric stretching from Dearborn to the rest of the world 📡🔊
AANM exists under ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services), the largest Arab American nonprofit in the country — with 11 locations and 120 programs providing medical care, mental health services, substance use recovery, legal and immigration support, employment training, youth empowerment, and more. They serve over 70k people across SE Michigan annually 🔗🩺
It’s an honor to contribute to our Smithsonian Affiliate museum dedicated to Arab culture — and to be part of a legacy of service, empowerment, and storytelling in our community 🤍
* Photos include a mix shots from AANM’s 2005 opening, our Seeing the Southend exhibition currently on view, and some new visual content I’ve designed + directed ❤️🔥👁️🗨️
Life is Sacred — Palestinian life is sacred.
From Hind Rajab and her family to Mohammed Abu Khdeir, and all children and people of Gaza, all plants animals and ecosystems.
Poster for free download on my site.
