About Her Story Is
Our Story:
The Her Story Is Collective evolved from many years of collaborations and exhibits in Iraq and the Boston area, led by visual artist Anne Loyer and playwright and scholar Amir Al-Azraki, then based at the University of Basra (Iraq) and now in Canada. Most of their activity was produced by Fort Point Theatre Channel, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to new performance configurations. FPTC to produced Al-Azraki's THE LAND and WAITING FOR GILGAMESH.
In 2016, Anne and playwright/producer Amy Merrill co-founded Her Story Is, an all women collective With poet Jennifer Jean and film maker Lillie Paquette, all traveled to Dubai in 2017 and met with poet and visual artist Elham Nasser al-Zabeedy, visual artist Thaira al-Mayyahy, Maryam Bargooth, Nadia Sakran and Dina Fadil. Attached: an article about the gathering, written by scholar and translator Nadia Sakran.
Almost ten years later, most of the women are active with the collective as poets, visual artists and advocates.
In 2023, after a three- city tour of talks and exhibits to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, Amy and Jennifer began meeting with Massachusetts-based publishers which as led to the publication of two bilingual books of poetry: Where Do You Live? (+Arabic) by Hanaa Ahmed, Jabr and Jennifer Jean (Arrowsmith Press; and Other Paths for Shahrazad, an Arabic/Englishj anthology ofcontemporary poetry by Arab women, Jennifer Jean, ed. (Tupelo Press). In Fall 2026, HSI will debut Songs for Fairuz, a ten book series of poetry, in English, by Arab women (Black Ocean).
Other Paths for Shahrazas launch @ Boston Public Library, May 9, 2026.
First Her Story Is event in Dubai, UAE, December 2017