Previous Projects and Events
HER STORY IS welcomed Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail to Somerville and Salem, Massachusetts.
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October 8 and October 9, 2024:
Her Story Is member Thawra Yousif and supporter Amir Al Azraki participated in a Symposium on Black Iraqi Heritage and the African Presence in the Middle East and Indian Ocean, at the University of Illinois. Click here for more information.
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October 29 and October 30, 2024:
With our partner the Center for Arabic Culture, Her Story Is promoted the performance by actor/playwright Najya Said at the First Church in Boston.
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March 2, 2024:
A Reading of Elham Al-Zabaidy's No More of Stories of Seagulls, Brandeis University.
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February 16, 2024:
Creative dialogue between Iraqi and American women, with new works in poetry, theater, visual art, and film. Featuring Elham Nasser Al-Zubaidy & Amy Merrill; Hanaa Mohammed & Jennifer Jean; and Thawra Yousif Yaqoub & Letta Neely. Visual artwork by Thaera Al Mayahi, Elham Al-Zubaedy, Angham Nasser Al-Zubaidy, Jinan Muhammed, Nawrast Sabah. Produced by Her Story Is, the Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project, and the "Today and Tomorrow" initiative. This event commemorated the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq and the 16th anniversary of the car bombing of Baghdad’s literary district. Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.
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March 5, 2023: Where Do You Live?
Featuring artists of the HER STORY IS collective and poet Dunya Mikhail. Open Book, 1011 South Washington Avenue, Minneapolis, MN. In Arabic: https://reconciliationproject.org/today-tomorrow-arabic
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Sunday, March 12, 2023:
We Are the Clouds: Poems and Creative Dialogue from Women that Carry.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Golden Thread’s annual program featured the work of Middle Eastern women artists fighting against injustice through their art. Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th Street, San Francisco, CA.
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March 8, 2023: What Do the Women Say?
February-April 2022: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here:
The Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH, exhibited prints and broadsides by artists who are part of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here coalition. The Coalition is a group of visual artists, poets, and playwrights, dedicated to remembering the 2007 bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street (street of booksellers in Baghdad, Iraq) and to celebrate the importance of writing and culture everywhere.
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Co-sponsored by the Iraqi-American Reconciliation Project and the Lotus Women Cultural League, a panel discussed Afro-Iraqi rituals and resistance in the face of increasing stigmatization and discrimination in Iraq.
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October 8, 2022: Afro-Iraqi Rituals:
Women from Middle Eastern countries celebrated, virtually, the beauty and resilience of women and their writing. In Arabic, English, and French. Hosted by Lotus Women Cultural Federation (Basra, Iraq) with the participation of HER STORY IS (Iraq and US) and Renison University College (Canada). View the video of the event to the right.
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April 3, 2022: Unframing the Narrative: US and Iraqi Artists in Conversation:
HER STORY IS artists Letta Neely and Thawra Yousef read their work and discussed the connections between their Afro-Iraqi and African-American worlds, centering their conversation about resilience, family, and stratagems of disenfranchisement that have affected them both. At Mariposa Museum.
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March 12: Celebrating Women’s Day 2022:
“The Effect of War on Artistic Collaboration Between Iraqi and U.S. Women Writers.” Featured HER STORY IS artists and area scholars. Click on the poster at right to view this panel discussion on YouTube.
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May 14, 2021: HER STORY IS at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival
"Her Story Is: in English and Arabic": Featured: poets Kirun Kapur and Jennifer Jean and translator Dima AlBasha. Click here to view this session on YouTube.
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September 2020:
Visual artist Thaira al-Mayyahi led a HER STORY IS event in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan.
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May 2019:
Poems by Hana’ Ahmed Mohammed, Jennifer Jean, and others in “Unpacking Iraq,” a special issue of Consequence magazine
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Spring 2019:
Her Story Is Translated, a public presentation in Boston, featuring a poetry reading, a report on HER STORY IS events in Iraq, and a report about the HER STORY IS playwrights’ initiative.
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Spring 2019:
Poems co-translated by Jennifer Jean and Amir Al-Azraki for the HER STORY IS poetry anthology in The Common, along with a translator’s note.
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February 2019:
Translation event led by Hana’ Ahmed Mohammed, University of Mosul. 2018. She produced "The Diary of a Fugitive Drop of Tea," a video-poem for an October 2018 HER STORY IS event on translation at the University of Basra in Iraq. The poem is by Hana' Ahmed Mohammed, translated from Arabic into English by Mahmoud Nowara and Julia Gettle, and read in English by Jennifer Jean.
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Winter 2018-2019:
A poem co-translated by Jennifer Jean and Amir Al-Azraki for HER STORY IS poetry anthology appears in Talking Writing Magazine.
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October 2018:
Translation event led by Hana’ Ahmed Mohammed, University of Mosul. 2018. She produced "The Diary of a Fugitive Drop of Tea," a video-poem for an October 2018 HER STORY IS event on translation at the University of Basra in Iraq. The poem is by Hana' Ahmed Mohammed, translated from Arabic into English by Mahmoud Nowara and Julia Gettle, and read in English by Jennifer Jean.
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June 2018:
Art Exhibit and Presentations: Atlantic Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts, and Arts at the Armory, Somerville, Massachusetts. Click here to view photographs from the "Her Story Is" production.
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June 2018:
Writing Workshop in Iraq in collaboration with the Lotus Women’s Cultural League and Basra University, Basra Iraq.
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May 2018:
Presentations at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Salem, Massachusetts.
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March 2018:
Life writing workshop, led by scholar/translator Nadia Sekran, Basra, Iraq.
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February 2018:
Radio Al Rasheed Interview, Basra, Iraq.
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January 2018:
February 2018:
Radio Al Rasheed Interview, Basra, Iraq.
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