ArabishWay

Virtual Lecture: The Timeless Thobe – Documenting Land, Heritage & Culture in Palestinian Dress
2025-05-24 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
Date: Saturday, May 24, 2025

Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom link will be emailed 24 hours prior to event
Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian, Researcher & Educator
Registration Fee: Sliding scale
The thobe, a traditional hand embroidered dress made and worn by Palestinian women for centuries, is the bedrock of Palestinian identity through heritage, culture and land. For millennia, women in the eastern Mediterranean have showcased their skillful stitchery on their traditional dress, displaying unique motifs, colors and styles across the various villages of old Palestine.
After 1948, over 750,000 Palestinians were forced into exile, carrying their dressmaking and embroidery traditions with them into refugee camps and around the world. As the diaspora spread across the globe, the largest and longest-standing population of displaced people in the world, the thobe evolved into a symbol of national and cultural identity beyond borders.
In this live virtual lecture, dress historian, researcher, and educator Wafa Ghnaim will explore the evolution of the thobe and the visual language of tatreez (embroidery) as used on traditional Palestinian dress. From village styles to diasporic adaptations, this talk offers a compelling look at how dress documents the intertwined threads of history, memory, and identity.
What You’ll Receive:

Live access to the 2-hour lecture
A recording for 7 days after the live session

Important Notes:

Tickets are nonrefundable.
This is a live, virtual event hosted via Zoom.
Registration closes at 10:00 AM EST on May 24, 2025.
A Zoom link will be sent via email the day before the event.
The instructor reserves the right to review and decline registrations at her discretion to ensure a respectful and safe learning environment for all participants.
Space is limited to ensure an intimate and interactive experience.
Sharing your camera is required.

Virtual Lecture: Tatreez Symbolisms Interpreting Meaning in Palestinian Embroidery Motifs & Al Naksa
2025-06-06 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Virtual Lecture: Tatreez Symbolisms Interpreting Meaning in Palestinian Embroidery Motifs & Al Naksa 🗓 Friday, June 6, 2025 ⏰ 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST 📍 Online (Zoom link sent 24 hours prior) 🎟 Sliding scale registration 👤 Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian & Educator
This lecture commemorates the Six-Day War (June 5–10, 1967), which began the ongoing Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. In the wake of this seismic event, tatreez shifted in its meaning and function as a form cultural expression. From the intimate labor of individual women’s hands to the international recognition of Palestinian embroidery by UNESCO in 2021 as Intangible Cultural Heritage, tatreez continues to serve as a vessel of collective memory and a historical record of the Palestinian people.
Photograph by @m0nastic Chris Gale
🔗 Register at the link in bio
#Tatreez #PalestinianEmbroidery#AlNaksa #WafaGhnaim #artsed#arthistory

Tatreez Workshop
2025-06-21 18:00 - 21:00 | UW – the Quad, Pierce Ln, Seattle, WA, 98195
Mark your calendars! Come join us for a fun workshop where you will learn about the significance of Tatreez in Palestinian culture and how to stitch your own design!
Please RSVP with the link in bio!
Hope to see you there!
#tatreez #tatreezembroidery #tatreezandtea#tatreezworkshop #tatreezdesign #freepalesti̇ne

Feral Abbasi-Ghnaim: A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery
2025-06-28 13:00 - 19:00, 2025-06-29 16:30 - 20:00 | SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center, 2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard, Portland, OR, 97203, United States
A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery presents selected works by Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, an award-winning master artist, renowned teacher, mother, and grandmother, in honor of her birthday. Throughout her life and career, Abbasi-Ghnaim has devoted herself to preserving and passing down the centuries-old art of tatreez to Palestinian women and girls in the diaspora. She has also worked to educate the American public about its deep significance, both as an intangible cultural heritage and as a tangible documentation for storytelling, identity, and resistance. This exhibition honors her remarkable contributions to the community and the world, as documented in Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora (2016). Organized by her three daughters, this intimate exhibition highlights how her work functions as both a personal and collective archive of beauty, memory, and sorrow. Every stitch bridges home and homeland, threading stories across generations and geographies. Through her hands, tatreez becomes more than embroidery—it becomes a visual language of Palestinian resilience, identity, and creative expression in exile.

A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery - Guided Tour
2025-06-29 12:00 - 14:00 | SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center, 2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard, Portland, OR, 97203, United States
Curator Tour: The tour will be conducted by her daughters, Wafa and Safa, sharing the concept behind the exhibition, their mother’s life’s work, and the history and meaning of each artwork in the gallery.

Registration required

A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery presents selected works by Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, an award-winning master artist, renowned teacher, mother, and grandmother, in honor of her birthday. Throughout her life and career, Abbasi-Ghnaim has devoted herself to preserving and passing down the centuries-old art of tatreez to Palestinian women and girls in the diaspora. She has also worked to educate the American public about its deep significance, both as an intangible cultural heritage and as a tangible documentation for storytelling, identity, and resistance. This exhibition honors her remarkable contributions to the community and the world, as documented in Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora (2016).
Organized by her three daughters, this intimate exhibition highlights how her work functions as both a personal and collective archive of beauty, memory, and sorrow. Every stitch bridges home and homeland, threading stories across generations and geographies. Through her hands, tatreez becomes more than embroidery—it becomes a visual language of Palestinian resilience, identity, and creative expression in exile.

Stitching Circle Workshop
2025-06-29 14:30 - 16:30 | SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center, 2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard, Portland, OR, 97203, United States
Stitching Circle Workshop: Mrs. Feryal will be in attendance to share stories and drink tea, while practicing Palestinian embroidery with the group. Please note that this is not a class, and all participants must bring their own supplies.

Registration required
A Celebration of Palestinian Embroidery presents selected works by Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, an award-winning master artist, renowned teacher, mother, and grandmother, in honor of her birthday. Throughout her life and career, Abbasi-Ghnaim has devoted herself to preserving and passing down the centuries-old art of tatreez to Palestinian women and girls in the diaspora. She has also worked to educate the American public about its deep significance, both as an intangible cultural heritage and as a tangible documentation for storytelling, identity, and resistance. This exhibition honors her remarkable contributions to the community and the world, as documented in Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora (2016).
Organized by her three daughters, this intimate exhibition highlights how her work functions as both a personal and collective archive of beauty, memory, and sorrow. Every stitch bridges home and homeland, threading stories across generations and geographies. Through her hands, tatreez becomes more than embroidery—it becomes a visual language of Palestinian resilience, identity, and creative expression in exile.

Virtual Lecture: Regional Distinctions in Palestinian Dress
2025-07-18 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Late 19th/Early 20th Centuries

Date: Friday, July 18, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom link will be emailed 24 hours prior to event
Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian, Researcher & Educator
Registration Fee: Sliding scale
Description: Until the mid-twentieth century, the dress of the Palestinian people was descriptive of identity; first by societal segment (city dweller, villager or nomad), and then by the region in which the wearer came. Within each regional style, finer distinctions in women’s dress (thobe) were expressed that shared the maker’s life and the natural world around her. Palestinian women recorded their identity in their thobe with embroidery (tatreez) through a shared illustrative language of embroidered patterns, stitching techniques and thread colors. The thobe records unwritten stories and serves as a visual register of collective and individual identities, documenting a woman’s village, tribe or town, her marital status, her familial lineage, and the material impact of colonialism, occupation, war and exile. The regional identity of the woman defines the overall governing style of her thobe, and evidence of identity is largely through her embodiment of land.
This lecture will discuss the regional distinctions in dress in historical Palestine by city, village and tribe for at least six regions, to include Ramallah, Galilee, Gaza, Bir Saba, Al Khalil, and Bethlehem.
What You’ll Receive:

Live access to the 2-hour lecture
A recording for 7 days after the live session

Mary Ann Peters: myself inside your story
2025-08-16 - 2026-01-25 | the Whatcom Museum, 250 Flora Street, 121 Prospect St, Bellingham, WA, 98225
An artist and activist for five decades, Mary Ann Peters’ drawings, paintings, and sculptural installations address the incomplete histories of the Middle East. A second-generation Lebanese American woman, Peters is simultaneously connected to and distanced from a family homeland known to her through generations of stories, photographs, and lived experiences, as well as her travels abroad, and – like many of us – from news sources. As the title of exhibition hints, Peters makes reference to histories that are not her story but are, by heritage, a connection to documented cultural records tied to the Middle East.

Kids for Palestine (Olympia)
2025-08-31, 2025-09-07, 2025-09-28 13:30 - 15:00, 2025-10-05 13:30 - 15:00, 2025-11-02 13:30 - 15:00, 2025-11-09 13:30 - 15:00, 2025-11-16 13:30 - 15:00, 2025-11-23 13:30 - 15:00 and 5 more dates | Woodruff Park, 1500 Harrison Ave NW, Olympia, WA, 98502
Gather with other families at Woodruff Park, in West Olympia (near the tennis and pickleball courts) every Sunday, 1-4 pm, to support Palestine through conversation and art in a kid-friendly event.

Make & Take for Gaza
2025-08-31 13:00 - 16:00 | A Crafty Arab Studio, 2701 153rd Ave SE, Bellevue, WA
One of the featured crafts is Tatreez, a Palestinian embroidery that uses colorful thread to create symbolic patterns on clothing and textiles.

Join from 1-4pm to raise money for SCM Medical Mission’s charity efforts in Gaza.

Arabs Who Art
2025-09-04 18:00 - 20:00 | Seattle Art Museum, 1300 1st Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Let’s explore Seattle’s art museum together! The museum has free programming the first Thursday of every month and it’s always a good time.

Tatreez in Conversation: Six Dresses, Six Stories
2025-09-25 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
Tatreez in Conversation: Six Dresses, Six Stories

Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Online, Zoom link will be emailed 24 hours prior to event
Instructor: Wafa Ghnaim, Dress Historian, Researcher & Educator
Registration Fee: Sliding scale, starting at $10
Description: Until the mid-twentieth century, the dress of the Palestinian people was descriptive of identity; first by societal segment (city dweller, villager or nomad), and then by the region in which the wearer came. Within each regional style, finer distinctions in women’s dress (thobe) were expressed that shared the maker’s life and the natural world around her. Palestinian women recorded their identity in their thobe with embroidery (tatreez) through a shared illustrative language of embroidered patterns, stitching techniques and thread colors.
After al-Nakba and throughout the 1960s, the thobe transformed into a reflection of national identity. It no longer signified a woman’s village, tribe, or town, her marital status, or her familial lineage, but instead bore the material impact of colonialism, occupation, war, and exile. While the loss of regional identity in dress is registered as part of the violence Palestinians endured during al-Nakba, this shift also marks a moment of unity in Palestinian communities newly dispersed and scattered across the region. The six-branch dress, a dress construction that became a governing style by the 1960s, showcases innovative approaches by women at the time to protect a vital component to Palestinian cultural heritage.
This lecture will focus on the six dresses presented in Tatreez Inheritance, examining their material characteristics, their paths to the United States, and the ways in which one can employ the art of “close looking”—a skill Wafa learned from her mother at a young age—to uncover evidence of a woman’s personality, vocation, life, and sense of pride.

Paint for Palestine
2025-09-25 18:00 - 20:00 | Cathy Hillenbrand Community Room, 1635 11th Ave, Seattle, WA
Join us for a still life watercolor painting class and social with local painter Nick (he/they/it) to help raise funds our three friends in Gaza and their families: Farah @artist_farah20 , Shahed @sh_.com80 and Ritaj @retaj_.muhammad .
Tickets for this event are on a sliding scale, from free to whatever you can donate, with a suggested donation of $30 or more per person attending. Registration is required, as seats are limited!
Painting supplies will be provided and have been generously donated by individuals to help us raise money for these families, so please contribute what you can! If you can’t make this event, please consider donating and sharing their campaigns!🙏
The families prefer that you donate directly to their GoFundMe/Chuffed accounts. Links to the accounts are in the registration form and QR codes are in the slides for each family. This is an incredibly crucial time to be supporting families in Gaza. Farah was just injured collecting firewood for her family and needs urgent treatment to avoid surgery. Shahed and her family urgently need to evacuate Gaza City. The last time we heard from Ritaj, her father was ill, and she was supporting him and her family. Please help them!

Visions of Grief and Hope
2025-10-18 17:00 - 21:00 | Sparklebarn, 2611 NW Market St, Seattle, WA, 98107
Washington for Peace and Justice presents ‘Visions of Grief and Hope’, a showcase of art by Diana Fakhoury and Brady Black. Art, henna, music, stories, drinks by @yahalaseattle and more! The event starts at 5pm, I hope to see you there!!! Also if you haven’t checked out the venue, @sparklebarn is absolutely beautiful, you will love it 🇵🇸
Flyer cred: @ryanjgill_gillco

Tatreez circle + potluck
2025-11-02 11:00 - 14:00 | Suzanne Zahr, Art & Architecture, 2441 76th Ave SE, Ste 160, Mercer Island, WA, 98040, United States
Sunday 11/2 Tatreez circle + potluck
Come by with your tatreez (or other craft) project, and bring some food to share.
Open to all
(Note: This is not a structured class but the community is always happy to help if you are learning or need help!)
♥️ See you this weekend!
Share with your friends, and DM us if you are able to bring some food to share!
(Reminder: We know it’s Halloween tomorrow, please be thoughtful and no gory or scary costumes)

SZ Gallery’s 5th Persian Garden: First Friday Art Walk
2025-12-05 18:00 - 21:00 | SZ Art Gallery, 2441 76th Avenue SE, Suite 160, Mercer Island, WA
SZ Gallery’s 5th Persian Garden is an exhibit that tells culturally rich stories of Persian culture through contemporary and classically-influenced pieces. Monir & Mehdi Ghanbeigy from Iran have created multimedia artwork together since 1970, combining Mehdi’s detailed work with Persian miniatures and painting, Monir’s background in ceramics, and their mutual love for the history of Persian art.
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Monir and Mehdi began working together in Iran before they moved to England for further training at London and Canterbury College of Art. After returning to Iran in 1980, they developed a novel style in ceramics and painting, influenced by both modern art as well as the very rich traditions of Persian pottery and storybook miniatures. They have shown their art at numerous national and international exhibitions, including the 2012 Venice Biennial, and have taught for many years at several universities in Iran and in their private workshop. Their pieces are permanently on exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum in Iran, as well as several museums around the world.
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#persian #art #paintings #persiangarden #szgallery#mercerisland

March for Gaza Art Show
2025-12-13 15:00 - 22:00 | Pipsqueak Community Space, 173 16th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98122
Community archive of the 25 mile Freedom from the River to the Sea Walk back in May 2024. We’re centering the pre-figurative aspects of community care and autonomous self-organization which were present there.
