NEHAD KHADER
2008 Art and Change Grant

Nehad Khader is a third-generation Palestinian refugee, scholar, artist, and activist. Her art serves to preserve Palestinian identity, heritage, and community in the face of forced exile and post-September 11th anti-Arab sentiment. Through the teaching and documentation of time-honored creative practices such as storytelling, song, dance, and tatreez, traditional cross-stitch embroidery, Nehad’s work creates positive visibility for Palestinian women and contributes to a growing collective memory of Palestine and the many homes and villages which are now inaccessible or destroyed.

In addition to her work as an artist, Nehad holds a B.A. in sociology and English literature from Temple University. She has been invited to speak on Palestinian identity and the media at many venues including Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennslyvania, and the Black Lily Film Festival. Following graduation, Nehad worked as Program Coordinator for Al-Bustain Seeds of Culture, an Arab arts and cultural educational organization in Philadelphia.

Nehad is currently a graduate student at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) studying artistic and creative movements as they relate to social, political, and personal processes in the Arab World. (Tess Yardney)

Video produced by tiona.m. (LTA '09, ACG '07)