EL CAJON (KGTV) — For two years, Farida Erikat and Ramah Awad hosted art workshops with Middle Eastern youth in San Diego, giving them a blank canvass to explore what “home” means to them.
“In the U.S. you can often feel caught between two worlds: my parents heritage and my homeland," Erikat said. "Where I am now, and the culture I grew up in. So we want to help them navigate this balance between two identities.”
Their work now hangs on the walls of the El Cajon Library in an exhibit titled homeland and homemaking. The art combines a celebration of heritage with expressions of loss and displacement.
“Our art exhibit has an important role to play in educating the U.S. public on what’s happening back home and also to support humanizing our community,” Awad said.
The two feel this is especially important now, as they mourn ongoing devastation and war in their homelands.
“Arts are so integral to our tradition," Erikat said. "And right now with what’s happening in Gaza and Palestine, it is an opportunity for our youth to express their stories and voices without feeling they have to edit themselves or censor themselves.”
They want the exhibit to challenge stereotypes about Arab and Muslim communities. While also shedding light on their shared immigrant experiences.
“I hope that our Arab and Middle Eastern community feels themselves on the walls of a public institution and feel that they are being seen and being heard,” Awad said.
They're still putting the rest of the pieces up, and expect hundreds of people to come for the official opening night on Saturday. The exhibit will be there until March next year.
