Tarwida

Afleveringen

1. Growing Up as the Daughter of a Palestinian Martyr | Raeda Taha (Arabic Episode)

   2 november 2026 · 1 uur 4 min

   Afspelen
   At the age of seven, Palestinian writer and actress Raeda Taha lost her father, Ali Taha, during a plane hijacking operation bound for Tel Aviv. Overnight, she became the daughter of a martyr, an identity that would shape much of her life. Lees meer

   Through her plays, Taha challenges the idealization of martyrs, making space for the grief, humour, and everyday struggles of the families they leave behind. We discuss her first original play “Alaki Zayak Fein Ya Ali” and the question that followed her for years: who did her father love more, his daughters or Palestine?

   Reflecting on her years working with Yasser Arafat, her friendship with Mahmoud Darwish, and her eventual discovery of theatre in her forties, Taha explains how a lifetime of experiences became the material for her work. Finally, we discuss the relationship between Palestinian liberation and women's liberation, the role of art in resistance, and the freedom Taha finds in performing. The episode closes with her aunt Suhaila, who could neither read nor write, and how she confronted Henry Kissinger to recover her brother’s body.

   This episode was recorded in Arabic on September 25th, 2026. You can watch the episode with English subtitles on YouTube here.

   This episode is hosted by Tala Elissa. Our associate producers are Zeena Shehadeh and Ahmed Ashour. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Lara Dihmis. Social media VO by Afaf Shawwa Bibi. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna.

   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.

   In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.

   Follow us on socials @tarwidapodcast

   Relevant l…

2. 1000 Forgotten Photographs from Gaza | Kegham Djeghalian

   19 oktober 2026 · 58 min

   Afspelen
   Gaza's first professional photography studio opened in 1944, founded by an Armenian genocide survivor. Decades later, his grandson found its surviving negatives in a closet in Cairo.
   Palestinian-Armenian visual artist and creative director Kegham Djeghalian joins Tarwida to talk about Photo Kegham of Gaza: Unboxing, the exhibition built from his grandfather's archive. It has toured Cairo, Sharjah, Geneva, and Marseille, with Bristol and Antwerp next.
   In this episode:
   How Kegham Djeghalian Sr. went from Anatolia to Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Jaffa, and finally Gaza
   Armenians and the early history of photography in the Levant
   What the photographs show about everyday life in Gaza, 1944–1981
   Finding three boxes of negatives after a 12-year search
   Para-archaeology, the "unmade archive," and why there are no dates or captions
   The Majdalawi weave behind Palestinian thobes, and his fashion work
   How to start archiving your own family photographs
   Kegham is a visual artist, professor of fashion practices and visual culture, and artistic director and co-head of the fashion design department at the German International University in Egypt. He is also a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
   This episode is hosted and produced by Tala Elissa. Our executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Our associate producer is Zeena Shehadeh. Social media by Lara Dihmis. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna.
   The episode was recorded on September 19, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
   In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.
   Follow us on socials @tarwidapodcast
   Relevant links & res… Lees meer

3. Reimagining Palestinian Architecture | Elias Khuri (Arabic Episode)

   5 oktober 2026 · 34 min

   Afspelen
   What makes a place feel like itself? In this episode of Tarwida, Palestinian architect Elias Khuri explores architecture as a layering of people, histories, nature, language, and memory.
   We discuss his latest installation "Noon Insan," through which he reveals his connection to Palestinian writers and artists Elias Khoury and Kamal Boullata. What Boullata attempted to do visually, and what Elias Khoury attempted to do through language, Khuri is attempting to do through architecture.
   Reflecting on several of his projects, including a house built around 12 ancient olive trees and his work on restoring the historic Khan Jaljulia, Khuri explains how a sense of place can be lost when buildings are separated from their surroundings as opposed to when they are built with what is already there.
   Finally, Khuri revisits important features of Arab architecture that are increasingly disappearing with modern, capitalist modes of construction, including intimate third spaces such as the hosh and riwaq.
   This episode was recorded on August 16th, 2026. You can watch it with English subtitles on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
   In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.
   This episode is hosted by Tala Elissa. Our associate producers are Zeena Shehadeh and Ahmed Ashour. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Lara Dihmis. Social media VO by Afaf Shawwa Bibi. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
   Follow us on socials @tarwidapodcast
   Relevant links & resources:
   Follow Elias Khuri on Instagram (@elias_khuri)
   Visit Tanas
   Read Noon Insan… Lees meer

4. Palestine Through the Eyes of an Architect | Nadi Abusaada

   21 september 2026 · 45 min

   Afspelen
   What happens when a city itself becomes an archive? In this episode, architect and historian Nadi Abusaada takes us through different Palestinian cities to explore how material traces can help reconstruct a history marked by destruction, displacement, and erasure.
   The conversation begins with Abusaada's installation for Amman Design Week 2026, which reconstructs a lost fountain from Jerusalem's Palace Hotel using one surviving ceramic tile designed by Armenian ceramicist David Ohannessian. He then discusses his work curating the Palestinian Museum’s permanent exhibition, which challenges the idea of permanence and instead explores the ongoing process of making Palestinian history.
   From there, we explore Palestinian landscapes and agricultural terraces as evidence of generations of knowledge, before turning to Jaffa and its transformation from a cosmopolitan Palestinian city into a caricatured version of itself, used as a backdrop for Israeli cultural production and gentrification.
   The episode ultimately asks what it means to preserve history without freezing it, to reclaim the past without turning it into a fantasy, and to build contemporary spaces that are connected to the places, people, and histories that came before them.
   This episode is produced in collaboration with Amman Design Week, opening its fourth edition October 2–17 under the theme "Accumulations."
   The episode was recorded on August 3rd, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
   In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.
   Follow us on socials @tarwidapodcast
   Relevant links & resources:
   Follow Nadi Abusaada on Instagram (@nadi.saadeh)
   Visit the Palestinian Museum
   Explore Amman Design Week and its 2026 edition, "Accumulations"
   Check out… Lees meer

5. Archaeology, Architecture & the Politics of Glass | Dima Srouji

   7 september 2026 · 53 min

   Afspelen
   Palestinian artist Dima Srouji doesn't work in one discipline — she works in scale. In this episode, we sit down with Srouji to trace her path from architecture school at Yale to becoming one of the region's leading voices in glass art, archaeology, and material heritage.
   Srouji discusses the pivotal year of 2016 — leaving corporate architecture in New Haven and New York to move back to Palestine — and how a chance studio visit to a glassblowing family in Jaba' (who were, at the time, making chemistry beakers and bongs) launched a decade-long collaboration that evolved into serious research on ancient Roman and early Islamic glass traditions across Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
   The conversation moves through the differences between Hebron and Jaba' glassmaking techniques, Srouji's forthcoming installation of 100 glass snails and figs at Qasr al-Abd for Amman Design Week 2026, and her ongoing work replicating looted Palestinian artifacts — including pieces from the Tell Ajul excavation — for permanent display at the Palestinian Museum. Srouji and Tala also discuss how Israeli archaeological practice has been used as a tool of land grabbing and erasure, from Sebastia to Silwan, and Srouji's recent work as a production designer reconstructing 1930s Silwan for a Palestinian feature film.
   This episode is produced in collaboration with Amman Design Week, opening its fourth edition October 2–17 under the theme "Accumulations."
   This episode is hosted by Tala Elissa. Our associate producers are Zeena Shehadeh and Ahmed Ashour. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Lara Dihmis. Social media VO by Afaf Shawwa Bibi. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
   The episode was recorded on August 3rd, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations th… Lees meer

6. The Brush that Carried a Homeland I Sliman Mansour (Rerun)

   26 augustus 2026 · 50 min

   Afspelen
   Few artists have captured the soul of Palestine the way Sliman Mansour has. His paintings featuring olive trees, stone terraces, mud, and the steadfast women of the land have carried Palestine across generations and borders. In this conversation, Mansour looks back on his childhood as well as the mischief and hardships that shaped him. A pioneer of contemporary Palestinian art and a teacher who rooted creativity in local materials, he speaks with humor and sharp honesty about what art means to him, sharing not only his achievements but also his moments of fragility and disappointments.
   This episode is hosted by Tala Elissa. Tarwida’s lead producer is Tala Elissa. Our executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Our associate producer is Zeena Shehadeh. Social media by Leen Karadsheh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. This conversation was conducted in Arabic and recorded on July 8, 2025. You can watch it with English subtitles on YouTube through this link. Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, culinary practitioners and more about their very own Palestine. In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be. Follow us on @tarwidapodcast
   This episode was originally published on September 15th, 2025. Listen to this episode on YouTube here.
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   Relevant links and Resources:
   - Follow Sliman Mansour on Instagram @sliman.mansour Purchase Mansour’s artwork through his website (https://slimanmansour.com/palestinian...) or on Zawyeh (https://zawyeh.store/product-category...)
   - Learn more about Ismail Shammout (https://www.palquest.org/en/biography...)
   - Learn more about Bashar Khalaf (https://zawyeh.net/bashar-khalaf/) Lees meer

7. 89 Years of Palestinian Art, Resistance & Abstraction | Samia Halaby

   6 juli 2026 · 1 uur 8 min

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   "Establish our own discourse. Theirs is rotten. We don't need it."
   That's Samia Halaby — Palestinian abstract painter, scholar, activist, and at 89, one of the most vital voices in contemporary art — speaking directly to the next generation of Palestinian artists. In today’s episode, Tala sits down with Samia for a wide-ranging conversation that spans childhood in Jerusalem, decades of painting and teaching, and a career defined as much by what the art world tried to suppress as by what it eventually had to celebrate.
   Born in 1936 during the Arab Revolt in Palestine, Samia was displaced with her family at age 11 during the 1948 Nakba. Those first 11 years — absorbed visually, intensely, synesthetically — became the foundation for a lifetime of looking. Samia describes how as a child she assigned colors and shapes to sounds and how her grandmother's apple-seed recipe came to symbolize everything lost in 1948.
   The episode moves through her development as a painter, her rejection of "self-expression" as a capitalist myth, her conviction that abstraction is a tool for understanding reality rather than decorating it, and the way she was backed into becoming an artist at her mother's encouragement. She discusses her landmark work on the Kafr Qasem massacre — a book of documentary drawings now published in Arabic — and the very different choice she made with Massacre of the Innocents (2024), an abstract response to Gaza where documentation wasn't needed because the world was already watching.
   Tala and Samia also discuss the censorship that defined recent years: Indiana University's cancellation of her retrospective in December 2023, Michigan State's removal of Six Golden Heroes in 2024, and what she learned about institutional cowardice and the differences between administrations, professors, and students. As she puts it: "They handed me proof everlasting that they're racist."
   This episode is hosted and produced by Tala Elissa. Our associate producer is Zeena Shehadeh. Ex… Lees meer

8. Palestine's Museums — From Connecticut to Edinburgh to Venice | Faisal Saleh

   22 juni 2026 · 48 min

   Afspelen
   "We spent all our lives walking into other people's museums. The time had come to walk into our own."
   Today, we sit down with Faisal Saleh — Palestinian entrepreneur, photographer, and founder of the Palestine Museum US — to talk about what it took to build the first permanent Palestinian museum in the Western Hemisphere, and what it means to tell Palestine's story through art when so much of the world refuses to look.
   Faisal walks through his early life in Al-Bireh and the entrepreneurial instinct that eventually led him to found his own institution in Woodbridge, Connecticut in 2018. We discuss the founding of the Edinburgh branch on Dundas Street, the vandalism the museum has weathered, and two consecutive years of rejection from the Venice Biennale before this year's acceptance.
   The centerpiece of the episode is the story behind the exhibit "Gaza, No Words" — a collection of 100 embroidered Tatreez panels created in a single year by 60 Palestinian women in refugee camps in Lebanon and the West Bank, documenting the Gaza genocide stitch by stitch. Faisal describes the process behind the panels, the emotional weight of the imagery, and why the exhibit's title was left intentionally wordless. He closes with his plans for a future Gaza Genocide Museum and a forthcoming book.
   This episode is hosted by Afaf Shawwa Bibi. Our associate producers are Zeena Shehadeh and Ahmed Ashour. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Rajae Shehadeh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
   The episode was recorded on May 28th, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palest… Lees meer

9. Palestinian Dabke & Dance as Resistance | El-Funoun

   8 juni 2026 · 48 min

   Afspelen
   In this episode of Tarwida, we sit down with Noora Baker, Head of Production at El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe — one of the most celebrated Palestinian folk dance companies in the world, founded in 1979 with over 300 members and 16 major productions.
   Noora takes us through her journey as a dancer since 1987, beginning at age seven during the First Intifada, to leading production on El-Funoun's latest work Ya Sahib Al-Tayr (2025). We explore the roots of Palestinian dabke, its evolution from village ritual to political symbol, and the tension between organic street dance and choreographed stage performance.
   We also discuss how El-Funoun preserves Palestinian folklore, refusing politically conditioned funding, and the power of collective movement as a form of resistance.
   The episode is hosted and produced by Tala Elissa. Our associate producer Zeena Shehadeh. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Rajae Shehadeh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
   The episode was recorded on January 9th, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
   Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
   In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.
   --
   Follow us on socials @tarwidapodcast
   Relevant links and resources:
   Visit El-Funoun’s website and take a look at their online shop
   Read Fi Ma'ma'ana al-Raqs (In the Mayhem of Dance)
   Follow El-Funoun (@elfunoun_troupe)
   Learn more about Ghassan Kanafani
   Learn more about the Popular Arts Center
   Productions Mentioned
   Ya Sahib At-Tair (2025)
   Marj Bin Amer
   Mash'al
   Talat (Bara'em Al-Funoun) Lees meer

10. Makdisi Street x Tarwida Podcast: "They carried a memory in their head" | Dr. Salman Abu Sitta

    25 mei 2026 · 1 uur 30 min

    Afspelen
    In this episode of Tarwida, we share a remarkable conversation with Dr. Salman Abu Sitta — cartographer, historian, and founder of the Palestine Land Society — recorded on the Makdisi Street podcast.
    Dr. Abu Sitta was born in Al-Maa'in near Khan Yunis and was expelled from his home as a 10-year-old boy during the Nakba of 1948. Over the following 75 years, he transformed personal loss into one of the most comprehensive documentary projects on Palestine ever undertaken: mapping 1,200 villages, cataloguing 50,000 place names, opening boxes sealed since 1877, and calculating — with meticulous precision — that 88% of the land Palestinian refugees were expelled from remains effectively vacant today.
    In this conversation, Dr. Abu Sitta speaks about oral history and the colonial archive, the meaning of UN Resolution 194, the legal and practical feasibility of the right of return, the fight to preserve UNRWA, and why the question of Palestine is, at its core, a question of people being kept from going home.
    He is 85 years old. He was there. And he is still counting.
    Thank you to the Makdisi Street podcast for allowing us to share this episode with the Tarwida audience. This episode is hosted by the Makdisi brothers, Kareem, Sari, and Ossama and produced by Sina. Intro by Afaf Shawwa Bibi. The episode was adapted by Tarwida associate producer Zeena Shehadeh. Lead producer is Tala Elissa. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Rajae Shehadeh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
    The episode was originally published on February 7th, 2024.
    Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
    In a nutshell, if you want to know more abo… Lees meer

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