I’m so happy to share with you the details of our May program, a book discussion of An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib and exhibition tour of Farah Salem: Uninhibited People of the Earth at Hyde Park Art Center.
Salem is a Kuwaiti-Iraqi interdisciplinary artist and art therapist based in Chicago. Her latest works reinterpret ceremonial and healing practices from the Arabian Peninsula through performance, sculpture, and video. Inspired by the teachings of her mother and grandmothers—who taught her to live in respectful relationship with the “ahl al ‘arth,” or spirits of the earth—Salem invites us to consider how we exist not in isolation, but in constant relationship with land, body, and unseen forces.
In this exhibition, landscapes and bodies merge. Geologic time collapses into ritual movement. Ancestral knowledge is reimagined through a contemporary feminist lens to confront ongoing trauma, climate grief, and the marginalization of women and immigrant communities. Originally developed during Salem's Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center, this body of work continues to grow in scope and impact.
After the tour, we’ll gather for a guided discussion of An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib. Spanning five generations of Kuwaiti women across shifting borders, ideologies, and class backgrounds, the novel offers a richly layered exploration of identity, language, and belief systems.
Paired with Salem’s exhibition, the book offers an character-driven overview of the personal and political histories that shape women’s lives in the region and beyond.
