Kleicha: A Taste of Return

This interactive program explores ideas of home, displacement, and estrangement through a facilitated discussion and creative activity. The Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP), in partnership with Resisting The Long War, invite you to Kleicha: A Taste of Return inspired by Yusser Salih's Intention of Return/Relatives of Estrangement نية العودة, an effort to turn the gharb (related to distantness, remoteness) into qorb (related to nearness). This interactive program explores ideas of home, displacement, and estrangement. The program will center on Relatives of Estrangement, an artwork presented as part of Today Tomorrow - IARP, which engages questions surrounding the experience of returning home. Participants will be invited to consider their own understandings of home and belonging through a facilitated discussion and creative activity inspired by the artwork. The program will also incorporate Kleicha, a traditional Iraqi pastry often associated with home, family, memory, and cultural traditions. Drawing on a selected text about home and return, Shaymaa Khalil will facilitate a series of questions and reflections with participants. The program will conclude with a broader discussion of the social and historical realities of displacement and return in Iraq following the 2003 war, including the lasting effects of the U.S. military presence and its aftermath. Through art, food, dialogue, and reflection, the program invites participants to consider what it means to leave, to return, and to make a home again. Venue: Hyde Park Art Center - The Pond