ARABIC CALLIGRAPHY: THE ART OF LANGUAGE w/ AIYAH SIBAY

This one-day workshop invites participants to experience the ancient art of the Arabic language and its sacred rituals. The calligraphic session will begin with somatic breathwork and meditation. You will then be led through exercises that will teach you the technical foundations of Arabic calligraphy using reed and ink. This workshop offers a feminine approach to a predominantly masculine medium, so there will be room to experiment and to study the works of female artists who have experimented with the Arabic language in their visual practice. We will end with a reading of poetry from the region and instructions for how to develop one’s own long-term practice beyond the session! __ Aiyah Sibay is a Syrian-American writer and visual artist. Her work honors the stories of Arab women and their position in the world. Using poetry, textile, and audiovisuals, she delivers narratives that have been historically shamed and silenced, working equally with the political and the sensual in recognition of their inseparability. She has served as a writer for Tribe magazine and Al Rawiya. Her visual work has been exhibited internationally, and she is the independent founder of Tribeless, a project devoted to SWANA literature and poetry through hand-painted designs, and to the preservation of the region’s spiritual and erotic literary canon and history.