Led by Afghan American artist Gazelle Samizay and Iranian artist Katayoun Bahrami, in partnership with ARTogether, the Tekah Tekah Project (Dari: “Piece by Piece”) is a community art project designed to tell the stories of newly-arrived Afghan refugees in the Bay Area.
Tekah Tekah will be a creative space for Afghan women to tell their own stories, drawing from their own narratives and cultural contexts, connecting artists with women from the Afghan refugee community, and exploring creative art forms such as embroidery, textile painting, cyanotype, quilt-making, and visual storytelling.
With groups of 5-10 Afghan refugee women participants, 4 community art workshops will be offered monthly in Oakland, each featuring different art forms taught by collaborating refugee and immigrant artists fluent in Dari.
Exploring each art form, participants will be allowed to explore their own stories, backgrounds, concerns, treasured memories, and other themes that will enable self-expression and an outlet to tell their stories.
Both individual and collaborative artwork will be explored, with artists guiding individual art projects alongside a group quilt-making project created throughout the workshop series. Each event will also provide food and refreshments, and transportation – a major obstacle for many refugee women – will be provided to and from each in-person event.
Following the workshops, the final community and individual artworks will be presented in a public display event/exhibition, either showcased in-person or virtually, depending on the wishes of our participants and other project constraints. The event will be a safe and welcoming space for Afghan participants to connect with their new communities, and have their stories heard and connected with.
Following the event, the artwork will be featured prominently on ARTogether’s website, with the ownership of all artwork belonging to the artists themselves.