Join us for a celebration of the power of women’s expression through poetry and creative dialogue. 

This event will showcase the work of incredible Iraqi and American artists and women creating and creating with each other. The program will feature a reading by renowned poet Dunya Mikhail; an exchange between poets Jennifer Jean and Hanna Mohammed titled "Where do you live?" with visual responses from fellow Her Story Is artists; a dramatic reading of "No More Seagulls" by playwright Amy Merrill based on the writings of Elham Al-Zabaidy; an exchange between writers Letta Neely and Thawra Yaqoub Mohhamed titled "Me and Kunta Kinte"; and an original animated short film, "Once I Was There" based on a poem by Elham Al-Zabaidy about the climate crisis in Iraq.

We Are Clouds is a free event and open to the public. A reception of Iraqi tea and sweets will follow. This event will be accessible in American Sign Language through a live interpreter. 

On view in the Open Book atrium is a collection of letterpress-printed broadsides, artists’ books, and prints from the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here collection, created by a coalition of international artists and writers expressing solidarity with Iraqi booksellers, writers, and readers following the car bomb attack on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad in 2007, promoting awareness of the power of the written word and arts in support of the free expression of ideas and the preservation of cultural spaces.

This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Minnesota State Arts Board.
This activity is also made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Artist Bios:

Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi American poet and writer. She has received fellowships from the United States Artists, the Guggenheim, and Kresge. Her honors also include the Arab American Book Award, and UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. Her book The War Works Hard was shortlisted for International Griffin Poetry Prize. New Directions published three of her other poetry books and her non-fiction The Beekeeper which was a finalist for the National Book Award and for PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award. Her debut novel The Bird Tattoo, shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, is coming out on December 6, 2022 from Pegasus. She currently works as a special lecturer of Arabic at Oakland University in Michigan.

Her Story Is is a collective of independent women writers and artists from the United States and Iraq who collaborate on projects aimed at expanding linguistic, artistic, and cultural boundaries in response to conflict and its aftermath, with a focus on centralizing the experience of women.

Her Story Is Members:

Elham Nasser Al-Zabeedy, Writer & visual artist

Amy Merril, Playwright/Producer

Anne Elizabeth Loyer, Producer, Visual artist, Theater artist

Jinan Al-Mohammed, Artist

Thawra Yaqoob, Writer

Letta Neely, Artist/ Writer

Hanaa Mohammed, Writer

Jennifer Jean, Poet, Translator, Educator

Nadia Alesi, Writer and Translator

Tamara Alateya, Writer and Translator

Abeer Abdulkareem, Translator

Thaira Almayahy, Artist

Angham Nasser, Visual Artist and Antagonist

Sou Ma Kaabia Kalthoum, Writer and Artist