Show Notes
What does it mean to create art under a brutal colonial system? To make beauty in the midst of struggle? In this episode, Palestinian visual artist Nabil Anani reflects on the First Intifada and the experimental spirit it sparked. He shares why art must be rooted in its environment, how creativity becomes a political act, and what it means to shape a visual language that holds memory, place, and defiance at its core. This episode is hosted by Tala Elissa. Tarwida’s lead producer is Tala Elissa. Our executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Our associate producer is Zeena Shehadeh. Social media by Leen Karadsheh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. This conversation was recorded on April 4, 2025 and is conducted in Arabic. You can find the English transcript through this link. Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, culinary practitioners and more about their very own Palestine. In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be. Follow us on @tarwidapodcast If you have been listening to the Tarwida Podcast, we want to know who you are, hear your thoughts and feedback. We welcome any suggestions for next guests or topics! Help us understand you better by filling this short survey linked below, it won’t take more than 5 minutes. We promise you a coffee next time we see you. Thank you! -- Relevant links and Resources: Follow Nabil Anani on Instagram @na.anani Check Anani’s artwork on Zayweh Learn more about the Palestinian Museum’s new edition of New Visions Watch Anani working on his latest piece Buy Anani’s book Palestine, Land and People Buy Anani’s book The Land and I Buy Anani’s memoir Emerging to the Light
More from Tarwida
Palestinian architect Elias Khuri joins Tarwida Podcast to discuss architecture as an accumulation of people, places, histories, and knowledge. From his "Noon Insan" installation and his relationship with Elias Khoury and Kamal Boullata, to building around olive trees and restoring Khan Jaljulia, Khuri explores how architecture can preserve relationships with land and history without freezing them in place. He also reflects on the role of language in developing a contemporary Arab architectural vocabulary.
Architect and historian Nadi Abusaada joins Tarwida Podcast to discuss Palestinian cities through material culture. He explores how Palestinians reconstruct history through the traces that remain, the challenges of curating Palestinian heritage, and why romanticizing the past can obscure the realities of the present.
Artist Dima Srouji joins Tarwida Podcast to discuss glassmaking traditions in Jaba' and Hebron, the politics of archaeology in Palestine, her Amman Design Week installation, and reclaiming looted heritage through replication.
Sliman Mansour, the pioneering Palestinian artist whose paintings of olive trees, stone terraces, and steadfast women carried Palestine across generations, passed away this week at 79. In memory of his legacy, we're resharing this conversation, where he looks back on his childhood, his mischief and hardships, and speaks with humor and honesty about what art meant to him.
Palestinian abstract painter Samia Halaby, 89, on growing up in Jerusalem, the Nakba, documenting the Kafr Qasim massacre, and what censorship by Indiana University and Michigan State revealed about her art and the system.