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Cultural Misfits

Exploring postcolonial realities, Cultural Misfits follows different experiences of third culture kids (TCK) navigating their identity politics. A TCK is an individual who was raised away from their parent’s native country during a significant period of their developmental years, growing a sense of relationship to all of the different cultures without having
full ownership in any.

Following different stories of TCKs from the SWANA (South West Asian/North African) region, Cultural Misfits uses poetry and illustration as a vehicle to portray several kinds
of conceptual and pragmatic dilemmas about migration. Through their journey of exploring their unique diasporic influences, empowerment is found in embracing duality.

Passenger by Nour Khairi

Sudanese Poet, Based in England and Qatar

2021

Paying homage to the transitory and mobile lifestyle, Passenger (2021)merges the streets of Sudan and Qatar to represent Nour’s childhood memory of passively looking out the window of a moving car.

In an unexpected place, I found you
In pop colour billboards and
Odd names for barbershops
At the end of dirt roads
In the underground restaurants at rundown streets

It was not much
Not enough to say “I am from here”
Not enough to say “I am local”
But enough to build a bridge to you

I wasn’t alive in your Golden Age
That period of eternal satisfaction
that the elders spoke of
Instead I was born in its shadow;
Its elusive mist.
I took the furthest detour
And I reached your familiar soil

I found you at the altar of discomfort and joy
Full of the hands of hidden visionaries
I grew comfortable in your nooks and crannies.

And at the end of the day
It was your nighttime sounds that drew me in
A more luminous moon shone in your presence
I didn’t see your gold but I tasted your breeze every summer
And that was enough for me to say “forever”

I sit at the passenger seat of your love
Absorbing what I can, you drive me
through the street names I can’t pronounce
Your nostalgic air tickling my hair
The way my mother put me to sleep as a child

I found you at the altar of discomfort and joy
And there you remained;
Half-shy and half-proud

Invisible Lines by Joud Ghalayini

Palestinian-Jordanian Poet, based in Qatar

2021

Inspired by the accumulation of cross-cultural experiences, Invisible Lines (2021) highlights the feeling of rootlessness and restlessness in building personal agency and identity as a TCK.

Can you really grow roots anywhere?
Is every piece of land so welcoming?
Why do i feel like a stranger in my own home
In every home I’ve ever known
Or is home what you found one day?
In the little things you never thought much of
You only noticed them when they were long gone

Did you find shelter in what you saw
Through your rose-colored glasses?
Or is it something you grew to hate
Bit by bit, as you grew older?

It’s a strange thing
Learning and unlearning
As life passes you by
Keeping the pieces you want
From all that you know
Never free from doubt and uncertainty
Building your own narrative, slowly but surely

We learn to paint our own picture
When it comes to things that we love
Or the things that we want to
It might just be another romanticized view
Or something much more real
Raw, even

Within the invisible lines
You still feel their presence
No matter where you are
Or what you do

Block by block
Belonging is what you build
It doesn’t have to be like anything else
Just pure and personal
Whatever you want it to be 

Special thanks to: Joud Ghalayini, Nour Khairi, Salsabila Fatin, Dana Ahmed, Waleed Elrayah, Hagar Allam and Sherifa Eletrebi

1. Text video: Poem Passenger by Nour Khairi

2. Text postcard #1: Within the invisible lines
You still feel their presence
No matter where you are
Or what you do
Block by block
Belonging is what you build

3. Text postcard #4: Why do I feel like a stranger in my own home?

4. Text postcard #6: Invisible Lines
Written by Joud Ghalayini

Izza Alyssa is a third-culture multidisciplinary designer who is inspired to integrate art, cultural identity, and technology for impactful solutions toward global issues. Holding BFA in Graphic Design with a concentration in fashion merchandising, she navigates her skills towards the topics of globalization, education disparities, and public health. Her artistic journey was awarded the Creative Innovation Grant by Qatar Foundation, previously known as Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Scholarship (2017), and the Arab Engineering Bureau (AEB) Award for Design Excellence (2021).

Her thesis project, Cultural Misfits, has granted her a position in the secretariat team for the 2023 Qatar Indonesia Year of Culture, the biggest annual cultural exchange program by Qatar National Museum.

Shima Aeinehdar is an Iranian graphic designer, illustrator, and lettering artist holding a BFA in Graphic Design from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar. Shima’s work focuses on visualizing abstract topics such as personal identity and self-actualization, using illustration and Persian typography with a unique approach to data visualization.

Her projects have been showcased in Qatar, Belgium, UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Two of her posters have been chosen to be among the 100 Best Arabic Posters, Round 3. Her illustration was also published in VogueArabia’s February 2021 issue to celebrate the unity of GCC countries. She has also received the 2021 AEB Award for Design Excellence.

Nour K. is a writer using poetry as a form of personal therapy and a political tool, discussing the possibilities of Afro-Futurism and African philosophies. Nour defines themselves as both part of, and apart from, the Sudanese diaspora and, although uncomfortable with the ‘poet’ label, their words spark magic on the page.

Joud Ghalayini is a Palestinian-Jordanian poet who is interested in art, activism, and social justice. Holding a BSc in Business Administration with a minor in global systems and management, she uses language as a way of exploring the world. Her journey with poetry was marked by numerous milestones like recitations and exhibitions of her writings in Qatar.

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