Messy
Identity
“LA Molokhia”
An ongoing poster series exploring the fun and messy aspects of growing up half Arab in LA.
At age 9 my dad fled political turmoil in Egypt to seek a better life in LA in the ‘60s. He could bring nothing but a single bag. A painful event, he never fully recovered from. Since his passing, I started this body of work to help me unpack and memorialize the heavy and wonderfully light aspects of how that experience shaped his life and its impact on mine.
The parameters of the series are:
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Each poster explores one moment of friction (be it funny or serious) where Arab and American identities clashed while growing up in Los Angeles.
- All latin based type is set in Sunset Gothic which is modeled after the uniquely Californian '60s hand lettering style and is an homage for when my dad first arrived in LA from Egypt.
Year – 2021
The Arabic says “Molokhia” which is a nostalgic rice, jute leaf, and chicken based Egyptian dish.