The Palestinian Heritage
Foundation
Coming Soon
Traditional Palestinian Costume
Origins and Evolution
By
Hanan Karaman Munayyer
A
joyous celebration of pattern and color,
and of an enduring
Palestinian tradition.
The historical
and cultural richness of Palestine is reflected visually in
its costume and embroidery. Distinguished by boldness of
color, richness of pattern, and diversity of style, and
combined with great needlework skill, these textiles have
long played an important role in Palestinian culture and
identity and manifested themselves in every aspect of
Palestinian life.
Based on over
twenty-five years of extensive field research and the
culling of museum resources and publications from around the
world, this book presents the most exhaustive and up-to-date
study of the origins of Palestinian embroidery and
costume—from antiquity through medieval Arab textile arts to
the present. It documents the evolution of
costume and the textile arts in Palestine in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries region by region. It is lavishly illustrated
with over 500 full-color photographs from the highly praised Munayyer Collection, which includes a whole range of
embroidered textiles from traditional costumes and coin
headdresses of Palestinian village women to cloaks and
jackets worn by village men
to
belts, sashes, and footwear.
The exquisite colors of the silk stitching on natural linens
are a feast for the eye.
The sumptuous
photography and author’s well-informed text greatly enrich
our appreciation of Palestinian embroidery and make this
book a valuable resource that displays this unique art in
all its splendor.
Hanan Karaman
Munayyer, a Palestinian-American, is co-founder and
president of the Palestinian Heritage Foundation. She has
researched and lectured on Palestinian textile arts for over
twenty years. She is also a retired molecular biologist who
worked in pharmaceutical research for more than three
decades.
Art/Traditional Craft • 10”x 14 ¼” • 448 pages • full-color
photos • maps •
ISBN 978-1-56656-825-8 • hardback (with slip case)
Hanan Lectures at
Zimmerli
Museum
On
Monday, January 25, 2010,
Hanan Munayyer,
PHF President and Commissioner of the
New Jersey
Arab American Heritage Commission was guest speaker at the
Zimmerli
Museum at
Rutgers
University in East
Brunswick, New Jersey.
The lecture provided guidance on Arab culture and the Arab
American community to about twenty docents who are
conducting organized tours of the ongoing exhibition of
renowned Moroccan artist Lalla
Essaydi, Les Femmes Du Maroc.
This exhibition presents a selection of seventeen
large-scale photographs from the artist's most acclaimed
series.
The title
of the series is adapted from
Eugene
Delacroix's iconic Orientalist painting, Les
Femmes d'Algiers of 1834. Orientalist paintings such as
this one, which was created against the background of the
European colonization of much of the Arab world, fostered a
view of the Middle East as a sensual paradise of beautiful
and alluring women, rich colors, and exotic tastes. Using
these paintings as a point of departure, Essaydi recreates
their composition with contemporary Arab women who
collaborate with her in the staging and production of these
photographs. They re-invent
the mostly male European/American view of the Islamic world
from the perspective of Islamic women.
On
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, five distinguished
scholars presented a panel discussion to provide insights
into Lalla
Essaydi's photographic
transformation of Orientalist art. The scholars approached
the artist's work from the context of Islamic culture,
European ideas of the Middle East, and
contemporary photographic practice. The speakers provided a
rich platform from which to understand the artist's
intentions.
A Masterpiece Wall
Hanging in the Making
Three
years ago, the Palestinian Heritage Foundation commissioned
an innovative project to Najdeh Association of
Beirut: the creation of a unique wall
hanging to be completed shortly by Palestinian embroiderers in
refugee camps in Lebanon.
The objective of this project was not only to demonstrate
our commitment to Palestinian art and culture, but also to
generate work for Palestinian women embroiderers in the
camps who desperately need financial assistance.
The work
commenced over three years ago by collecting all available
motifs embroidered on antique El Khalil-region dresses,
scarves, pillows and other items from the Munayyer
Collection. Farah took high-resolution photographs of the
motifs, which were then retouched and sent to Najdeh for
incorporation into the wall hanging.
In
Beirut, Najdeh
artists rendered the patterns on special graph paper, and
then embroidered the patterns on canvas to ensure the proper
measurements of the finished piece. Once the accuracy
of this preliminary work was approved, the final embroidery
was initiated on linen fabric.
For the
past two years, four refugee women,
Lina
Abdullah, Rasmieh
Abu Salem,
Fatima Abu
Salim, and Ghada
Masrie (photographed below)
residents of Miyyeh-w-Miyyeh and
Ein
el Hilweh refugee camps near
Sidon
in south Lebanon,
have worked arduously to complete this stunning
masterpiece. The wall hanging is 180 cm wide and 250 cm
long embroidered with DMC cotton thread on off-white linen
fabric with crochet colorful tassels running down both
sides.
Development Stages of
wall hanging, embroiderers with Najdeh Executive Director Ms. Khadijeh Abdel
'All
PHF
Participates in Cross-Cultural Arts Festival at WP
University
From March 23 through 28,
William
Paterson University
in Wayne, NJ,
hosted “The Cross-Cultural Arts Festival–Middle East,”
celebrating the wide range of cultures among countries
in the Middle East.
The Festival served as an
example of the University’s mission to encourage
diversity, community outreach, and multiculturalism, by
highlighting the impact of fine arts, music, and film
in facilitating cross-cultural empathy and developing
global connections. All events were open to the public
and admission to most events was free.
The festival was developed by
the University’s College of the Arts and Communication
with assistance from the New Jersey Arab-American
Heritage Commission, the New Jersey-Israel Commission,
the City of Paterson, and the Muna and Basem Hishmeh
Foundation.
An exhibition,
“Bridal Head Scarves of the Arab World,” from the
collection of Farah and
Hanan
Munayyer and presented by
Mrs.
Hanan Munayyer,
was displayed in the University’s
Shea Center
from March 5 to April 10.
A highlight of the week was a
musical performance by
Simon
Shaheen on Saturday, March 27, attended by over
300 guests. Shaheen’s performance reflected the
legacy of Arabic music but also incorporated jazz and
classical Western music influences.
The Festival also featured the
opening of an art exhibit entitled, “One Thousand and
One Nights: The Narrative Tradition in Contemporary
Middle Eastern Art,” in
the University Galleries in the
Ben Shahn
Center for the Arts. The exhibit
featured the work of one of the most prominent
Arab-American artists
Helen
Zughaib, and other multicultural artists Dahlia Elsayed, Dana
Melamed, Nicky Nodjouni and
Mahmoud
Farchchian.
The Festival also included an
arts and crafts fair that included Arabic tile painting
presented by Hanan, calligraphy by Majid Seif, and a
dance performance by the Circassian Cultural Institute Dance Troupe.
from left:
“Bridal Head Scarves of the Arab World", The Munayyers with artist Hellen Zughaib and
her husband
at the "One Thousand and One Nights" exhibit reception.
Foundation
Participates in St.
George Teen SOYO Fashion Show
The
Palestinian Heritage Foundation presented several Palestinian
and Syrian traditional costumes
at the Teen SOYO youth group's
fashion show evening at St. George’s Antiochian
Orthodox Church in Little Falls, New Jersey, held in February 2010.
The costumes represented several regions of
Palestine
and Syria,
the homelands of the parishioners' parents and grandparents,
and received enthusiastic applause from the more than two
hundred parishioners and guests attending the show.
WAFA House Auctions Contemporary Embroidery Pillows
Donated by PHF
By Nuha Matari
On Saturday,
April 3rd, WAFA House held its annual fundraiser at the
Brownstone House in Paterson, NJ. This year's theme was
appropriately titled "Empowering and Preserving the Family
Unit", where the clients and Wafa House supporters who further
its mission
were celebrated. Over 300 people from throughout the
community came together to share a memorable evening and to
ultimately support a worthy cause.
A Silent auction was held followed by dinner and program.
Entertainment included the poetic stylings of Gaith Adhami
along with comedians Saad Sarwana and Baha Khalil. Also in
attendance were prominent politicians, community leaders,
local professionals, sponsors & supporters, and the families
that have been assisted by the Wafa House..
Throughout the
year, Wafa House extends its hands to assist families in
need. Wafa House is a support center dedicated to educating
and assisting victims of domestic violence. The purpose of
Wafa
House
is to maintain a facility that will strengthen and reinforce
the family unit while emphasizing the value of human life
through intervention and community awareness. A variety of
culturally sensitive services targeted towards, but not
limited to, women of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent
are offered.
