A Story in Stitches
September 6, 2025
On Saturday, September 6, Making Space Bmore hosted A Story in Stitches, an evening of art and history featuring an artist talk by Hannah Atallah and lecture by dress historian and curator Wafa Ghnaim. Presented in concert with Atallah’s Third Place Artist Residency and the Tatreez Inheritance exhibition co-curated by Wafa Ghnaim, this event invited community to learn more about shared historical and social underpinnings of Atallah and Ghnaim’s work as well as explore themes of exile, cultural inheritance, and creation and preservation in a time of genocide.
In this intimate gathering, Atallah gave a moving, poetic presentation that drew on the work of Mahmoud Darwish— whose poetry collection inspired the title for one of her current installations, Unfortunately, It Was Paradise. She answered audience questions about this piece and her new work-in-progress, Problems of Value, and shared about her artistic practice. Atallah operates at the nexus of public art, cultural preservation, and community engagement. She highlighted culturally significant traditions of her Palestinian-Lebanese-Irish heritage, from marquetry to carpet weaving and tatreez embroidery.
Art and dress historian Wafa Ghnaim, co-curator of Making Space exhibition Tatreez Inheritance, provided a lecture on the history and cultural significance of Palestinian tatreez embroidery and guided guests through a rare opportunity to enjoy the art of "close looking" with the six dresses, or thobes, featured in the exhibition.
