الله أكبر
― Quran (40:10:7)
ART
For art, I drew a portrait of my mother, with no face detailing so that she could represent the entire Muslim community. I decided to layer the steps to show what is seen when looking at a muslim. I started off with the base of the face showing that they don't matter when we see Islamic hate in the world. I then painted the flowers and the 'purity' because that is definitely not taken in consideration when muslims are being attacked, Their morals and personality are irrelevant in the eyes of a bigot. After I was happy with the floral detailing, and small objects I moved onto the hijab. I wrote the words. The racial slurs are in red so they stood out. I chose them to go under the hijab because I thought that when someone judges a hijabi on the streets, it's the head scarf that identifies them as a muslim, and then after that realization does the hate roll out. Lastly, I painted the gold hijab. The reasoning for the metallic gold paint, was the place the color gold held. In my mind, I thought gold meant 'first' and what I was trying to present was the encounter with a muslim. So it made sense for the hijab, the first thing that stands out, to be gold.
history
Each object that lays in the background of my art piece, hold significance. To tie in the historical aspect, I paired every object with a point in either my parents history or american history.
bowThe bows resemble the constant struggle my mother had to face. She had 6 kids, babysat at night, and still managed to find time within her day to make a batch of 100 bows. This is something that truly expresses how hard my mom was and the innocence behind her, even if she was painted as a horrible person due to her faith.
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strawberyMy father experienced hate at work quite often, and put up with it, with a fake smile constantly plastered on his face. Regardless of how bad his day was, he would still come home late at night and wake up my siblings and I. He brought back Strawberry Haagen Dasz everyday for his family. To this day our family keeps our fridge stocked with Strawberry Haagen Das in remembrance to my father’s big heart. Strawberries reminds us all of the American dream, and proves to us that even though we are victims of hate every day, we are still good at heart.
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pineappleOn my parents journey to America, they stocked their luggage with fresh fruits before anything else. My parents wanted their kids to have the sweet, and tangy taste of the pineapple from our soil. This strengthens the purity and love that is between my parents and our family. We are tainted a certain way, and disregard those proclaims for our family and our happiness.
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lettersThese letters represent how my parents learned the entire English language in one, 24 hour plane trip from Bangladesh to America.
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teardropThe teardrops represent the emotion felt after the events of 9/11. The entire nation was struck after this day. This was also the day that birthed national hate towards Muslims due to the actions of Osama Bin-Ladin.
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heartThe hearts depict the love and reasoning for my parents journey to America. Their reason for everything they gave up was their family and kids.
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flowerThe flowers, similar to the hearts show the innocence within my parents and their story. The intentions were pure and explains why our family refuses to give in to the hatred and islamaphobia.
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ENglish
To tell my parents story, I wrote two individual poems that thanks them and shows The American Dream at it's finest. I collaborated with Mrs. Detwiler frequently and used poetic devices to strengthen my work. I kept a repetition pattern and used other poets as inspiration when writing my poems. I read pieces of E.E Cummings, Sylvia Plath, and Emily Dickinson and stole concepts and poetry styles from all three poets to incorporate into my own work. |
final projects
This poem is about my mother and her bleeding thumbs, weak hands, but strong heart.
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This poem is about my father and his distressed eyes, cold hands, but warm heart.
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