Laimah Osman

Author: laimah

  • Fragmented Futures: Afghanistan 100 Years Later

    I’m happy to be a part of this exhibition featuring art, music, writing, performance and more by artists from Afghanistan and the diaspora. “The exhibit, which runs until January 12, 2020, is designed to shift the conversation on Afghanistan and its diaspora, to focus on people’s everyday lived experience of extraordinary historical events. We at AAAWA…

  • Black Sonnet

    Black Sonnet

    Candace Williams and I collaborated on this print featuring her poem “Black Sonnet”. We used a paper lithography process for it’s inky textures—to bring it from the digital space to paper. We made three variations of this print. Singing Saw Press will distribute copies of this print in a limited edition portfolio of broadsides called PARALLAX. Last…

  • Chapbooks and Writing

    Wrapped up a class at Parsons School of Design called Chapbooks and Writing. It was an amazing experience–a constant exchange of creativity and knowledge. I invited poets to talk about their process in collecting a body of work. Sahar Muradi introduced her chapbook Gates and taught the ghazal poetic form. Candace Williams read from her chapbook…

  • Salaam Alaikum prints

    Salaam Alaikum prints

    Sahar Muradi and I’s collaborative prints will be exhibited at Bethany Arts Community. The exhibit will run from May 12 through June 10, 2018. “Salaam Alaikum” is a series of monotypes drawing lines from Muradi’s eponymous poem, which is concerned with how daily greetings take on new tenor in times of war. Here, greetings in…

  • Talk at WSW

    Talk at WSW

    I had the fortune of teaching a screenprinting workshop at Women’s Studio Workshop’s 2017 Summer Art Institute. My workshop was titled, Visual Poetry. While I was there I witnessed WSW’s talented interns make things happen. Shout outs to Serena Hocharoen for assisting me in the printshop. And El Horsfall for putting this video interview together.

  • Gates series

    Gates series

    “Gates” is a series of three monoprints drawing on Muradi’s poem of the same name, which explores themes of immigration and identity. The prints are rendered in a style reminiscent of classical illuminated manuscripts in Persian. The lines play with the Farsi/Dari diacritical marks “zabar,” [above] “zeyr,” [below] and “peysh,” [before] which denote short vowel sounds…

  • Salaam Alaikum series

    Salaam Alaikum series

    “Salaam Alaikum” is a series of monoprints drawing lines from Muradi’s eponymous poem, which is concerned with how daily greetings take on new tenor in times of war. Here, greetings in Dari are layered with transliterations in English. Lines from the poem are in conversation with the meaning of the greetings. For example, “manda nabasheyn”…

  • City Lore

    My prints are featured at City Lore Gallery, part of Poetic Voices of the Muslim World.  The exhibition highlights the poetic traditions from four major language areas — Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu — and introduces poetry from Asia, Africa, and diasporic communities in the United States.

  • Poison

    Poison

    Poison, written by Nadia Anjuman in the Summer of 2001 in Herat, Afghanistan.  I letterpress printed her original Farsi poem alongside an English translation by Diana Arterian and Marina Omar in September, 2015.  I printed this to honor all the women who have been murdered in Afghanistan and beyond in misogynist societies. To read more of…

  • Corita Kent

    Corita Kent

    This screenprint is an ode to Sister Corita Kent.  I made it in June at Women’s Studio Workshop.It is in reference to this print of her’s:tender be – part one – sr. william, 1964Learn more:tender be – part one – sr. william archived at Harvard Art Museums with Inscriptions and MarksAn Artist Who Sees Holiness in Wonder…