Dana Barqawi is a multidisciplinary artist and urban planner based in Amman, Jordan.

Dana’s multimedia work challenges colonial narratives and explores Indigenous identities and aspects of womanhood and community.

Growing up with women who painted, sewed, designed, and made art, Dana has a long-standing fascination with detail.

She works from a workshop studio in Jabal al Weibdeh, a neighborhood in central Amman filled with art galleries and coffee houses. There, she fuses elements of painting, photography, and applied materials like gold leaves and beads in her politically and socially engaged artwork.

Listen to the Episode

What you’ll hear:

  • Dana's path from architecture to socially engaged art
  • The main element behind Dana’s art
  • How Dana's latest work provides commentary on colonial narratives in the Levant & Africa
  • How the US Black Panther movement is connected to the Palestinian liberation struggle
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“There's always power in people when they see the truth. When I see the truth and I decide to align myself with the truth regardless [of] the compromises, this is power.” – Dana Barqawi
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It Takes a Village

(Re) Narrate: A Visual Commentary on Colonial Narratives in the Levant & Africa

Dana’s latest project is (Re) Narrate: A Visual Commentary on Colonial Narratives in the Levant & Africa.

It aims to expound upon the concept of the Indigenous body, womanhood, and community.

The collection with works like Chapter 5: It Takes A Village (pictured) looks at the struggles of oppressed people in the Levant, Africa, and the United States.

The works are, as Dana puts it, “an attempt to develop visual literacy.”

“I don't do art for the sake of the artwork itself. Rather, it is a tool to communicate, to trigger conversations.” – Dana Barqawi

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