Nehad Khader

Nehad Khader considers herself to be a cultural historian. She is a filmmaker/curator, an editor, and a writer whose work in film informs her work as a historian and vice versa. Trained in media and literature by Black and Palestinian creators, Nehad believes in art that carries aesthetic excellence as well as socio-political significance. She is the senior program manager at Philly’s BlackStar Film Festival and was lead curator of the DC Palestinian Film & Arts Festival for six years, currently working in an advisory position. She also serves as the managing editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. She is directing her first feature-length documentary about the life of Palestinian-American organizer Rasmea Odeh and working as a producer on a musical documentary about Islamophobia with director David Felix Sutcliffe ((T)Error, Adama). Nehad is deeply committed to justice in the city of Philadelphia, Palestinian liberation, and stories by creators of color. In her free time she is reading fiction by Black women authors.

Nehad Khader will travel to Chicago in July to document a farewell event held in honor of Rasmea Odeh, Palestinian American community organizer, former political prisoner, and elder, who will be deported and stripped of U.S. citizenship this August. Nehad will continue to deepen her relationship with Rasmea, her supporters, and the Palestinian American organizing community in Chicago. Nehad will produce media that she hopes to share with Palestinian communities across the country.

Nehad will interview between local Palestinian women and facilitate two community gatherings where they will share their work and stories, and teach tatreez, traditional cross-stitch embroidery, to younger Palestinian women. While the main art in this project will be tatreez, other traditional art forms will be recorded, like ululation, storytelling, and song. This phase of the project will culminate with an informal community exhibit of the artwork and photos of the process.