Conversation: Hamrah Arts Club
with Nazafarin Lotfi and Mahdia Seyed Abed

Join us for a conversation about Hamrah Arts Club, a creative placemaking program serving refugee-status youth in Tucson. Hamrah founder, artist, and activist, Nazafarin Lotfi will be in conversation with Hamrah youth mentor and activist Mahdia Seyed Abed about what Hamrah Arts Club has meant to them as well as discussing some of their projects including the Hamrah Oral History Project. 

 

Hamrah Arts Club is a creative placemaking program serving refugee-status youth aged 15-24. Launched in 2021 as a grassroots, artist-led, rapid response to the large-scale relocation of vulnerable Afghan citizens to Tucson in the aftermath of the final days of the war in Afghanistan- Hamrah arts club aims to create solidarity between all refugee, asylum-seeking communities and network of support through creative expression. Hamrah Arts Club is the recipient of grants from the Arizona Commissions on the Arts and Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. 

Mahdia Seyed Abed AKA Mado (she/her) is 15 years old and a freshman at Tucson High Magnet School. Born in Afghanistan, she has lived in Tucson for five years. Mado is a Women’s Rights and Human Rights activist and is the founder of the International Cultures Club (ICC) at Tucson High. She speaks four languages and is currently learning her fifth language. Mado served as a youth mentor for Hamrah Arts Club in Spring 2024.

Nazafarin Lotfi (she/her) is an Iranian artist and activist based in Tucson, AZ. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2011 and her BA from the University of Tehran in 2007. Addressing world-making in her practice, she has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as Artpace, San Antonio, TX; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ; Regards, Chicago, IL; MOCA Tucson, AZ; Elmhurst Art Museum, IL; Tucson Museum of Art, AZ; among others. Lotfi is the recipient of 2023 Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence from the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.