Video Description: “Back Home in Your New Home” features two Palestinian American women’s ideas about home. Both Saj Issa and Kiki Salem are greatly influenced by their multi-cultural backgrounds. “The idea behind the show is to sort of encompass how it feels to live in diaspora so we wanted to bring different imagery, different themes of what we find in our homes here in the west while also knowing that all of them were inspired by what our families left behind back in Palestine,” said Kiki Salem. “In the 80’s is when a lot of families from Palestine began to immigrant to America and her family and my family immigrated around the same time and they grew up together in Palestine as well as in St. Louis,” said Saj Issa. “It’s amazing to see and watch and have our families come back from Palestine into a new home and that embodies what the art show is about.” The artists use traditional art forms to create contemporary content.

• Have students define “diaspora.” Once diaspora is defined, have students write an opinion piece on how living in diaspora could influence creativity and arts.