Palestinian abstract painter Samia Halaby, 89, on growing up in Jerusalem, the Nakba, documenting the Kafr Qasim massacre, and what censorship by Indiana University and Michigan State revealed about her art and the system.
"Establish our own discourse. Theirs is rotten. We don't need it."
That's Samia Halaby — Palestinian abstract painter, scholar, activist, and at 89, one of the most vital voices in contemporary art — speaking directly to the next generation of Palestinian artists. In today’s episode, Tala sits down with Samia for a wide-ranging conversation that spans childhood in Jerusalem, decades of painting and teaching, and a career defined as much by what the art world tried to suppress as by what it eventually had to celebrate.
Born in 1936 during the Arab Revolt in Palestine, Samia was displaced with her family at age 11 during the 1948 Nakba. Those first 11 years — absorbed visually, intensely, synesthetically — became the foundation for a lifetime of looking. Samia describes how as a child she assigned colors and shapes to sounds and how her grandmother's apple-seed recipe came to symbolize everything lost in 1948.
The episode moves through her development as a painter, her rejection of "self-expression" as a capitalist myth, her conviction that abstraction is a tool for understanding reality rather than decorating it, and the way she was backed into becoming an artist at her mother's encouragement. She discusses her landmark work on the Kafr Qasem massacre — a book of documentary drawings now published in Arabic — and the very different choice she made with Massacre of the Innocents (2024), an abstract response to Gaza where documentation wasn't needed because the world was already watching.
Tala and Samia also discuss the censorship that defined recent years: Indiana University's cancellation of her retrospective in December 2023, Michigan State's removal of Six Golden Heroes in 2024, and what she learned about institutional cowardice and the differences between administrations, professors, and students. As she puts it: "They handed me proof everlasting that they're racist."
This episode is hosted and produced by Tala Elissa. Our associate producer is Zeena Shehadeh. Executive producer is Zina Jardaneh. Social media by Rajae Shehadeh. Research and copywriting by Dima Sharif. Branding by Sara Sukhun. Theme music includes excerpts from Clarissa Bitar, The Popular Art Centre - مركز الفن الشعبي & Rim Banna. Intro music by Terez Sliman.
The episode was recorded on May 28th, 2026. Watch the episode on YouTube here.
Tarwida is a series of conversations that bring Palestinian arts, culture, and heritage to the forefront. We hear from artists, including writers, filmmakers, musicians, architects, and more, about their very own Palestine.
In a nutshell, if you want to know more about (Creative) Palestine, this is the place to be.
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