Home of Memories, وطن الذكريات explores homemaking and memories in the portraits of Iraqi Minnesotans by Iraqi Minnesotan photographers Ahmed Alshaikhli and Jaafar Alnabi. Curated by the CarryOn Homes collective and produced as part of Iraqi Voices, a collaborative arts storytelling lab run by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. This year’s lab invited participants and photographers to look both inward and onwards as they explored home. These portraits and stories give us a complex and intimate portrayal of what home is, of what home was, is, and what it can be. Our thanks to Lafta Abduljabbar Jassim, Rasol Albayati, Eynas Alnabi, Zena Khalil, Ronak Ahamed Ali, Dhafer Al- Khatib, Abir Majid, and Hazha Las for coming together to compose a beautiful and intricate tapestry of home. We invite visitors to reflect on the theme of home by bringing a photograph to be collectively displayed on a journey wall along with a shared memory.  

The Iraqi Voices Lab 2020 is made possible in part by the Marbrook Foundation, and the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. 

Iraqi Voices is a collaborative arts storytelling lab that pairs Iraqi-Minnesotans with professional artists to share their stories through an artistic platform. Since its start in 2012, the lab has produced 9 books, 15 award winning short documentary films and the groundbreaking theater production Birds Sing Differently Here premiering at the Guthrie Theater. 

THE IRAQI AND AMERICAN RECONCILIATION PROJECT is a nonprofit founded in 2007 to foster conversations, learning and compassionate action. In response to decades of sanctions, war, and occupation we engage Iraqis and Americans in the arts, personal and professional exchanges, and humanitarian invitations in an effort to promote cultural understanding and reconciliation. To learn more visit reconciliationproject.org.