Maamoul Plates – Thank You Ceramics

My earliest memory learning about my Palestinian heritage was my Teh Teh’s ma’amoul date cookies. This series of functional art dessert party plates celebrates the ma’amoul cookie, and features Palestinian joy. Growing up in America I was first exposed to the Black and Indigenous rights movements that later became the foundations for my understanding of Palestinian Liberation. 

Black Scholar, Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum stresses the importance of talking about race in early development. When did you first learn of your heritage? Her books challenged me to come out of a place of fear around my mixed-race Palestinian American identity. It has been hard and often times dangerous to reveal my Palestinian heritage because of the many violent reactions I have received. Colonizers throughout history take up land, displace indigenous people, take over farming and food production, appropriate the indigenous culture as their own, and force a limited view of the future -not just in the physical realm but the mental realm too. Colonizers have no place outside or inside our minds. Making art is how I decolonize my mind and can imagine a Free Palestine while living in a country that views me as a threat. Making art and sharing food has provided a safe way to open up and connect to others who are also Palestinian or are in solidarity.  

The specific process for the ma’amoul plate involved collecting hand carved wooden molds from family members and nearby SWANA markets, creating a reverse mold, then turning that into a stamp. Next hand building the plates, burnishing and glazing them with colors that remind me of my visit to Palestine in 2006.