FARAH BARQAWI

2026 SOZO FELLOW
AUTHOR, MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST, EDUCATOR, DOULA, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZER
NEW YORK, NY

Farah Barqawi is a writer, poet, performer, educator and feminist organizer. She works across multiple genres and mediums, from written words, to podcasts, singing, and theatrical performances.

Farah writes in both Arabic and English, and her poetry and prose have appeared in multiple other languages, both online and in print.

In 2018, she created a solo theatrical piece, Baba, Come to Me, which she toured for the following two years. She also wrote, produced, and hosted the fourth season of the Arabic podcast Eib (Shame) in cooperation with SOWT, tackling modern stories and issues related to love and relationships. The series has received high praise and acclaim, and has topped the charts in the Arab World (2019). Since 2024, she has been a recurrent member of "This Time's Quartet;" an Interdisciplinary performance project. In collaboration with prominent musician, composer, and educator Huda Asfour, she co-wrote and co-produced the performance "Fragmented Return," which premiered in Rainey Auditorium at the Penn Museum on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in April, 2025.

Farah is the co-founder of two feminist projects: Wiki Gender, a participatory platform for Arabic knowledge production and curation on gender and feminism; and The Uprising of Women in the Arab World; a secular platform that campaigns for women’s rights in Arabic speaking countries.

She holds a master’s degree in public policy from University of Chicago (2011) and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from New York University (2024), where she also taught creative writing to undergraduates. Farah's work is influenced and motivated by her lived experience as a Palestinian, as a woman, as a daughter, as a friend, as a frequent mover, and as a constant learner. She is currently found between New York City, USA and Berlin, Germany.