Layla Faraj, Artistic Director
Idea Viola, Dancer
Sepi Owlad, Photographer
ABJAD HAWAZ is a collaborative shoot exploring the embodiment of language beyond the mouth and tongue. Modern dancer Idea Viola is depicted in twenty-eight different poses designed by Layla Faraj for each of the letters in the Arabic alphabet, abstracting the human form and connecting the phonetic to the corporeal. Highlighting a female figure—one that is often hidden, obscured, or forbidden to depict in traditional Islamic and Arab art—alongside the long-standing Arabic art-form of calligraphy, this project brings a well-respected artistic practice in contact with a body that is often disrespected or disappeared; it reimagines the female image as a symbol of equal status to the alphabet of the Qur’aan, the alphabet of the Prophet, and the alphabet that is used to create the artistic motifs on mosques. In both a reclamation of language for women and of the sanctity of the female body, ABJAD HAWAZ is as holy as it is human.
Mizna 2026
Charcoal on Paper
Typewriter experimentation
“We exist within an indispensable asset—language. Sooner or later though, writers who belong to multiple tongues, cultures, and heritages come across a curiosity: how to break away from English and honor our ancestry through the plurality language asks of us.”
Mizna 2026
Charcoal on Paper
Reflecting on Mizna’s history of experimentation, disobedience, and playfulness—and during National Poetry Month and Arab American Heritage month—this Mizna Online feature presents ten archival works and thirty original prompts curated by NNAAC Fellow Layla Faraj, exploring language and form in our community. All prompts are inspired by the poetic works published in this feature, and all materials are meant to encourage a bartering, breaking, or bending of language. They are divided into four sections, one for each week.
Charcoal on Paper
A series of album covers inspired by classical music sung by Arab women.
Charcoal on Paper 2026
An celebration of the female body, which is often deemed as ayb or shameful.
Created on Procreate
Inspired by the rich and long-standing history of using an Arabic coffee cup both in social settings and as a means of telling the future.
Created on Procreate
Inspired by a Mahmoud Darwish poem: And I telll myself, my darkness will birth a moon.
Linocut Prints on Envelopes
A series of envelope designs inspired by gathered visual motifs on Bed-Stuy Buildings.
Layla Kinjawi Faraj is a writer, artist, and translator based in Brooklyn. Born to Syrian immigrant parents, Layla’s work often revolves around what is remembered, what is inherited, and the space between the two. Whether visual or written, she dedicates her time to spotlighting female narratives and images, with a special interest in rupturing the taboo or shameful. She firmly believes that women cannot wait for others to give them the space and freedom to express themselves: they must claim it even if/in order to create chaos; she believes that good art is art that aims to tells a disruptive truth.
A graduate from Barnard College, she has worked as an editor and translator for Whiting Award Winning SWANA Magazine, Mizna, and Ottoway Award winning magazine, ArabLit Quarterly. Her work for them has primarily revolved around translating Syrian women’s work, spotlighting Gazan voices, and meditating on her own relationship to language and identity.
Apart from her work at these SWANA magazines, her written and visual work has been featured in LitHub, The New York Times, and in a WhatsApp short film. All of these published projects have revolved around her own familial history and the plight of the Arab immigrant in America.
She has won many awards for her work, including a Webby Award in 2025, first place in a New York Times essay-writing contest, and several awards from her alma mater, Barnard College, including The Howard M. Teichmann Writing Prize.
2025
Phi Beta Kappa Inductee (2025)
The Howard M. Teichmann Writing Prize Awardee (2025)
The William Haller Prize for Excellence in The Study of English Literature Awardee (2025)
Deans List (2021-2025)
Program Assistant
2026 - Present
Barnard College Writing Center
Graduate Assistant
Head-Fellow
Writing Fellow
2022 — Present
Gernert Company
Legal Translator
2025 — 2026
National Network of Arab American Communities
Non-Profit Leadership Fellow
2025 — 2026
Mizna
Editorial Assistant
2024 — 2026
ArabLit Quarterly
Translation Staff
2024 — 2025
PEN America
Freedom to Write Intern
2023
Uptown Stories
Teaching Assistant
2023
Koukash Review
Assistant Editor
2022
Documentary (Branded) 2025
The New York Times Essay Writing Contest Fist Prize (2022)
by Lakshmi Rivera Amin
https://hyperallergic.com/passports-prints-and-protest-at-the-2025-ny-art-book-fair/
‘WhatsApp releases short film ‘Happiness and Love | A True Story on WhatsApp’ highlighting Layla Faraj, BC ’25’, The Columbia Spectator
by Chris Mendell
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/arts-and-culture/2024/04/07/whatsapp-releases-short-film-happiness-and-love-a-true-story-on-whatsapp-highlighting-layla-faraj-bc-25/
‘PeopleHop: Modern Love College Essay Contest Winner Layla Faraj’, Bwog
by Elizabeth Walker
https://bwog.com/2022/05/peoplehop-modern-love-college-essay-contest-winner-layla-faraj/
‘Layla Kinjawi Faraj Wins Modern Love College Essay Contest’, The New York Times
by Modern Love Editors
https://www.nytco.com/press/layla-kinjawi-faraj-wins-modern-love-college-essay-contest/
‘Short film reveals how a family torn apart by Syrian war stayed connected on WhatsApp’, The Drum
by Audrey Kemp
https://www.thedrum.com/news/short-film-reveals-how-family-separated-the-syrian-war-stayed-connected-with
CONTACT
Email: Layla.kfaraj@gmail.com
Instagram: @Layla.kfaraj
Last Updated 24.10.31