Intersecting Muslim Identities in Bay Area Arts

Art is a powerful tool for expressing cultural heritage, establishing identity, and revealing stories of social concern. In this article, I describe my contributions to the Mosaic Atlas Project as an ethnographer and content creator. I studied how Muslim artists express their identity, sense of place, and social concerns through the medium of art. I then documented these insights by creating StoryMap narratives for the Mosaic Atlas. I conducted in-depth oral history interviews with Muslim artists, Middle Eastern artists, and social advocates within the Bay Area, listening as participants shared their backgrounds, connections to the arts, ongoing collaborations, and how they wished to represent themselves to the public. During interviews, themes of anti-Islamic rhetoric, gender discrimination, and social isolation emerged. In retelling these stories from the perspectives of Middle Eastern and Muslim community members, we created a platform for self-representation and collaboration to generate greater visibility for Muslim and Middle Eastern artists and leaders.