The Unbearable Affront of Colorism
Banah al Ghadbanah on the scourge of racism/colorism in Syrian communities and how it is tied to centuries-old endemic anti-Blackness and internalized colonialism.
Banah Al Ghadbanah
Banah Al Ghadbanah is a poet and multimedia artist from Syria raised in the U.S. south (pronouns: She/they/her). At the age of 16, she was declared wanted by the Syrian regime for US $1 million for a viral video she created where she told her family’s story of displacement from Syria. Her work has appeared in Sukoon, Aunt Chloe: a Journal for Artful Candor, Afghan Punk Magazine, Voice & Verse, Her Words, The A Project, the Passage & Place Anthology on Home, and Acting Up: Queer in the New Century Anthology, among others. She won the Hamsa: Dream Deferred Essay Contest for Civil Rights in the Middle East and has coordinated arts therapy programs for displaced Syrian children. Al Ghadbanah attended Spelman College where she graduated summa cum laude and received her bachelors in Comparative Women’s Studies and Sociology. She completed a PhD at UC San Diego with a dissertation about Syrian women’s creative work in revolution and war.