{ "article": { "title" : "Hanan Sharifa", "author" : "Hanan Sharifa", "category" : "interviews", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/global-resistance-art-hanan-sharifa", "date" : "2025-02-04 15:33:00 -0500", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/Hanan_Sharifa_063.jpg", "excerpt" : "", "content" : "Each garment I create under my brand, Hanan Sharifa, embodies my belief that clothing should evoke a sense of daydreaming. I personally oversee every aspect of production—from designing fabrics digitally and screen printing to dyeing and sewing—occasionally working with a small team in NewYork.This hands-on approach reflects my deliberate choice to reject the mechanical processes of fast fashion. Each piece is crafted with meticulous care and love, telling stories that celebrate beauty, joy, the diaspora and the complexities of being human.Ceramics, photography, performance, and video are integral to my work, shaping the world in which my clothing exists. My designs bridge the tangible and the spiritual, serving as conduits to liminality. Incorporating ceramics has enriched my process, providing a meditative, tactile practice that complements my fashion collections. These mediums converge to create pieces that empower wearers to feel shamelessly confident and beautiful.Central to my artistic ethos is my Moroccan American identity, often expressed through Arabic script, particularly my name, ‘Hanan,’ meaning ‘tender’ or ‘compassionate.’ By incorporating these words into my designs, I aim to foster empathy and challenge misconceptions about Arabic language and culture.Rooted in spirituality and romance, my art transcends fashion to offer a sanctuary from the demands of modern life. My work invites moments of inner peace, empowerment, and joy, encouraging wearers and viewers alike to embrace their beauty and strength.Through my work, I hope to inspire love and alignment, empowering wearers to navigate the complexities of this world with grace and resilience.EIP: How does working with ceramics challenge or enhance your creative process compared to other mediums?HANAN: Ceramics has helped me focus on the present moment, and step away from thinking about my business. I love its tactile quality and how it complements my collections. At the beginning of 2024, I felt a strong pull toward working with clay—almost like a download—and I’ve been answering that call since. I don’t see clay as a challenge but as another tool for expressing the language of my work and helps me get out of circular thinking. Working with clay is definitely a slower process than making garments, since it requires time to build, fire, glaze, and fire again. It also brings a layer of playfulness to my art that is a nice reminder when I go back to designing. At times I can get lost in the process of designing collections, and focus too much on what is marketable and what will sell, instead of what I like and the fun and energy that goes into the creation of it.EIP: Are there recurring themes or stories in your work that reflect your personal experiences or cultural heritage?HANAN: A recurring theme in my work has been writing my name in Arabic on my clothes either as a pattern or my logo. I started doing this because for a long time it was the only thing I could write in Arabic and it added to my story of my experience of the diaspora. It’s been an interesting journey writing it on garments, people either love it or fear it. I think the fear comes from not knowing what it says (even though I’m always explaining what it says), or people fear the language altogether. Hard to say which one it is, but I’m disappointed that Americans and the Western world fear the Arabic language so much, and—it goes without saying—fear the people who speak it too. I’m hoping I make it more approachable, more common to see.EIP: How do you see your art evolving in the future, and what role do ceramics play in that vision?HANAN: Last summer I had a salon style dinner party to celebrate my summer collection and soft launch the ceramics that accompanied the collection - I had all the guests wearing the collection, my friend Shauna of Joon Eats cooked us dinner at my friend Sunny’s beautiful loft in Bedstuy. And we had harpist Samantha and singer/composer-improviser Miriam Elhajli play music after dinner. I’m hoping to present more collections in this very intentional way, and have some more elaborate production, and funding to pay everyone involved. I think creating spaces like this for Arab women to come together and experience the clothing in this way - to gather in a space with the ceramics, to eat, and listen to music is a nurturing experience. Everyone said they felt healed afterwards!EIP: With such a hands-on approach to production, what aspects of crafting garments do you find most fulfilling or challenging?HANAN: I really feel blessed and honored to make the garments for those who buy from me. I think people can really feel the energy and love that I put into making them. I have moments where I stop and realize that I’m living my dream life and people pay me to make them my visions, and I feel very lucky for that. It’s easy to fall into a lack mindset, or have a desire to want more, which is fine, but being grateful along the way, looking around and seeing you have everything you need is important.But I will say, at times I really get over re-producing everything. It’s a lot of work juggling all the hats of the business. I occasionally have interns, and work with small batch productions but the work sometimes makes me feel like a robot. I’m hoping to move production to Morocco this year and get some Moroccans paid. I think having production go there will still feel fulfilling for me and carry the same message and add to the story and the world I’m creating.EIP: Your work exists at the intersection of the romantic and the spiritual. How do you balance these two elements when creating your pieces?HANAN: I think loving, giving or receiving, in a romantic, or platonic way, is a spiritual experience itself. So I think the two are already in conversation with each other and it’s not something I actively think of how to communicate, but just comes out because I am those things. I don’t overthink what I want to make, and I make what I want to wear, and I don’t overthink that either. I love love, I’m a deep feeler, I love having fun. I love laughing and making other people laugh. I love going out and looking my best. I love helping other people feel that way when they wear my clothes. And these are all a part of my life purpose - uplifting people through how they look and how they feel on the inside.I hope through my clothes and my ceramics I can offer a moment of inner peace for whoever experiences it. Living in this capitalist hellscape, women have been conditioned to not feel so deeply, not relax or flow like we’re naturally supposed to. Instead we’re told to grind, and overwork, and be a girlboss, (which is fine if that’s what you want to do) but it leaves us tired and exhausted. When in reality living like that is used as a tool to oppress and discriminate against us, specifically black and poc femmes. Because they know how powerful we are when our energy is aligned, we have the ability to shut current systems down. This is what I mean by wanting women to feel empowered and they’re best self when they wear the clothes or use the ceramics. I hope you feel that power that’s within us. •" } , "relatedposts": [ { "title" : "Socialist Girl Summer: How Capitalism Spent Billions to Demonize Socialism — And Why That Spell Is Breaking", "author" : "Céline Semaan", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/socialist-girl-summer-demonize-socialism-why-spell-breaking", "date" : "2025-07-03 22:00:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_SocialistGirlSummer.jpg", "excerpt" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.", "content" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.A Propaganda Empire Built on FearFrom Cold War cinema to first-grade civics books, socialism was rendered as the enemy. Not because it endangered democracy, but because it questioned private property, militarism, and capitalism’s sacred cow: unlimited profit.The U.S. government, backed by its capitalist elite, responded with a sweeping cultural war. The Red Scare and McCarthyism turned union leaders, civil rights activists, and artists into traitors. The FBI surveilled and imprisoned people for organizing against poverty and racial capitalism. Hollywood blacklists sanitized storytelling and sold capitalist mythology as aspirational truth. CIA coups, from Chile to Iran to the Congo, dismantled democratically elected socialist governments because they dared to nationalize oil, land, and education. This wasn’t a fear of failure. It was a fear of redistribution.Why the Spell Is BreakingCapitalism made big promises. But it delivered gig work, burnout, debt, climate collapse, and endless war. A growing number of people—especially Gen Z and Millennials—aren’t buying the myth anymore.According to Pew Research (2023), 70% of younger Americans support some form of socialism.Mutual aid groups, public power campaigns, and tenant unions are taking root in cities across the U.S.And politicians like Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, and others are bringing these values to governance—publicly, unapologetically.This isn’t a rebrand. This is a return. A remembering.Designing LiberationDesign has always been political. It’s a tool used by empires—and also a tool of resistance. Every successful propaganda campaign used design to criminalize solidarity and glorify capitalism.Mid-century posters showed socialism as monstrous: Stalin as an octopus devouring the planet. Red flags engulfing American homes in flames. Inspectors peering through windows. These visuals weren’t neutral. They were weapons.But today, we’re flipping the frame.As a designer, I use visual culture to demystify and disrupt these fear-based narratives. We design not just what we see—but how we see. And when we shift that perspective, we make new futures possible.My work at Slow Factory has always been about this: telling stories rooted in care, equity, and ecological justice. Whether through open education, cultural programming, or climate justice campaigns, I’m reprogramming what power looks like—and who it belongs to.Zohran Mamdani and the Future of StorytellingMamdani’s victory isn’t just electoral. It’s cultural. He won while calling for an end to genocide in Gaza, organizing with workers instead of corporations, and speaking openly about the harms of capitalism and imperialism.He won while the establishment poured millions into defeating him.His win is proof: the old script is wearing thin.Reclaiming the Word, Reclaiming the WorldSocialism has always been about care—public housing, free healthcare, universal education, the right to rest and exist without fear. These are not fringe demands. These are the bare minimum for a livable planet.The villain was never socialism. The villain was the empire that told us we didn’t deserve care unless we could afford it.We are entering the Possible Futures era. And it’s being led by people who no longer fear justice—but are terrified of its absence.Designing that future means unlearning propaganda and replacing it with stories of survival, resistance, and imagination. We must reclaim the visual language of dignity—transforming symbols of domination into frameworks for liberation.We don’t just need to rebrand socialism.We need to remember it.And redesign everything." } , { "title" : "Who’s Profiting from Genocide?: What Francesca Albanese’s Report Reveals—and Why It Matters for the Climate", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/profiting-from-genocide-what-francesca-albanese-report", "date" : "2025-07-02 18:33:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Francesca_Report.jpg", "excerpt" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.", "content" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.This week, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report—“From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide” naming dozens of global corporations complicit in and benefitting from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The report makes what many of us have long known impossible to ignore: multinational corporations are not just “doing business” with Israel—they are profiting from displacement, resource theft, and mass death.And it’s not just harming people. It’s killing the planet.Albanese’s report lays out how corporations across defense, tech, finance, construction, and agriculture are directly enabling Israel’s assault on Gaza. This is not indirect. This is not abstract. These companies are not passive observers—they are profiteers. Weapon Manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Boeing, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics are supplying the bombs raining down on hospitals and refugee camps. Tech Giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Palantir provide the cloud computing, AI surveillance, and targeting software that power Israel’s military intelligence. Construction Firms like Caterpillar, HD Hyundai, and Volvo provide bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes—often paid for with public funds or foreign aid. Hospitality Platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb list vacation rentals on stolen Palestinian land, laundering settler colonialism into leisure. Financial Institutions including BlackRock, Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank fund Israeli military bonds and invest in all the above sectors. This is what an economy of genocide looks like: global, profitable, and deeply entrenched in the status quo.Genocide and Ecocide Are Two Sides of the Same CoinThe same companies enabling genocide are actively destroying ecosystems. This isn’t a coincidence—it’s a pattern.Caterpillar, already infamous for displacing Palestinian families, is a major contributor to fossil fuel extraction and mining projects that poison Indigenous lands in the Global South.Palantir, which boasts about using AI to “optimize” military surveillance, is also deployed by ICE in the United States to track, detain, and deport climate refugees and migrants.Netafim, an Israeli irrigation company profiting off stolen Palestinian water, is celebrated as “sustainable innovation” in the ag-tech world—masking eco-apartheid as green tech.In short: genocide and ecocide share a supply chain. And we need to cut the cord.Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, supplies drones and surveillance tech to police at the U.S.-Mexico border—and to ICE.HP and Google provide AI and cloud infrastructure for the Israeli military while also marketing themselves as “green tech” leaders.Chevron and ExxonMobil continue to fund and extract from the Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging Israel’s military occupation to secure infrastructure.This is greenwashing meets genocide—a deadly symbiosis between environmental harm and militarized violence.What This Means for UsThis moment calls for more than statements. It calls for a total redefinition of what sustainability means—because there is nothing sustainable about silence in the face of genocide.If you are a brand, an artist, a designer, a policymaker, a curator, or a student: you are being called in. Your work, your budget, your institution may be entangled—knowingly or not—with the companies Albanese has exposed. Now is the time to do the work.What We Must Do—Now1. Follow the MoneyStudy the companies listed in Albanese’s report. If you work with—or fund—any of them, ask questions. Divest. Cut ties.2. Demand Institutional AccountabilityMuseums, universities, nonprofits, and sustainability conferences are often quietly sponsored by companies profiting from Israeli apartheid. Push for transparency. Refuse complicity. Call it what it is.3. Connect the StrugglesThe fight for Palestinian liberation is not separate from climate justice. This is all one system: extraction, occupation, militarization, profit. As we say often: everything is political—because everything is connected.4. Build and Invest in AlternativesMutual aid, abolitionist design, food sovereignty, fossil-free infrastructure, and Indigenous stewardship—these are not just buzzwords. They are the way forward. Center Global South leadership. Fund frontline communities.5. Say PalestineRefuse the pressure to sanitize. Refuse the pressure to stay neutral. In the face of genocide, neutrality is complicity. If your liberation practice does not include Palestine, it is incomplete.A Propaganda Crisis, TooThese companies aren’t just selling tools of war—they’re shaping narratives. They sponsor art exhibitions, climate conferences, design summits. They greenwash occupation and brand apartheid as “security innovation.”The most dangerous lie today is that “sustainability” can coexist with genocide. It can’t.No climate justice without Palestinian liberation. No sustainable future while apartheid is profitable.So What Can We Do?DivestCampaign for your workplace, university, or city to divest from the companies named in the report. Check your retirement funds. Audit your donors. Pull the receipts.ExposeIf your favorite brand or cultural institution is collaborating with Amazon, Palantir, or Caterpillar—say something. Publicly. Email them. Call it what it is: complicity.Cut the Narrative LoopRefuse to use language that normalizes occupation: “conflict,” “both sides,” “retaliation.” This is genocide.Build AlternativesSupport community-owned energy, Palestinian agricultural cooperatives, and local solidarity economies. Join land back and degrowth movements—they are connected.Organize for PolicyPush for legislation that bans military trade with apartheid regimes and prohibits companies from profiting off human rights abuses.Tell the Truth, ConsistentlyUse your platform to amplify the names, the facts, the systems. Share this report. Write your own version. Make the invisible visible.The Link Between Genocide and Climate HarmWe can’t talk about genocide without talking about resource theft, land colonization, and environmental destruction. The same weapons being used to bomb hospitals and schools in Gaza are being manufactured by companies who also profit from climate collapse—polluting ecosystems, propping up fossil fuel economies, and creating the conditions for displacement that militarized borders are then built to contain.We must hold the line. Genocide is not inevitable—it is designed. And anything that is designed can be dismantled. If we want to build a just, livable future, we must start by divesting from the machinery of death—and investing in life.Let this be the beginning." } , { "title" : "What Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Really Means", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/what-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-really-means", "date" : "2025-07-02 11:21:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_bbb-00eaee.jpg", "excerpt" : "Let’s be honest: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t beautiful at all. It’s dangerous. It’s a massive attack on our rights, our environment, and our ability to live with dignity—no matter how they try to sell it to us, we all know it’s bad.", "content" : "Let’s be honest: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t beautiful at all. It’s dangerous. It’s a massive attack on our rights, our environment, and our ability to live with dignity—no matter how they try to sell it to us, we all know it’s bad.This is the kind of policy that sounds good on cable news, but when you look closely, it’s a disaster for people and the planet. So let’s break it down, plain and simple.What Is It?Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (yes, that’s really what it’s called) is a sweeping package of tax cuts, spending shifts, and policy changes that would: Cut taxes for the rich by over $1.5 trillion over 10 years1, with nearly half of the benefits flowing to the top 1%2. Slash social services like Medicaid and food assistance—proposing $2 trillion in cuts over the decade3, including: $900 billion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act3 $200 billion from SNAP (food stamps)3 $25 billion from Supplemental Security Income for disabled people3 Give more money to ICE and the military—$800 billion in new military spending4, and $25 billion for expanded ICE operations, border walls, and detention centers5. Roll back climate protections and expand fossil fuels—$100 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil, gas, and coal companies6. Criminalize poverty and deepen surveillance of immigrants.It’s one big gift to billionaires and fossil fuel CEOs—and one big punishment for everyone else.How Does It Hurt People? More people will lose healthcare. The bill adds new “work requirements” to Medicaid, meaning if you’re not working enough hours (or can’t prove you are), you could lose your coverage. Up to 10 million people7—many of them women, disabled folks, and people of color—could be pushed out of the system. Food assistance is being cut. Adults aged 55 to 64 would lose access to SNAP (food stamps) if they don’t meet new restrictions. This hits low-income people who are already struggling—especially elders. Family separation and deportation will increase. The bill pours $25 billion into ICE, deportation forces, and border militarization5. It turns migration into a crime, rather than a response to global injustice, climate collapse, or colonial borders. Electricity costs will go up. By rolling back clean energy incentives and increasing reliance on fossil fuels, the bill is projected to raise electricity prices for U.S. households by up to 15% over the next decade8. This especially burdens low-income families and seniors living on fixed incomes. What About the Climate?This bill is a disaster for the planet: It cuts support for solar, wind, EVs, and home energy upgrades—slashing $80 billion in incentives9 over the decade. It opens up public lands for more oil and gas drilling—projected to generate $100 billion in giveaways and lease sales to fossil fuel companies6. It silences climate monitoring—especially in schools and marginalized communities.It’s not just a step backwards. It’s a full sprint toward climate collapse.Who Wins? Who Loses?Winners: Oil companies, who will receive $100 billion in new subsidies and tax breaks6 Weapons manufacturers and defense contractors Landlords and billionaires, reaping hundreds of billions in tax cuts1 Private healthcare and prison contractors benefiting from societal painLosers: Working families, who will see $2 trillion in cuts to basic services3 Climate organizers Disabled folks, elders, undocumented communities The Global South The Earth itselfThe Bigger PictureThis bill is not about economics. It’s about power. It’s about reshaping the country so that rich people have fewer obligations and more control—while everyone else has fewer rights and more surveillance.It’s designed to distract, divide, and destroy. And let’s be clear: this is part of a global pattern. From Gaza to the U.S.-Mexico border, from Lebanon to Louisiana, we are watching the violent expansion of authoritarian policies masked as “law and order” or “economic growth.” These are tools of white supremacy and colonial capitalism. And they are killing us.What Can We Do?This is a fight we can win—but only if we organize, locally and globally. Here’s how: Educate your community. Break down this bill in simple terms. Talk about who benefits and who suffers. Share this piece. Host teach-ins. Pressure lawmakers. Call your reps. Tell them to reject this bill and any cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, climate protections, or immigrant rights. Build alternatives. Support mutual aid, public power campaigns, climate justice organizations, and local cooperatives. Design what could be. Tell the story. The people in power want us to believe this is normal. It’s not. Speak truth. Use your platform. Name what’s happening. Center care, not capital.This bill is a blueprint for an empire in decline. But we don’t have to go down with it. We can write a different story—one rooted in solidarity, in justice, and in collective imagination.This is not the end. This is a beginning. If we want a future, we’ll have to design it together. Tax Policy Center, Distributional Analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2017–2027 (link) ↩ ↩2 Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Major Tax Provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2018 (link) ↩ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Trump’s Budget Cuts Would Cause Severe Hardship for Millions, 2020 (link) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 Congressional Budget Office, Analysis of the 2020 Defense Budget, 2019 (link) ↩ Migration Policy Institute, Funding for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security, 2018–2020 (link) ↩ ↩2 Friends of the Earth & Oil Change International, Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Trump’s Budget, 2019 (link) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 Kaiser Family Foundation, Estimated Medicaid Coverage Losses Under Work Requirements, 2019 (link) ↩ Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC, Analysis of Proposed Rollback of Clean Energy Incentives and Consumer Energy Costs, 2020 (link) ↩ Congressional Research Service, Energy Tax Policy and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2019 (link) ↩ " } ] }