Hama Hinnawi Featured by WTTW at the Chicago History Museum - HAMA Fashion

Hama Hinnawi Featured by WTTW at the Chicago History Museum

WTTW News featured artist and fashion designer Hama Hinnawi and her artwork, “Mother of Beginnings,” following its presentation at the Chicago History Museum on August 20, 2026.

The work was created for Voices Through Art, an annual storytelling program highlighting the experiences and identities of Chicago’s immigrant and refugee communities. During the event, Hinnawi joined four storytellers on stage to explore how identity is shaped, protected, and carried across generations.

“Mother of Beginnings” combines traditional Palestinian embroidery -tatreez- with Hinnawi’s contemporary, deconstructed approach to textile art. The central figure represents the motherland rising above a refugee tent, wearing a crown that holds pain, resistance, resilience, existence, and freedom.

Hands representing families, journalists, doctors, and humanitarian workers surround and support the tent. A white flag appears throughout the artwork,

not as a symbol of surrender, but as a continued call for peace.

Through embroidery, textiles, and storytelling, Hinnawi’s work examines identity, memory, displacement, and the meaning of home. The WTTW feature captures both the artwork and the larger purpose of Voices Through Art: creating space for immigrant and refugee stories to be seen, heard, and remembered.

Read the full WTTW News feature:
“Voices Through Art” Examines Identity With Chicago’s Immigrant, Refugee Storytellers