Youmna Chlala

Youmna performed at a SpeakTogether virtual student matinee on January 18, 2020, speaking on the day’s theme, “Look Before You Leap.”

Youmna Chlala is an artist and writer born in Beirut based in New York. She is the author of the poetry collection, The Paper Camera. She is the recipient of a 2018 O. Henry Award and a Joseph Henry Jackson Award, and she is the Founding Editor of Eleven Eleven {1111} Journal of Literature and Art. Her writing appears in BOMB, Guernica, Prairie Schooner, Bespoke, Aster(ix), CURA, and MIT Journal for Middle Eastern Studies. She has exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, The Drawing Center, Art In General, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Dubai Art Projects, Hessel Museum of Art, and MAK Center for Art and Architecture. She participated in the 33rd Bienal de Sao Paulo, the 2017 LIAF Biennial in Norway, and the 11th Performa Biennial. She co-edited a series for Coffee House Press entitled Spatial Species, which debuted in 2021. She is a Professor in Humanities and Media Studies and Writing at the Pratt Institute.

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