Meet the 2023-2024 Silk Road Institute Creative Arts Grants Awardees

The grants, each in the amount of $2,500, recognize and support the development of new, groundbreaking artistic creations by Muslim Canadians who exemplify our mission to create captivating art that fosters diversity in the arts and cross-cultural dialogue.

Niya Ahmed Abdullahi is a Multi-disciplinary Artist, Technologist and the founder of @habasooda, a collective dedicated to sharing the richness of the Muslim experience. Her work has been exhibited at Nuit Blanche, TIFF Next Wave, Black Film Festival Zurich, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, MENA Film Festival, Eastern Edge Gallery, amongst others. She was a 2021 Hot Docs Accelerator Fellow and currently sits on the advisory committee of the City of Toronto’s ArtworksTO program and the board of Work in Culture. Her work evokes memory, both past, present and future, in connection with diasporic experiences, and ancestral awakenings. Pillars of resistance are drawn through her divine labour of love.

Zeina Sleiman is a Palestinian Canadian writer who lives in amiskwacîwâskahikan (also known as Edmonton). She is a Tin House workshop alum and former mentee in Canada’s Writers Union BIPOC Connect Program. Her debut novel Where the Jasmine Blooms will be released in the Spring of 2025 with Fernwood Publishing. Zeina is currently working on her second novel Tell Me About Mercy which explores themes of emerging love amidst difficult socio-political contexts. Her love of books extends to the community. At IslamicFamily, an Edmonton-based social services agency, Zeina volunteers as their Librarian-in-Residence and curates reading lists for the community based on rotating themes. Zeina holds a PhD in political science and works in post-secondary education where she has taught courses in politics and leads special projects. When she’s not working or writing, she likes to spend time with her husband and children, experimenting with new crochet patterns or exploring new worlds and people as she journey’s through her never-ending list of books.