S7E1. Season 7 Kick Off!

IN THIS EPISODE, we kick off Season 7 with MANY exciting new developments for Tatreez Talk! 

TATREEZ TALK UPDATES

• NEW WEBSITE! We talked about our new branding last season and now our website reflects it: Check it out at www.tatreeztalk.com
• You can now search past episodes and explore our episode guides
• A phase-two feature is in the works (still under wraps 👀)
• A big season announcement is coming in the next few weeks — stay tuned
• We're always looking for guest recommendations (no social following required). What matters most is sharing personal stories of Palestinians and their connection to tatreez, told by Palestinians themselves

LINA’S UPDATES

• Slow Summer Vibes
• Alf Mabrouk to Lina’s video editor Nour who is officially married 🥳
• Migrating off of Mighty Networks to focus more intentionally on a Tatreez DESIGN Tool that Lina first vibe coded and is now getting fully flushed out with a small but mighty team based in Gaza, Tunis, & Spain — more details coming soon
• Support the mentorship program enabling Lina to hire Palestinians in Gaza: https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/rebuild_gaza_one_intern_at_a_time
• Looking for some personal tatreez inspo

AMANNE’S UPDATES

• Traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico for a week of in-person workshops, following a virtual talk she gave for the Textile Museum of Oaxaca back in March
• The Oaxaca Textile Museum is partnering with the Palestine Museum (Birzeit) on an embroidery exchange exhibition — embroiderers from each region are creating pieces to be swapped and displayed at both museums
• Is already in conversation with the museum about a return trip
• After nearly a year in the works, Amanne is launching her first tatreez fashion collection!!! Every piece is hand embroidered and made to order, embroidered by Palestinian women refugees in Jordan, in partnership with Deerah.
• Amanne is already working on round two and welcomes feedback (be nice!)
• You can browse and shop here: https://minamanne.com/fashion
• Also in the works: a new digital project — still under wraps, but tied to Amanne’s "obsessive" stitching practice

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“I love Palestinian embroidery and Tatreez Talk.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing our show! This helps us elevate the vibrant narratives of Palestinian embroiderers and support more tatreez-ers — just like you — in learning more about tatreez and connecting with each other. You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and others -- just scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let us know what you loved most about the episode!

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Follow us @tatreeztalk
Follow Amanne @minamanne & Lina @linasthobe

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hi, Stitchers. This is very exciting. Welcome to Totri's Talk, where we share conversations about Palestine embroidery. Uh, things are a little bit new because if you are watching on YouTube, then you can see us both in full video and we will be moving forward with video, which is very exciting. Um doing cool stuff like this.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hold on.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Oh so fancy. Oh my goodness. Well, we are so excited to be back. It has been a minute, and Amani, I'm so excited. We've got a long lineup of incredible guests coming soon to this to the podcast. Um, and we are very excited to be launching a variety of new things this season. So, Amani, what do we what do we tackle first? I know we I know we're due for a catch-up in general, but do we talk about the three's talk things first? Or um actually I think we should.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Let's talk about the three's talk stuff because there's been a lot going on. I think last season, we had a very short last season, um, just because both of our schedules were kind of crazy. Um, and we've been working on some stuff behind the scenes. Um, so I think we can start sharing some of that. Um do we want to talk about the website first?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yes. Um, one of our dear, dear listeners reached out offering to support with website development. Um, and we were like, yes, please, because I did figure out a vibe code, but I am not that good with website development. Um, so we have been working over the last like what two months, uh, like very nice, slow, and steady pace, but we have officially a brand new website fully branded. Did we we talked about the new branding, right? Already. Um, yes, we did. We did. Okay. Well, now the website actually is our brand. Um, so that's very exciting. So if you go to telthreestalk.com, feel free to hit pause and go check it out, uh, but come back. Um, it looks really beautiful and we have very big dreams for this website. So we have just launched phase one. There are a few things in the in the works uh for phases two and potentially three.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yes, it's really exciting. And obviously, we want to hear your feedback. We still have a lot of ideas, as Lena literally just said, um, that we're gonna be rolling out eventually. But in the meantime, as you're um exploring the website, definitely give us your feedback um because ultimately um all of this stuff that we create is for the community. So we want to make sure that uh it's something that you guys are enjoying using. And again, if there's feedback that where we where we can improve things, we would love to hear that. Um, so yeah, thank you so much um for listening to us for this long that we're like even at this point where we're like, okay, let's build a website where it can be like a community hub for Thris. Um, so yeah, this is exciting, I think, for both of us.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Yeah. Do you have a favorite part of the new website?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Ooh, um, well, I think for phase the next phase, yes, I don't want to share it. There's like something that's like really cool for the next phase. I can't share that yet. But I think for now, um honestly, it's the way that you can kind of search for episodes. Um, I think that's really great. It gives um users an experience. Um, they can kind of find episodes that they may have not listened to in the past, or maybe even like um, I guess re-listen to an old episode that might spark something new. So I think that is really cool, the episode guides.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah, I think that's the same thing for me. You can so for those who are listening, you will be able to search by any like keyword in the titles or the guest names. Um, but you can also we've categorized, we've themed every single episode. So if there are particular themes that you're curious about, you can filter by that. Um, and we've also tagged them by location. So if you are someone who is based someplace and you want to find out if there's someone who has been featured on the podcast local to you, you can actually search um for at least by country. So if you are based in the UAE, you can find whoever we've featured who's based in the UAE as well. And that potentially could mean that there's a teacher or um a Taltri's uh circle host near you that you could potentially join. Like that was kind of the reason behind tagging them. And I think that's probably my favorite, uh, especially for people who are new to the podcast and just want to dive deep and make it as personalized as they can. Um, so I think that's that's very exciting. Yeah, and there's a lot, a lot that we're working on too, continue.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Definitely, and honestly, the the new branding like really coming through um on the website is fun to see.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Yeah. Oh, so good, so good. And then are we teasing anything else for the season or not yet? I don't know. Do you want to tease anything? I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I mean, I think that people should I think what we can tease. I'm trying, I'm like using my through my words. Um, we'll definitely announce something exciting about this season coming up. Um, so definitely give us a couple weeks, uh, maybe sooner rather than later, but we'll be announcing something really exciting um that we've been talking about for a while, and I think we'll open up um some more opportunities for storytelling. Is that a good way of tone?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, so you're just gonna have to wait and stay tuned. It won't be very long. We already have things kind of scheduled and ready to go. So um just be a little bit patient with us, bear with us a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Okay, anything else we should share with with the with the class?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I think those are the big ones. Um, you know, as we enter the new season, we'd love to hear from our audience. You know, it's bit since we've taken kind of a little bit of a summer break, I guess. Um, you know, what are you both excited about? Let us know, reach out to us, uh, send us your requests. We have, oh, on the website, you can now send a request for us for a guest. So you could uh nominate someone or yourself to become a guest, and we will definitely get on that. Um, so if there are people that you want us to interview or feature, please let us know. If there are things you want to see, topics you want to hear about, um, let us know. But yeah, I think I think it's time to yeah, just have like this next season come through. Very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah. And honestly, like please, please, please let us know who you want us to chat with. I think we've said this before, but just to reiterate, we don't necessarily care about people having a large following um or even having some kind of social media presence to be on the podcast. Uh, what's important to us is to share stories from Palestinians um and their personal connections to Tatris. Um, that's really what it comes down to. So if there's somebody that you know in your own personal life um or somebody that I don't know, you have come across um on social media or on the internet or in real life, like whatever it might be, um, definitely let us know because our goal is to always capture stories from Palestinians um and making sure that Palestinians are the ones capturing those stories as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah, I know that every time uh every time like we're sending messages to each other on Instagram, it's always like, look at what this person's doing and look at what this person's doing. And it doesn't necessarily mean like their whole account is dedicated to ta'is. Like sometimes it's just people live in their lives and they add a little bit of talis into one way in like one small way, but it that small way is so exciting and innovative and um like really beautiful. And I remember you telling me, you're like, our community is so talented. Um we just want the world to see that. We want we want all of us to kind of experience what everything that we're seeing. So hopefully, you know, the podcast is one avenue for for elevating some of those stories and also seeing a little bit more that's not so superficial. You know, social media is very surface level, you're never gonna get that much depth from it. Um, but it can be an introduction, and then the podcast can be a way to get to know each other better and like find commonality between all of us. I mean, that's been the best part of the podcast is just like talking to all these incredible people, and we actually have so much in common. Yes, even if it doesn't look like that on the outside.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

So, yeah, definitely. So um, that is what's going on with the three's talk. A lot of stuff, um, a lot of stuff we're excited to share with you all soon. Um, but in the meantime, Lina, what's been going on with you?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

In the meantime, well, I've also also been having like a slow summer, just in general. Um, my video editor Nud got married in June. Yay! So excited! Exactly. Um, and she's so beautiful and I love her. And um, so I think that also kind of helped set us up for a little bit of a slower summer. So we've been taking a little bit of time off from YouTube, which is totally fine. Um, and it's it's gotten me to also kind of reflect on all the things that I'm doing. And and one of the things that I've decided to do is migrate off of a tool that I've been using to host uh both my Thobe course and my community, which is called Mighty Networks. Um, it just didn't feel like it was worth the money that I was paying for this tool. So we have this, as of this week when I'm recording, uh, we're gonna be migrating off the tool, and I'm gonna be kind of simplifying a lot of the things, um, which is very exciting, actually. It feels kind of it feels good. It feels like this is the right thing, it served its purpose, and now it's time to think a little bit bigger and think about the next, the next step. Um, and then other than that, the one thing that I have been really exploring is the Tothriz design tool. So I talked about it, I don't know if we spoke about, I don't think I spoke about it on the podcast, but I have to leave. Yeah, but I've obviously been very loud about it otherwise. So if you're on my email list, if you're on my socials, um, you'll know that I've been learning how to vibe code and figured out how to create like a very basic version of a Totriz design tool that I would have wanted years ago. Um, and I realized very quickly that the vibe coding is really good for kind of getting the getting the vision out there and having other people understand kind of what I'm imagining and the type of experience that I would want. But past that, really, you need someone with the expertise. And so I'm so happy to be partnering with Apricot and a mentorship program that they are hosting alongside a charity called Hands for Charity, I believe. Um, and so I have a developer based in Gaza. Um, her name is Ilham. So I love that I have like an all-woman team from Gazza supporting the all the work that we're doing with Talkriz. And she is basically making it so much more, so much more usable, so much better. Um, and she's got a mentor. We've got a mentor based in Tunisia. I have my own mentor based in in uh Spain. Both are Harab, originally Palestinian and Tunisian. And uh, we are working hard on getting this tool in a good enough place for other people to use it. Um, so I've also got big visions for that. So more to come. I'll probably maybe do an episode about the Talfriz design tool when it's ready to be launched into the world. Um, but for now we're just kind of hustling behind the scenes and getting things done. Um and yeah, that's pretty been that's pretty much been my summer. I've honestly, the one thing I'm kind of sad about this summer is I feel like I lost Talfri's like drive or no, yeah, like all the projects I have going on are not exciting me. Like I have this yellow t-shirt that I've been working on for like nine months, and I just don't feel like finishing it. I don't know. I need to, I think I need to do like a small project, a little a small win to help me get more excited. But I'm hoping the next couple of weeks also, I think as we start recording these podcast episodes, I have a feeling I'm going to be very inspired. Uh, so that's been the only downside of the summer, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Okay, well, I hope you get back to some stitching soon.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah, I'm I'm overdue for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

For sure. Yeah. Um, I girl, me, I've been busy. Um I know. I've been so busy. I'm exhausted. Um, um, but I'm busy. Um, I just came back a few weeks ago from Oaxaca, Mexico. Um, I so back in Feb, no, March, back in March, I did a virtual talk um at uh through the museum, the textile museum in Oaxaca. Um, and I was connected to them through the Palestinian Embassy, um, which I taught a class at in December. So, you know, all these like Palestinian spiderwebs. Um, so they are the and I say they, the textile museum in Oaxaca. Um they are doing a partnership with the Palestine Museum um in Brazit, and um they're doing an exhibition right now um at the museum in Oaxaca, and they are doing a project um where their embroiderers in Oaxaca are embroidering some beautiful um pieces, and there are embroiderers um through the Palestine Museum that are embroidering some pieces, and they are going to um swap those pieces and have them displayed um at the respective museums, which is really cool. Um they uh again today, the uh textile museum in Oaxaca um invited me to come and teach some Tatriz there. Um so I was there for the week. I taught um Tatriz 101, um, and I also taught photo Tatriz um to some more experienced embroidery artists there. Um, and it was just an amazing experience. First of all, Oaxaca is such a beautiful city. Um, I barely got to explore it because I was there like kind of just working all day, and so I was really busy. Um, but what I did get to explore was amazing. The food, uh so good, so good. Everything was great. I cannot wait to go back to Oaxaca. Highly recommend. Um, if you are a textile nerd, um, and obviously if you're listening to this, you probably are. Um, it's just an amazing place to go to. Um, there is so much traditional embroidery that can be seen. Um, and I'm having conversations with the museum about going back. Um, so stay tuned for what that could look like. Um, hint hint. Um, but yeah, it was just it was great. I loved it. I got to meet so many amazing people. Um, and at the end of the week, um after my classes, I did a talk um on Tatriz now and then, kind of Tatriz's roles in um community and resistance, um, and really kind of that combination, or should say the I should say the synergies between Palestinian Tatriz and the traditional um indigenous uh embroidery practices uh of Oaxaca. Um the full speech talk, uh whatever you want to call it, is available on YouTube um through the Museum of Textile um in Oaxaca. So um check that out. But that was really cool.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Wait, wait, tell tell us a little bit more. Give us some like, I don't know, things that stuff stuck out to you or stayed with you from that.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

So I think some of the really cool things were, especially when I was working or talking directly to the more experienced embroidery artists, were the synergies. So, for example, like when we talk about motifs, um, we have the Star of Bethlehem, or it's you know, the star motif, every region has an iteration of the same exact like Star of Bethlehem motif, right? Um, but that to us represents a star. Um, and one of the embroidery artists was showing me that same motif in her work, and for her and where she's from, it represents flowers. Um, and you know, we use a lot of florals in our embroidery, and oftentimes those represent not just what people saw on a daily basis, but kind of like, you know, when we look at the deeper meaning of fertility and life and joy, um, and it has similarities to the meaning for a lot of these embroidery artists and their regional, um, their regional art. Um, so that was something that was really cool, um, you know, as we were kind of like looking at things. Um, and then I think the other thing, especially like specific to like my talk, um, and like as I was kind of reflecting on like what I wanted to talk about and how I'm obviously there to talk about Palestinian Tataris, but it's also a region that is rich in their own embroidery traditions, and they face a lot of the same issues that Palestinian um Tataris faces, right? Cultural appropriation, um, the devaluing of the work, um especially because it's women's work, um, the mass production um of the work, um, you know, all of those kind of touch points. Again, there's that sim uh synergy. Um, so I think for me, that's something that really stood out throughout the um entire experience. And, you know, I teach a lot of Tatriz classes. Oftentimes they're like Tatriz 101 classes, and people are always very appreciative and enjoy the classes. Um, but there's something different about teaching uh very experienced embroidery artists who have a very deep um tradition of their own. Um, one of the embroidery artists uh she uh kept showing me pictures of dresses that she makes, um, you know, her kind of ceremonial traditional dresses that she hand embroiders. Um, and she was like, Oh, pick one, I'll bring one for you to try on. And I was like, Oh my god, they're all so beautiful. You know, I just thought she was like being polite. I, you know, and I just kept telling her that they're all beautiful because they were. Um, but she wound up on the last day of class bringing the dress, bringing the jewelry um that her husband designs and had me model and dress up um in the clothing. It was so beautiful. Um, it took her eight months to hand embroider. Um, and actually, you know what another interesting thing. So I posted the pictures on, or I did like a little video on my Instagram. Um, but one of the things that was so interesting is the necklaces were very reminiscent of like the very like the big coin falahi um necklaces that you see in Palestine. Um and yeah, it was just like, oh, I kept saying, I was like, oh, this like looks so similar to like the stuff that we wear. Um, so it was just a cool, amazing experience overall. Talently recommend. Yeah, oh, so beautiful. I love it. Yeah, yeah. So that was really cool and fun. Um, and then something I have been working on for a freaking year now. I've been working on it forever. Um, you know, we'll share a little bit more later. Um, and by the time this comes out, um this will have launched, but drumroll, um I um am launching my first the trees fashion collection. I'm not as good as you at the Zakaruta. Yeah, I'll do it. Exactly. I love it. Yeah, I know I'm really excited to share more. Um, but what I will say is that this has been a labor of love. Uh, it's been a long time coming. I've already learned so much from the first go-round. Um, I'm already working on round two and I've taken away so many learnings. I'm excited to hear everyone's feedback. Um, I this is actually one of those things where I do want to hear people's feedback. Um, be nice though. Don't be mean. Um and uh I, you know, I started this about a year ago at this point, and it was an idea that evolved into something bigger. Um and like I said, it's a starting point. Um, but I'm excited to see where it goes. Um, everything is all hand embroidered, um, it's all made to order, and it's all being hand embroidered by Palestinian uh women refugees in um Jordan. I am partnering with Dida on the um embroidery. So um we know that these women are being paid um an appropriate wage. Um and so I'm just excited to hear what everyone has to think um or has to say. Uh and yeah, I just can't wait to share. We'll talk more um on a on a separate episode. Absolutely. But um I'm I'm excited to finally share it with the world.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Yeah, and I can just say I've had a little bit of a sneak preview and it's it's a collection very much a many. That's what I'll say. And I think a lot of people know what that means.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

It is very amanny. Um, I think the the next one will be even more a many, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

So exciting. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah. Um, and then I'm working on like a dig a little digital project that I will share a little bit more about later, but it kind of taps into my obsessiveness. You guys know how obsessive I am when I'm stitching. Um, and I'm kind of working on a digital manifestation of what that looks like. That's the best way I can describe it now, but um I'll have more to share when I have more to share.

unknown 23:31

Boom.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

You know, I feel like this is the summer that a lot of people are creating like new things in the world. I'm like thinking about our girl Paige. Yes. I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of good energy and like innovation and new things kind of coming this summer, which is gonna make the fall, I think, very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah. And like you saw Bissan from Tobna, our friend Bissan is launching a children's thob book um later this year. Um, there's been some new um or tatriz books um from that have come out. Um, so it's just it's nice to see this abundance of tatriz in the world. Yeah, totally so exciting. Yes, yeah. So, you know, we have some cool things in the works. We want to hear from you guys what you're excited about. Um, we are going to be having a lot of amazing um guests this season. So stay tuned. Um, we have some treats to share with you guys as we uh go along the season as well. Um, but for now, check out the website, let us know what you think. And as always, let us know who you want us to talk to on the three's talk because again, this is really for the community. So we want to make sure that we're talking to the people you want to hear from.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yay, so exciting. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

All right, well, we'll talk to you all soon.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Bloopers