ARCHIVES & RESEARCH
ABUSHADY ARCHIVE
In 2010, Garnett began to rescue photographs, papers, and ephemera left behind by family members, organizing them into a comprehensive archive. She produced a multifaceted project called The Bee Kingdom, which drew on these materials, particularly those relevant to the life and works of her grandfather, Ahmed Zaky Abushady. The project found expression across different media, including printmaking, artist books, and creative writing.
Ahmed Zaky Abushady (1892-1955) was an Egyptian polymath, romantic poet, publisher, scientist, physician, beekeeper, and inventor whose life was steeped in controversy. He became notorious for his experimental, European-inflected poetry and for the literary magazine he founded and edited, Apollo, which challenged the conventions of his time. At the close of World War II, he fled Alexandria with his family under mysterious circumstances to start a new life in New York. He died in relative obscurity in Washington, DC.
Garnett presented the archive at a number of conferences, including at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Middle East Librarians Association (MELA), and the Radical Archives conference at the NYU Asian/Pacific/American Institute (APA) (see below).
NYU Abu Dhabi Library acquired the Abushady Archive in April 2020 where it now resides as part of its Special Collections.
2023 CONFERENCE
Negotiating Self and Modernity: The Many Journeys of Ahmad Zaki Abu Shadi
NYU Abu Dhabi, May 22-23, 2023
“Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī embodied many of the seemingly contradictory facets of modern Arab intellectual traditions of the early 20th century. As a poet, publisher, and scientist, at home as much in England and the United States as he was as his native Egypt, his work crossed many geographical and intellectual borders. The acquisition of his personal archive by the NYU Abu Dhabi Library presents a wonderful opportunity to re-examine his life, work, and cultural and historical context, which this interdisciplinary gathering of scholars undertakes.”
Speakers: Muhammad al-Khalil (Associate Professor of Arabic Language, NYUAD); Brad Bauer (Head of Archives and Special Collections and Associate Academic Librarian, NYUAD); Robert Brodschneider (Researcher, Institute of Biology, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, current editor of Bee World); Raphael Cormack (Assistant Professor of Arabic, Durham University); Clare Davies (Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY); Joy Amina Garnett (Artist and Writer, Art Director, Evergreen Review); Anthony Gorman (Senior Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Edinburgh); May Hawas (Lecturer in World Literature, and Valerie Eliot Fellow in English at Newnham College, Cambridge, UK); Mostafa Heddaya (PhD candidate at Princeton in the Department of Art and Archaeology); Robin Ostle (Emeritus Research Fellow and Lecturer in Oriental Studies, St. John’s College, Oxford University); Deborah Starr (Professor of Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature and Film, Cornell University).
Visit the NYUAD Guide to the Aḥmad Zakī Abū Shādī Family Papers.
The Bee Kingdom art repository can be found at: thebeekingdom.art
CHAPTER
“The Lost Narratives of A.Z. Abushâdy, Poet and Bee Master” is included in Cultural Entanglement in the Pre-Independence Arab World: Arts, Thought, and Literature, edited by Anthony Gorman and Sarah Irving (I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury 2020). The book draws on papers given at a conference held at the Centre for Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), University of Edinburgh.
ARTICLES
“Beekeepers’ Library: A Visual Essay,” Arab Urbanism Magazine: Imaginaries from a Blackout, Special Issue, Summer 2023
“Pollen and Fragments: The Poetry and Beekeeping of A. Z. Abushâdy,” Cultural Politics, Volume 16, Issue 1, March 2020 (Duke University Press)
“Cross-Pollination,” Baraza (November 2014)
“Blazing the Trail: A.Z. Abushâdy and The Apis Club,” Bee World Vol.91, no.3 (September), International Bee Research Association (IBRA), pp. 65-67 PDF
“Alone in the Archive,” Ibraaz Platform 006 (November 2013)
INTERVIEWS
“Facts Become the Enemy: Art and Archives. A Conversation with Joy Garnett on The Bee Kingdom,” by Andrea Scrima, 3Quarks Daily (February 2019). What does an artist do with boxes and boxes of archival material? And what if it belongs to her late Egyptian poet beekeeping grandfather? I had the pleasure of interviewing Joy Garnett for my 3QuarksDaily column–and now, you’ll have the pleasure of reading it.
“Digitizing a Beloved Egyptian Scholar’s Archive,” by Mostafa Heddaya, Hyperallergic (December 2013)
“AZ Abushâdy: Revolutionary Egyptian Poet, Feminist, Beekeeper, and More,” by Marcia Lynx Qualey, ArabLit Quarterly (August 26, 2013). Artist and writer Joy Garnett is working on a book about her grandfather, Ahmed Zaki Abushâdy, the Egyptian poet and bee scientist. She answered a few questions about AZ Abushâdy, his work, and her book project.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
“The Story of the Abushâdy Archive,” Middle East Librarians Association (MELA), October 2020. (The Story of the Abushâdy Archive – MELA 2020 PDF)
“Pollen & Fragments” was presented at Cultures of Diversity: Arts and Cultural Life in Arab Societies before Independence, Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), University of Edinburgh, December 3-4, 2015. (Pollen & Fragments – The Abushady Archive PDF)
“The Bee Kingdom: An Accidental Archive” (panel). The Archive: Collections and Counter-Collections, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, November 22-25, 2014.
“Memory Loss: Excavating the Abushady Archive” (panel). No Instructions for Assembly: Case Studies in Radical Archiving, Radical Archives Conference, Asian/Pacific/American Institute (APA) NYU, April 11-12, 2014.
TRAVELING EXHIBITION
ALHAMDU | MUSLIM FUTURISM is an evolving exhibition and digital archive created by MIPSTERZ that explores Muslim Futurism — a cultural and artistic aesthetic that learns from frameworks of Afrofuturism and imagines a broader Muslim future…
ARTISTS: Abbas Rattani, Abdullah Qureshi, Ahad Mahmood, Aisha Jemila, Amine Naima, Anum Awan, Driss Chaoui, Hisham Akira Bharoocha, Jameel Paulin, Joy Amina Garnett, Matthew Brooks, Mélika Hashemi, Mounir Fatmi, Nabi H. Ali, Roya Ahmadi, Saba Taj, Safiya Zerrougui, Safwat Saleem, Saks Afridi, Samira Idroos, Sanya Dosani, Sara Alfageeh, Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman, Shahzia Sikander, Shimul Chowdhury, Tijay Mohammed, Yasmeen Abedifard, Yussef Cole & Saniya Ahmed, Yusuf Siddiquee, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Premiered:
Rubenstein Arts Center
Duke University, Durham, NC
August 16 – September 18, 2022
Presented by Duke Arts in collaboration with Duke Islamic Studies Center. More info
Travels to:
Public Space One, Iowa City, IA
July 1 – August 18, 2024
Fine Arts Center, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
September 13, 2024 – January 11, 2025
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Joy Amina Garnett 
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