The Bee Kingdom (thebeekingdom.art) is a project by Joy Amina Garnett. Drawing on materials left behind by her late grandfather, Egyptian Romantic poet Ahmed Zaky Abushady (1892-1955), she explores lost family histories through creative writing, print making, artist books, and new media. She is currently writing a family memoir.
THE ARCHIVE
The Story of the Abushady Archive – MELA 2020-[Slides PDF]
19 October, 2020: The story of how the collection found a home at the Archives and Special Collections of NYU Abu Dhabi Library. 19 October: Recovering Hidden/Historical/Special Collections. Conference theme: “Pandemic, Crisis, and Cultural Institutions: The Intersection of Library Work with COVID-19 and Other Crises.”
Please visit The Bee Kingdom research site and and abushadyarchive.com
EVENTS
Negotiating Self and Modernity: The Many Journeys of Ahmad Zaki Abu Shadi
Conference, NYU Abu Dhabi, May 22-23, 2023. 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).
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Beekeepers’ Library: A Visual Essay by Joy Amina Garnett
Arab Urbanism Magazine, June 2023
“The Lost Narratives of A.Z. Abushady, Poet and Bee Master,” by Joy Garnett, Cultural Entanglement in the Pre-Independence Arab World: Arts, Thought, and Literature, edited by Anthony Gorman and Sarah Irving. Published by I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury (2020). The material draws on a workshop held at the Centre for Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), University of Edinburgh.
TRAVELING EXHIBITION
ALHAMDU | MUSLIM FUTURISM
Rubenstein Arts Center
Duke University, Durham, NC
August 16 – September 18, 2022
Traveling exhibition. Premiers at the Rubenstein Arts Center, presented by Duke Arts in collaboration with Duke Islamic Studies Center. More info.
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
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Joy Garnett | studio 
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