I am thrilled to have collaborated with my good friend the poet Omar Sakr on our fundraising collaboration, The Nightmare Sequence (April, 2025). Combining Omar’s poetry and my visual art, our work responds creatively to the historic injustices of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, while also critiquing the role of art and media—including our own—in responding to current events. I’m very proud of this collaboration which is more than the sum of its parts, including a brilliant introductory essay by the Palestinian-American poet George Abraham.
The book is published in Australia by University of Queensland Press and has sold North American and UK rights to Nighboat Books and The87press.
All royalties for every sale of this book will be donated to Palestinian charities. In late 2024, Omar and I jointly donated the first $5000 Aus to Palestine Australia Relief and Action – PARA. With the second author royalty payment, we split our donations. Omar donated $2500 to The Sameer Project and I gave $2500 to Medical Aid for Palestinians. That’s the full $10K donated and every royalty above this will also be donated.
My contributions represent a visual response to the unfolding horrors of Israel’s genocide. Certain images were based on pictures curated from online news feeds and social media sources, uneasily reflecting my status as a far-flung observer — a migrant and settler on the traditional lands of the Guringai people in Sydney, Australia. I pay my deepest respects to the traditional owners of the land on which these images were drawn, acknowledging that sovereignty was never ceded. I hope this book contributes to a growing culture or resistance and solidarity with Palestinian people, in their struggle for freedom, dignity, decolonisation and justice.
Below are some of my drawings for the book.
safdar ahmed 