Save the Date for a Stripes Gallery Benefit for Haiffaa Ali

Stripes Gallery and Leonard Leonard & Associates will host a benefit to honor and celebrate all that Haiffaa loved - music, art, food and friends. All are invited to attend. We will be auctioning some of Haiffaa's handmade jewelry, other pieces made by women who knew Haiffaa and art donated from various local artists. All the proceeds will go to her family.      

handmade jewelry, art, live arabic music and food

saturday december 19, from 3 - 7 pm

420 downing street denver colorado

please join us for this day of honor, remembrance and celebration of Haiffaa Ali's life

live music courtesy of jabella

December 1, 2009

It has been over a month since I heard the tragic news of Haiffaa Ali's death, a great loss. She was a very good friend and a very wise soul. She gave me strength when I needed some pushing and gave me comfort, the kind of comfort a child finds in the loving arms of a mother when I needed it most. I will always remember her words of encouragement and how she shared my suffering. Something that Haiffaa lived and learned to understand, how to convert tragedy to this energy, to live life with vigor, defined so beautifully by Jessie Rathburn, who I owe my gratitude to for introducing Haiffaa to me. Our connection, a gallery and her ambition to take something she learned here in America, making jewelry and making it a career. As Haiffaa explained to me, "For the first time in my life, these hands, my hands, made something for me. I did something not as a mother, not as a refugee, but just for me, my work.” Stripes Gallery held one of its most successful shows the night we featured Haiffaa's handmade jewelry that she said, "I made with love." I have never seen so many people gather together for her cause, for her friendship, for her past and for her future here in America where somehow Haiffaa made all these sublime connections. I have met the greatness of Haiffaa's kind giving spirit through our relationship and all the recent stories shared by Haifaa's women. Her spirit will live on and her soul will be missed.

To read more about Haiffaa Ali please visit the following sites.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120896283

http://refugeecrafts.blogspot.com/

Sunday October 25, 2009

We have lost a good friend, a mother and a wonderful soul, Haiffaa Ali. She came here as a refugee from Iraq with negative perceptions about Americans but found her own judgments changing because of her friendly encounters with fellow Americans. Her persistence to forgive, to lend a helping hand, to create, to learn English, to speak out for refugees and to adapt to a new life here in America has encouraged so many who have met her or heard her story. We have been blessed with her courageous ability to empower herself and others. Haiffaa’s stay here in Denver was short but meaningful, as she did everything with her great big heart.

Language without Words

Haiffaa Ali

Every Thursday I go to Rocky Mountain Center for Cancer to get an IV because I have low hemoglobin. I see many women who suffer from cancer there. I feel their pain. I see the fear in their eyes. I cannot speak English very well and as you know, it is also not appropriate to talk in a hospital. So I sit there lost in a language without words and use the only tool I have left to speak silently, my eyes. We talk to each other with our eyes and we feel how much we have suffered. So I promised myself and my God that if I had a successful show, I would make these women suffering from cancer necklaces. I will tell them, I feel your pain and you are not alone. Maybe the necklaces are simple or even cheap gifts but they are handmade by a refugee woman from Iraq who has suffered a lot of pain and lost everything, me, Haiffaa Ali. I came to America with nothing and found hope. I will present these necklaces with all the names of those who help me achieve my dream to give hope to these women suffering from cancer.

Past Events

jeane and andrew warner

ships, jeane warner

game, andrew warner

february 6 through 27

opening reception friday february 6 from 6 - 9pm

celebrate art for humanity

haiffaa ali

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, THESE HANDS, MY HANDS, MADE SOMETHING. I DID SOMETHING. NOT AS A MOTHER, NOT AS A REFUGEE, BUT JUST FOR ME, MY WORK.

handmade jewelry, arabic music and food

saturday november 15, from 3 - 7 pm

favoritisms

anton kirchner

november 7 through 29

opening reception friday november 7 from 6 - 9pm

james earl white

works on paper

october 3 through 31

opening reception friday ocotober 3 from 6-9pm

courtesy of carson/van straaten gallery

video documentation by garvin

"The dichotomy of truth lies in everything. The paradox of ideas is what drives me to continue down the rabbit hole searching for convergence of truth." Garvin