Sham-E-Ali Nayeem (she/her)

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, sound practitioner and recovering social justice lawyer.  She is the author of the poetry collection, City of Pearls (Upset Press, 2019), and has released two albums; City of Pearls (2019) and Moti Ka Sheher (2023) featuring self composed musical interpretations from her book. More recently, Sham-e-Ali is a collaborator in Suneil Sanzgiri’s Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?). This two-channel video installation, directed by Suneil, combines archival footage, animation, interviews, and a poetic script written by Sham-e-Ali. She is the recipient of the 2022 Leeway Transformation Award, the 2016 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship, and the 1997 Echoing Green Fellowship.