The Daily Cross Hatch begins a great series: SVA teacher Tom Hart spotlights some of the most promising new talents to emerge from the school. First up: Margo Dabaie:
The Hookah Girl is Margo’s exploration into growing up Palestinian and Christian in California in the 80s and 90s. She finds absurdity, humor, and pathos in most of the family’s habits—from stealing leaves from nearby vineyards to make stuffed dolmas, to the strange Palestinian Pride Fairs where she would see the “Hookah Girl,” who gives the book its name. Book one broadly investigates her feelings towards her absurd family, but also her current feelings and reactions towards all things Palestinian, as evidenced in the excellent “What Leila Khaled Said,” a six-page exploration of a female terrorist/hijacker from the 1970s.
