Bint Jamila’s Table and artist Rida Fatima’s unique Arabic calligraphy workshop

Photo by Mouna Rashid

Artist Rida Fatima and Bint Jamila’s Table collaborate on a unique candlelit calligraphy workshop, offered Thursday, Oct. 22, at Bint Jamila’s Studio in Bay View.

Food artist Muna Riyad Sharma of Bay View, an event stylist and producer, and owner of Bint Jamila’s Table, burst on the Milwaukee Muslim art scene in January 2024. Her signature dynamic tablescapes and edible art appear at gallery exhibition openings and Muslim events all over town. 

Bint Jamila’s Table, Arabic for “daughter of Jamila’s table,” offers workshops, catering and event planning with skills Sharma began learning at her mother’s knee. She opened her Bay View studio in February — a welcoming, community-gathering space. In it, she hosts, collaborates with and supports fellow Muslim artists.

Photo by Faisal Qureshi

Food artist Muna Riyad Sharma of Bay View (left), an event stylist and producer, named her business “Bint Jamila’s Table” in honor of her mother Jamila (right).

Rida Fatima of Pewaukee has been a calligrapher and artist of Islamic architecture and now geometric design for much of her life. She established her home studio shortly after moving to Wisconsin from Richmond, Virginia, in 2019. There she produces art sold nationwide. As her relationships with fellow artists and the Milwaukee Muslim community grow, she is frequently invited to lead workshops for adults and children. Fatima joined the Muslim Women’s Coalition board in March.

The two artists have admired each other’s work since meeting at an event two years ago. Now they are collaborating to offer a candlelit calligraphy workshop, Thursday, Oct. 22, from 6-8 p.m., at Bint Jamilla’s Studio, 2625 S. Greeley St., Suite 228, Milwaukee.

For the fee and more information, and to register, click on the image below.

A unique calligraphy workshop

A hands-on workshop with one of Wisconsin’s best calligraphists is already a special occasion, Sharma said. Fatima will teach participants to write Arabic calligraphy with a bamboo qalam (pen). Each will take home a 6X6 canvas with their final design, along with drafts showing their progress.

By pairing calligraphy with the intimate studio setting and fall-inspired small bites and drinks make the evening an exceptional experience, the artists agree. Participants step out of their busy day-to-day life for a quiet moment to experience and create art.

“I reached out to Rida and asked her if she would be interested in hosting a workshop here,” Sharma recalled. “I had a vision of us hosting this very intimate, very cozy, very feminine, candlelit calligraphy workshop here in the studio with a small group.

“We would create an end-to-end experience for folks where, from the moment they walk in, they’re engulfed in this world, a multisensory experience, we create for them. It will go hand-in-hand with them being able to learn how to do calligraphy and step out of real life for a couple of hours.  We want them to feel inspired and creative, and to truly lose themselves in the art they’re doing.”

“I love to teach calligraphy in that setting,” Fatima said. “Calligraphy takes love and patience to get in the flow. Muna’s studio is the perfect place. She has a calming personality that she brings into her events, creating a very intimate and close-knit atmosphere. We will be writing Arabic words like ‘hope’ and ‘love’ that carry the feeling the atmosphere portrays.”

“We are a good fit,” Sharma agreed. “I admire her very much as an artist. Rida genuinely has this touch that most other people don’t have. Her work is both strong and imposing, but also extremely feminine. I see the work that I do as very similar, but in my own avenue of work. That’s what attracted me to working with Rida. I knew I wanted to host a workshop here with her.”

Sharma even invited Fatima to design Bint Jamila’s Studio’s logo—calligraphy against the background of a single rose. The fragrant roses of her mother’s rose beds in Palestine inspired Sharma’s choice of red roses as a signature emblem for her business.

“I knew I wanted the logo to be a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Rida came up with something so beautiful from my different ideas,” Sharma said.

Photo by Mouna Rashid

Rida Fatima presents a calligraphy workshop at the Islamic Resource Center during a monthly Networking Brunch. 

Bint Jamila’s Studio – creating space for Muslim women

Since opening in February, Bint Jamila’s Table’s Studio has collaborated with artists to host a variety of workshops and events. “When we hosted our first event, it really did feel just like people were walking into a giant living room,” Sharma recalled. “People loved it. It was so welcoming, warm and expansive.”

They included Amreekha, an exhibition of Arab American women artists, with Fanana Banana, a well-known Milwaukee artists collaborative. It featured art by different community artists and an opening event with a tablescape by Sharma. About 170 people attended.

Amal Azzam’s 100 Palestinian Women, a five-session, participatory art project and photo journal, celebrated Palestinian culture in the studio through warak dawali (stuffed, rolled grape leaves). Azzam chose Sharma’s studio for the project because “she wanted her guests to experience the feeling a lot of us who are Palestinian or Arab know of sitting in someone’s kitchen or living room, talking, laughing and rolling grape leaves together,” Sharma said. “The studio offered a good space for mimicking that experience.”

In addition to the set-up, Bint Jamila’s Table created a flower centerpiece for each session that had its statement red roses, the symbol of Bint Jamila’s Table, and greenery, with red and green being key colors of Azzam’s project.

Photo by Mouna Rashid