Description
“A Small Cafe in Damascus” was exhibited as part of “SyriaUntold” series on LGBTIQ Syria, In which Sara Khayat Talks About her own Journey of discovery and self realization search in her own memory as she wonders: “when did I know that I was different, before even knowing whether it was a crime or not?” She paints her own memory of a small café in a very well-known area in Damascus.
It was the space where she started breaking out of the tight circle in which she was raised. same café where she met new people and read new books, during the time of the revolution. A while after that, Sara left the country and started to make new friends in the diaspora, friends who belong to the Syrian LGBTIQ community. To ward off the coldness of exile, they spent most of their nights reminiscing and remembering.
That’s when she was surprised to discover that the café back in Damascus was the place where this community regularly met to talk about their pain, dreams and experiences. It was a moment of realization for Sara as she describes: “What was most shocking about this was that, at the time, I never noticed them and never knew that there existed a whole community of various genders and sexualities, from different generations, a community that was, still is and will always be there.”
