Yaroub Al Obaidi

Collaborating Artist, Al Mudhif – A Confluence

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Yaroub Al Obaidi is an Iraqi designer, researcher and author, born in Diyala, Iraq, immigrated to the United States in 2016. He has worked as a lecturer at College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad from 2004 until 2007, where he received a master degree in design. After immigrating to the United States in 2016, he received his master in socially engaged art from the Moore College of Arts and Design, Philadelphia. He currently is a PhD. Candidate in Communications Media at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is the co-founder and chief auditor for the recent art project Friends, Peace, Sanctuary Journal, the first Arabic-language journal to be published in Philadelphia for over a decade.

For Lenapehoking~Watershed, Al Obaidi brings his native knowledge of how to build a mudhif — a traditional Iraqi guesthouse made from bundled, thatched, and woven reeds; used for town gatherings and cultural ceremonies. He collaborates with Water Spirit lead artist Sarah Kavage to build a mudhif at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. Together, Kavage and Al Obaidi will construct one of the first such structures in the United States. 

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