Sharif Farrag

Sharif Farrag (b. 1993, Reseda, CA) grew up in the heart of the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, a first generation American born to an Egyptian father and Syrian mother. He describes his childhood as a disorienting pastiche of intense suburban normality and a foreboding mysticism full of curses, omens, and hauntings. Sleep paralysis and night terrors were regular occurrences. The daytime, too, was full of unease; in a post-9/11 America, Farrag felt the pressures and confusions of performing “upstanding” American Arabness and Muslimness. At the same time, he began to find self expression and ...