About Us

درباره ما

Nazafarin Lotfi,

founder of Hamrah Arts Club

Nazafarin Lotfi is a multidisciplinary artist and organizer who creates space through drawing, painting, sculpture, and community organizing. Embracing the power and agency of subtle forms, absence, and ambiguous materiality, Lotfi’s practice troubles the status quo and points to alternative realities beyond the here-and-now. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BA from the University of Tehran. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as Artpace, Phoenix Art Museum, Sun Valley Museum of Art, Illinois State University, Tucson Museum of Art, Elmhurst Museum of Art, MOCA Tucson, Regards Chicago, among others. She is the recipient of 2023 Eliza Moore Fellowship for Artistic Excellence. Lotfi’s practice has received support from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2021-22, she was a Matakyev Research Fellow at the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University.

Lotfi is certified in Mind-body Medicine and regularly holds trauma-informed care groups for immigrant and refugee women and girls.

Mahdia

collaborator

Mahdia is a high school upcoming junior who has been involved with Hamrah Arts Club since Fall 2022. Born and raised in Afghanistan, Mahdia moved to Turkey at the age of eight and resettled in Tucson, AZ in 2019 when she was ten years old. She is fluent in Dari, Turkish, and English and is passionate about human rights. She has worked as a youth mentor with Hamrah Arts Club to help other recently resettled youth with English, navigating school, and housing. During her freshman year at Tucson Magnet High School, she launched the International Cultures Club (ACC), where students were invited to come together and learn about each other’s cultures. In 2025, after moving to Virgina, Mahdia started a new community organizing program called Sabah, where she offers English classes for refugee and immigrant women in her community. She will be volunteering with Women Empowerment Education Network (WEEN), tutoring Afghan women who live in Afghanistan.

Sirilak Rottler

co-leader of the Tucson chapter

Sirilak Rottler is a community artist-educator based in Tucson, AZ. An Asian/Thai American, she grew up as an immigrant and an English language learner. She now centers asset-based approaches in community development and works with various immigrant communities. Her work combines contemplative and care practice with civic participation, accessibility, and equity in the arts. Sirilak is currently an MA student in Art & Visual Culture Education at the University of Arizona, with an emphasis on museum and community arts education. She was a citizenship instructor to adult learners of other languages at Pima Community College for 5 years. She also was a recipient of the 2025 Arts Foundation ARPA Artists Grant and the winner of the 2025 Community Arts Caucus Travel Award from National Art Education Association.

Mariel Miranda

co-leader of the Tucson chapter

Mariel Miranda is a visual artist and sociologist based in Tijuana and Tucson. She works as the Head of Interdisciplinary Learning at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson where she leads community-centered programs that bridge art, critical pedagogy, and social justice. As an artist and organizer working across the U.S.-Mexico border, she designs intersectional initiatives in collaboration with museums, schools, and grassroots spaces to foster urgent dialogues inside and outside institutional walls. In 2022, along with her sibling, she co-founded the Comunitary Library Las Cumbres, which is a self-funded initiative focused on art and social justice. This initiative connects their neighbors through various activities, including book lending, movie nights, art workshops, collective walks, food sharing, and other free, community-driven events.

Zahra Ameli

friend and volunteer

Zahra Ameli is a holistic and creative educator, advisor, and career coach based in Columbia, Maryland. With a background in counselor education, career development, and supervision, she helps students and professionals align their values, identities, and well-being with their academic and career paths. Zahra has supported over 3,000 students from 40+ countries across higher education and K–12 settings, guided by a commitment to inclusive, culturally responsive, and human-centered support. Her arts-informed approach integrates mind-body medicine, strengths-based strategies, and creative reflection to foster purposeful growth. She is especially passionate about holistic student development, career and identity formation, and creative approaches to equity, inclusion, and personal growth. Zahra is currently completing her doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision at Western Michigan University, where her dissertation explores self-compassion in the lives of Iranian doctoral students in the U.S. She also facilitates workshops on creative career exploration, integrative wellness, and leadership development.

Current and Past Members

Anas

Arzu

Behishta

Bilal

Erfan

Eshwa

Fati

Fatima

Farzana

Fazila

Freshta

Habib

Hadyah

Henna

Hilal

Khorshid

Mado

Mais

Malika

Marwa

Maryam

Mojgan

Nabila

Nahid

Najia

Narges

Nazanin

Nouryeh

Shukufe

Taranm

Zuhrah