About

Peace, Salaam and Welcome folks, Chris “C” Gazaleh is a visual artist, musician, writer, organizer and educator from San Francisco. Gazaleh (38) has come a long way on his mission dedicated to promoting cultural, political, and social awareness about the history, people and struggle for freedom in Palestine. Reigning from an upbringing submerged in hip hop culture, he was dedicated to creating his style from a young age, starting with graffiti letters, then characters. His older Brother Tarik a seriously talented artist and musician was with Chris throughout most of this journey. When Gazaleh was about 19 living in Detroit at the time he started to learn to read and write in Arabic, being the language of his ancestors he picked it up within months. At 21 Gazaleh decided to move back to San Francisco where he joined GUPS at SFSU and helped put up the Edward Said mural. After this Gazaleh began painting murals in the community eventually finding his own walls, one wall in Clarion Alley has been Gazaleh’s practice wall since 2012, the wall was given to him by the late graffiti legend CUBA. Since then Gazaleh has been working to spread awareness throughout the community and working with the youth in San Francisco with a hope to spread knowledge and love, and to combat the negative stereotypes affecting peoples perspectives of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians worldwide. Gazaleh uses many mediums to create his art, from ink to paint, digital illustration to spray paint. From murals to illustrations on paper and from graffiti style pieces to brush work on canvas, Gazaleh’s art comes from all angles. Both his parents were born to working class Palestinian immigrant/refugees families who came to the US from Ramallah in the mid 1950’s, both his Grandfathers/Grandmothers made their livings in the US operating corner/party stores both in SF and Detroit, his parents divorced when he was 7 and his Father owned a Pizzeria in East Dearborn, while his Mother worked as a Pharmacy tech in East Oakland. Gazaleh has returned three times to Palestine and cherishes each experience. He takes pride in his family history, his maternal Grandfather is from Ramallah but grew up in Akka and worked on the Port of Haifa. He was kicked out by force in May 1948. His Paternal Great great grandmother Labibeh ‘Atula was from Yaffa she was said to have spoken English and German and taught many Ramallahites English in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Gazaleh see’s all Palestinians as one big family as our histories intersect, but he also understands how complex identity can be and embraces his identity for what it is and not judging others for their perspectives, unless they don’t denounce Zionism! FREE PALESTINE!!