We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Quinn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, what do you attribute your success to?
I think that the most important factor behind the success of Maslouhi is the power of storytelling. Maslouhi is a small business founded and run by me and my husband, Mustapha. In the simplest terms, we work with a group of artisans in Mustapha’s home town in rural Morocco, Tameslouht, and sell handcrafted home decor items. On a deeper level, we seek to support the continuation of traditional artisana in Morocco to continue by creating viable career opportunities for master artisans. One of the most important pieces of this is educating the global public: about the exponential economic impact of purchasing artisan-made items, about the cultural significance of allowing these crafts to continue, and about the products themselves– how they are not just items with a compelling aesthetic, but that they also carry cultural significance and are themselves stories to be told. Storytelling plays into both my life and Mustapha’s in significant ways. Mustapha’s dad, Hajj Ahmed Ezzarghani, is one of the last living master storytellers in Morocco, and I embraced the power of the visual arts as a storytelling medium in my undergraduate studies. I think we both understand the power of words and of connection, and so we wanted to make that a central part of our work with Maslouhi’s artisans. I think that our customers respond to the beauty of the work that Maslouhi artisans produce. But they fall in love with the work because of the stories we tell. People appreciate learning about the many weeks that it takes Rebha and Zhara to sit together and, stitch by stitch, weave the rug that sits in their living room. They enjoy hearing about the process of Ayoub travelling to the markets of Marrakech to find the exact shades of blue and green for a custom blanket design. They ask questions about the meanings of the patterns and symbols intricately stitched into a kilim rug, wondering about their significance culturally in Morocco and personally to the artisans. They want to know how the heck me, an American, got connected with Mustapha and the artisans in the first place, and then they listen attentively as I tell them about my time living in Morocco as a Peace Corps volunteer. They care about the sourcing methods of the materials used to make each item, and how those materials fit into a larger global supply chain. They want to learn more about the difficulties facing the artisans, and why selling their products to tourists in the Marrakech markets is exploitative, or how COVID has affected them on an individual level. They ask about how the salaries each artisan earns through work with Maslouhi provide more than a living wage, enabling their kids to attend school rather than work, providing them with financial independence, and how most of the money stays within the rural community where they live. Through storytelling, I think that we’re able to paint a portrait of each artisan– their complex reality and their commitment to their craft– and why the decision to buy something from Maslouhi has a significant impact on the artisans’ lives and their community.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
So, I actually do Maslouhi in my free time– by day, I work in higher education as an international education professional! I am passionate about making international experiences as accessible to students as possible, and I credit Peace Corps specifically with providing me that opportunity to see how significant living and working abroad can be. My career path has been “organic” rather than linear– after the Peace Corps, I was convinced I wanted to be a museum educator, and halfway through a graduate program for that career, I realized that all I wanted to do was go back to Morocco. For two years, I had the privilege of leading an English language school in Fes, Morocco. Afterwards, I entered the higher education landscape in the United States and haven’t looked back since.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I currently live in Athens, GA. In non-pandemic times, we could spend an entire weekend here! Athens is known for its art and music scene, as well as its incredible food. For a small college town, it’s an incredibly diverse space. We would have to begin by getting breakfast at Mama’s Boy and enjoy their incredible southern-style biscuits. Then, we’d likely walk around the north campus of the University of Georgia, admiring the old buildings and taking pictures with some of the local attractions, like the Arch and the Chapel Bell. We would definitely need to visit the Georgia Museum of Art’s latest exhibition, and spend time in their outdoor sculpture garden. I think we’d need to do lunch somewhere downtown, perhaps at the Grit, and then walk over to Creature Comforts Brewery for some live music and a brewery tour. Dinner at The National across the street and an indie flick at Cine, our local independent movie theater, would finish the day!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many individuals to thank, especially those who have all chosen to purchase from Maslouhi. I think that the main organization that deserves a shoutout is the United States Peace Corps. It is through them that I was placed in Tameslouht, Morocco in 2011, and it is through that lens of cultural curiosity that I approached my time in Morocco. I am grateful for their consistent emphasis on learning from and with our Moroccan counterparts, including the artisans of Maslouhi. I think that Peace Corps provided me with the opportunity, space, and framework to understand the complexity of challenges facing Moroccan artisans. While I haven’t quite gotten all of the answers figured out, I’ve felt empowered to ask the questions and to always defer to my counterparts for their expertise. A huge thank you to all of the Peace Corps Morocco staff in Rabat, especially our Country Director, Ellen Paquette, and my Regional Manager, Samira Laouina, for their consistent mentorship and support during my time as a Peace Corps volunteer– and beyond.

Website: https://lamaisonmaslouhi.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_maslouhi_/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maslouhi

Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hellomaslouhi/_saved/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lamaisonmaslouhi?lang=en

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