Our mission
Let's be honest. For most of us, seriously pursuing a creative path was never really on the table. Our families wanted us to be Doctors, Engineers or Lawyers (in that order). Our education system didn't push the envelope. And the message, from pretty much every direction, was that creative endeavors were fine to love but not something worth betting on.
So a lot of people didn't. They kept the dream, but they kept it quiet.
Sanadi exists to change that by building the kind of place we wish had existed. Somewhere Middle Eastern creatives can learn from people who have actually done it, develop their craft, find others figuring it out alongside them, and have the tools and support to actually start creating.
Not someday. Now.
Our vision
We know that's a big idea. So we're starting small. Our first fully built-out library is writing, covering everything from craft and process to finding your voice and getting your work into the world. From there we keep going, one creative discipline at a time, always with the same goal: bring together the people who have already paved the way with the people still trying to find their own.
Over time, we want Sanadi to become more than a place to learn. We want it to become an ecosystem, a single home for everything a Middle Eastern creative might need. Somewhere people find collaborators, discover opportunities, build things together, share their work, and eventually come back to teach the generation after them.
There is an enormous amount of creative talent in our part of the world and the diaspora. We want to help more of it get made.
Through a Middle Eastern Lens
Sanadi is rooted in the Middle East and its diaspora, and shaped by the realities that come with that. Family expectations. Cultural pressure. Language. Identity. Migration.
This context isn't a limitation. It's part of the work.
We center voices that understand it, while staying open to different forms of expression and experience. The aim isn't to narrow creativity, but to give it room to exist honestly.
Who's behind Sanadi
Sanadi was co-founded by Omar Khodr and Talal Alyan out of a shared desire to see creative work taken more seriously across the Middle East and its diaspora.
We grew up knowing creativity was everywhere in our culture, in language, storytelling, music, and expression, yet rarely presented as a real path people could step into. We wanted to help change that. To give people of all ages who feel drawn to create, a clearer image of what these paths can actually look like. To make creative fields feel visible, legitimate, and attainable.
Platforms like MasterClass and YouTube exist, but they were never built with our context, our voices, or our realities at the center. Sanadi is our attempt to build something familiar yet rooted. A place that speaks our language, reflects our experience, and helps people stop waiting and start creating.
Omar Khodr & Talal Alyan, co-founders
Looking ahead
One discipline at a time.
Writing is the first chapter of Sanadi. Over time, the platform will expand into other creative disciplines, always with the same intention: to make creative paths more visible, more accessible, and more attainable for people from our region.
Sanadi is growing carefully, one discipline at a time, and if you're here early, you're helping define what this becomes.