Akram still remembers the day he realized he had a special gift, that he wasn’t just like the others. “My fifth-grade teacher held up a paper with my handwriting and told the whole class I’d be a famous calligrapher,” the 50-year-old recalls, his almond eyes sparkling. Hunkered in his tent in Iraq’s Garmawa refugee camp, Akram describes how he fled his town of Tal Afar in July shortly after ISIS advanced and the Iraqi military retaliated with airstrikes. The most painful part of leaving, says Akram, was the work he left behind. He rolled up his best calligraphy and stored it in a bedroom bureau along with almost 30 years of self-taught artistry. Since moving to the camp, he’s been in a rut, unable to create. “I’m not in the right state of mind,” he says, wistfully describing his drawing station back home, anchored with a big oak table and chair. A few years ago, Akram’s son convinced him to make a Facebook page to display his work. Soon, aspiring students messaged him, seeking his advi...