Events

Event details

Harnessing street protest as a poetic formation, Andrea Abi-Karam’s latest book of poetry, Villainy, exhibits the desires that bring queers into public space.

Join us in celebrating the release of Villainy with a virtual reading and conversation on Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 1pm CT. Featuring readings by Andrea Abi-Karam, Elmaz Abinader, Romaissaa Benzizoune, Tarik Dobbs, and Nour Kamel, followed by a conversation between Andrea Abi-Karam and Mizna Literary Programs Manager Ruba ElMelik.

Abi-Karam has been published in our literary journal twice, in Mizna 22.1 and Mizna 20.1. You can purchase their book Villainy here.

This event takes place as part of the Villainy virtual book tour series.

RSVP REQUIRED

>>HOW TO PARTICIPATE<<

The Zoom link will be sent out through Eventbrite the day before and the day of the reading. In addition to the Zoom, this event will be livestreamed on Facebook.

>>ACCESSIBILITY<<

This reading will be live-captioned in English. A recording of the launch will be available shortly after the event. Please email miznaATmizna.org with any questions regarding accessibility.

ABOUT THE READERS

Andrea Abi-Karam is an arab-american genderqueer punk poet-performer cyborg. They are the author of EXTRATRANSMISSION (Kelsey Street Press, 2019), Villainy (Nightboat Books, September 2021), and with Kay Gabriel, they co-edited We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat Books, 2020). They are a leo obsessed with queer terror and convertibles.  

 

Elmaz Abidnader’s most recent poetry collection, This House, My Bones, was The Editor’s Selection for 2014 from Willow Books/Aquarius. Her books include a memoir: Children of the Roojme, A Family’s Journey from Lebanon, a book of poetry, In the Country of My Dreams… which won the Oakland PEN, Josephine Miles Award. Elmaz is one of the co-founders of The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA/Voices). She teaches at Mills College, and  is an instructor at the Oakland Y. 

 

Romaissaa Benzizoune is from New York City and from-from Morocco. Her personal essays have appeared in outlets including Buzzfeed, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, and The New York Times. Her current obsession is TikTok the app. 

 

 

 

Tarik Dobbs is an Arab American queer writer and text artist born in Dearborn, Michigan. Visual poems by Dobbs can be found in American Poetry Review, Best of the Net, & Poetry Magazine. Dobbs edits at Poetry.onl and is a writer-in-residence at InsideOut Literary Arts Detroit. Dobbs’s poetry chapbook, Dancing on the Tarmac, was selected by G. Calvocoressi (Yemassee, 2021). 

 

Nour Kamel (she/they) is perfectly lit and writes/edits things in Egypt. Kamel writes about identity, language, sexuality, queerness, gender, oppression, femininity, trauma, family, lineage, globalization, loss, and food. Their chapbook Noon is part of the New-Generation African Poets series.