Events

Event details

Join us for the launch of a new reading series during National Poetry and Arab American Heritage months, a collaboration between Baba’s and Mizna. The first reading in this series features Mejdulene Shomali with Mizna Writing Collective members Sagirah Shahid and Nikki Lewis.

This event will feature a special Mizna Writing Collective activity beforehand—stay tuned!

Join us on April 4, 2025 at 7pm, Baba’s Hummus House & Mana’eesh Bakery
2220 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55405

ABOUT THE READERS

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali is a queer Palestinian poet and associate professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Williams College. She received an MA in Women’s Studies from the Ohio State University and a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan. Her research and creative writing occur at the intersection of transnational feminist thought, queer of color critique, and Arab and diasporic Arab cultural production. Mejdulene was a fellow in the Institute for Citizens and Scholars and the Cornell Society for the Humanities. She is the author of Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke University Press 2023) which won the 2024 Association for Middle East Women’s Studies book award honorable mention. She is also the author of the poetry chapbook agriculture of grief: prayers for my father’s dementia (Finishing Line Press 2024).  Her current research concerns affect and embodiment in Palestinian resistance.

Sagirah Shahid is a Pushcart Prize nominated Black Muslim poet and performance artist from Minneapolis, MN. In 2025 she was selected as a finalist for the city of Minneapolis’ poet laureate position. Sagirah’s poetry and prose are published widely and she has received a handful of awards and fellowships for her writing including from the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Strive Publishing, Twin Cities Media Alliance, Muslim Advocates and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design. Sagirah’s children’s activity book ‘Get Involved With a Book Club’ was published by Capstone press in 2022. In 2024 Sagirah was a finalist for the Sexton poetry prize and she is currently a poetry editor with Overtly Lit, an international online literary journal.

Nikki Luna is a Lebanese-American poet and multimedia artist. Nikki’s artistry combines poetry, collage, painting, drawing, film, and make-up artistry to distill themes of fluidity, queerness, and anti-militarism. They currently organize meetings for the Mizna Writing Collective.