Events

Event details

Baba’s and Mizna co-present the first 2026 reading of their quarterly series featuring the Mizna Writing Collective and their invited guests. This time, we’ll hear from Muna Abdulahi, Nader Helmy, and Nikki Luna.

Come early! Starting at 6pm Baba’s will have a special iftar meal for sale!

Join us on February 26, 2026
6pm Iftar special, 7pm reading

No RSVP needed, this event is free to attend and will have ASL interpretation.

This event is curated by Nikki Luna.

ABOUT THE READERS

Muna Abdulahi is a Somali American poet and performance artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work has appeared through the Poetry Foundation, Button Poetry, and the Minnesota History Center, among others. She is a recipient of the Fredrick Bock Prize.

Nader Helmy is a Cairo-born, Minnesota-raised writer, technologist, and multidisciplinary artist. A national runner-up at CUPSI, his poetry has appeared with Button Poetry and in live exhibitions, newsletters, and zines. He performs Arabic music with the Yalla Drum Ensemble across the Minneapolis area and released his debut mixtape, PURPLE SUN, in August 2019. Beyond the stage, Nader works in digital identity and data privacy, where he has built products, contributed to global technical standards, and published essays in the field. He now builds consumer social and media apps as a founder. A storyteller at heart, he is dedicated to building a future of collective liberation—in the digital world and beyond.

Nikki Luna is a Lebanese-American genderqueer poet, visual artist, makeup artist, and archival researcher. Nikki’s work with poetry and archives has included organizing the Mizna Writing Collective, teaching writing workshops with Querencia Press, serving as a judge for the Minnesota Book Award, performing public poetry readings with Mizna and No Borders at Minneapolis People’s Pride, and researching in the archives of the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, and the Don Kelly Research Collection of Gay Literature and Culture in College Station, Texas. When they were little, Nikki dreamed of writing books, creating art, and being a queer mermaid. She honors those desires through literary community-building, genre-fluid artistic practices, and growing amongst chosen family.