July 21, 2026

Mizna Launches Mizna Fellowship for Early Career Artist Supported by Jerome Foundation

First Mizna Fellows are Minnesota-based Tarik Dobbs and Yasmin Yassin

Mizna launches an annual fellowship, generously supported by the Jerome Foundation, to foster the work of early career SWANA artists who are developing new, innovative, socially engaged work. The two 2026 fellows, writer and artist Tarik Dobbs and filmmaker Yasmin Yassin, whose work corresponds to Mizna’s flagship program areas, literature and moving image, to pursue their creative interests, research, and present a public-facing engagement of their choosing. Each fellow will receive a $5,000 award to support their practice through a six-month period–July to December 31, 2026.

Minnesota-based writer, artist, and creative writing professor Tarik Dobbs will work within Mizna’s literary programs. On being selected as a 2026 Mizna Fellow, Dobbs says, “It’s a real honor to be supported by Mizna, which platforms the most vital Arab American/SWANA art and literature happening now, and by the Jerome Foundation. With this, I buy back time in my year for research-based writing that teaching and the daily grind sometimes crowd out.” Mizna is thrilled to support Dobbs’ experimental, research-based writing practice with this fellowship after following a continuous relationship with him. In 2021, Dobbs served as the guest editor of Mizna 22.2: The Experimental Issue. More recently, Dobbs’s poem “Spring in St. Paul” was published on Mizna’s digital literary platform, Mizna Online. To kick off his fellowship, Dobbs will be reading some of his work at the Mizna Summer Party on July 29, 2026 at the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

Yasmin Yassin, Minneapolis-based filmmaker, photographer, and researcher, has been selected to work within Mizna’s moving image programs. Mizna is elated to support Yassin’s filmic practice as she continues to explore topics of womanhood, subcultures, and the layered definitions of social performance within the containers of tradition, digital worlds, and the logic of modern folklore. “I’m so thrilled and honored to be selected for this fellowship with Mizna. As an independent filmmaker, having the support of Mizna’s community and mentorship at this juncture means so much. I’m excited for what it means for the stories I hope to tell as I grow in my filmmaking journey,” Yassin commented on her selection. Yassin’s short film Woman Land (2025) will be featured in this year’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival which celebrates its 20th anniversary this September.

The announcement of this annual fellowship establishes a regular, sustained artist support framework within Mizna, following the organization’s history of occasionally hosting artists, both in-residency and as fellows throughout our twenty-six years. These include playwright and artist Ismail Khalidi, writer and actor Randa Jarrar, writer and publisher Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, and, in 2024, exiled Gazan poet Yahya Ashour. Executive and Artistic Director of Mizna, Lana Salah Barkawi, details what the first year of the Mizna Fellowship will focus on: “In our pilot year, we will approach the fellowship with a spirit of discovery. Experimentation has been a value of Mizna’s over the organization’s history, and we have found that an iterative, course-correcting approach to producing ambitious cultural projects is a productive one that helps our team continue to take chances, learn, and grow.” 

Stay tuned for more information about the fellows’ work and for the announcement of their chosen public engagement presentations.

ABOUT THE FELLOWS

ABOUT MIZNA

Since 1999, Mizna has promoted experimental approaches to art, literature, and film; work that questions and expands the forms and conceptual frameworks of Arab and SWANA culture. We publish a biannual print literary and art journal, Mizna, and Mizna Online, a digital platform for literary and multidisciplinary work reflecting critically on the current realities of the SWANA region and beyond. We produce the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, the largest and longest-running SWANA-centered film festival in the Midwest. Mizna also offers readings, film series, performances, public art commissions, and community events that have featured 1000+ local and transnational writers, filmmakers, and artists.

ABOUT THE JEROME FOUNDATION

Founded in 1964 by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), The Jerome Foundation honors his legacy through multi-year grants to support the creation, development, and presentation of new works by early career artists.

The Jerome Foundation supports early-career artists and culture bearers who take creative risks, pursue innovative artistic approaches, and demonstrate a clear creative purpose and vision. By prioritizing artists at this pivotal stage, we seek to nurture their creative growth and recognize the dynamic, multi-dimensional impact they have in fostering thriving, evolving communities. The Jerome Foundation is rooted in the practices of belonging, nurture, equity, love, and respect, where every voice is valued, every story matters, and learning is embraced as a continuous journey. These practices, alongside our values of creative risk, innovation, and humility, support our relational and trust-based approach to grantmaking and guide our work with artists, culture bearers, and arts leaders.