Mizna

Next week, Mizna is proud to present a screening of Lyd (dir. by Rami Younis, Sarah Ema Friedland), a speculative documentary on Palestine and the 1948 Nakba, in collaboration with MSP Film Society. This is a one night screening only!

What: Screening of the speculative documentary Lyd
When: July 31, 2024 at 7pm
Where: The Main Cinema

Tickets: https://mspfilm.org/show/lyd/
Use discount code MIZNALYD to get the $8 partner admission

ABOUT THE FILM
The film Lyd (the Arabic name of Lod, a city now in Israel) is about a 5,000-year-old bustling Palestinian town that was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948, and the film Lyd is the story of that city’s rise and fall. An exploration of what it once was, and what it is now, in the context of the continuing war in Gaza, Lyd’s excavation of one community’s complex history offers us not only lessons but possible futures.

As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion, while vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same characters live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. Using never-before-seen archival footage of the Israeli soldiers who carried out the Lyd massacre and expulsion, the personified city explains that these events were so devastating that they fractured reality, and now there are two Lyds — one occupied and one free. As the film cuts between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning what future should prevail.

Tomorrow: join us for a screening of Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi, presented as part of our Insurgent Transmissions series!

When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:Insurgent Transmissions graphic with green background and red text with a film still from Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi

This Wednesday: Insurgent Transmissions screening + Gaza Solidarity pop-up

July Screening: Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi
When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS:

Image 1: Graphic with a red background and green text that says GAZA
SOLIDARITY POP-UP ART SALE, July 24, 6:15–7pm at Bryant Lake Bowl
Before Insurgent Transmissions Screening, All sales go to Yahya Ashour’s
family in Gaza

Image 2: Insurgent Transmissions graphic with green background and red text with a film still from Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi

Still from Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi, screening next week as part of Insurgent Transmissions.

July Screening: Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi
When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Farah Hatoum sitting against a stone wall surrounded by sheep's wool.

Still from "Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting," screening as part of the August program of Mizna Film Series: Feminist Visions.

Mizna Film Series August: "Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting" by Assia Djebar and "Monangambee" by Sarah Maldoror
When: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Trylon Cinema
Tickets + more info: https://bit.ly/miznafilmseries

ABOUT ZERDA AND THE SONGS OF FORGETTING
Algerian novelist and translator Assia Djebar changed professions to make LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLI. Using French newsreels, the film represents the colonization of the Maghreb, rethinking the dominant narrative of this history. A furious swan song to colonial violence, the film plays with documentary form, recutting images and reconstructing history alongside a soundtrack comprised of multi-vocal chants and experimental music. ZERDA employs montage in a search for truth––a truth that the colonial “killing gaze” pointedly omits or does not show. In Djebar’s cut, there is “resistance behind the mask.”

Film poster for Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi, screening as part of the Insurgent Transmissions film series this month.

July Screening: Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi
When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the launch of Nazar Boy, the debut collection of poetry by Tarik Dobbs, last Thursday!

The event featured readings from Tarik Dobbs, Su Hwang, torrin a. greathouse, and Douglas Kearney.

IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS
Image one: Photo of Tarik Dobbs reading poetry from his book Nazar Boy next to a podium covered by a keffiyeh.
Image two: Photo of Su Hwang reading poetry in front of a podium which is covered by a keffiyeh.
Image three: Photo of torrin a. greathouse sitting on a stool and reading poetry from a book.
Image four: Photo of Douglas Kearney reading poetry behind a podium covered in a keffiyeh.

☁ MIZNA 25 YEARS ☁

Join us for Mizna's 25th Anniversary Gala, an evening dedicated to marking this important milestone and honoring the resilience and activism of Arab and SWANA creatives. Our theme this year is inspired by the Arabic word “mizna” meaning "a rain-bearing cloud," evoking imagery of transformation, renewal, and togetherness. Full lineup coming soon!

WHEN: October 25, 2024 at 6pm
WHERE: Paikka, 550 Vandalia Street, Suite 165, Saint Paul, MN 55114

TICKETS
General Admission: $150
Cloud discount: $75

If you would like to attend the gala but can't afford a General Admission ticket, please email [email protected] for a discount code to buy a General Admissions ticket at a discounted price. Quantities are limited.

BUY TICKETS + TABLES OR SPONSOR THE GALA AT MIZNA.ORG

Today, our community faces an urgent reality. Gaza undergoes ongoing genocide, and the war in Sudan has created the largest humanitarian crisis in the world; in the US and Europe, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, anti-Zionist comrades, and artists confront discrimination and censorship for expressing solidarity with Palestine. Mizna aims to adapt and actionably respond not only to our community’s needs but also to the state of the world.

It is not a small achievement to reach 25 years as a values-driven arts organization. Together, let's reaffirm our commitment to nurturing an unburdened space for artists, filmmakers, and writers to create and share work on their terms. Let us commemorate 25 years of Mizna's enduring influence in the cultural landscape, like a steadfast cloud in the sky.

Tonight, we're launching Tarik Dobbs' debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy, so we want you to meet Su Hwang, one of the readers who will be at the launch.

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch with Tarik Dobbs, torrin a greathouse, Su Hwang, Douglas Kearney
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna

ABOUT SU
Su Hwang is a Korean American poet and the author of Bodega (Milkweed Editions, 2019). The recipient of the 2020 Minnesota Book Award in poetry, the Jerome Hill Fellowship in Literature, and a finalist for the 2021 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, she works as a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and is the cofounder of Poetry Asylum.

Meet torrin a. greathouse, one of the readers at the launch of Tarik Dobbs' debut collection of poetry, "Nazar Boy," happening tomorrow!

Join Mizna to celebrate the launch of former Mizna guest editor Tarik Dobbs’s debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books).

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch with Tarik Dobbs, torrin a greathouse, Su Hwang, Douglas Kearney
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna

ABOUT torrin
torrin a. greathouse is the author of the collections DEED (Wesleyan University Press, 2024) and Wound from the Mouth of a Wound (Milkweed Editions, 2020)—winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry and the 2022 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. greathouse is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity, and the Poetry Foundation. She teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop, which is the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.
xyz

"I choose Michele Khleife's, "Fertile Memory" for its seamless blend of staged and documentary scenes in portraying an earlier generation of feminist struggle of persistence in the Galilee." —Jumana Manna on Michel Khleifi's film "Fertile Memory," screening this month at Insurgent Transmissions

July Screening: Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi
When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

The August program of Mizna Film Series: Feminist Visions presents two important archival Algerian films directed by women, "Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting" by Assia Djebar and "Monangambee" by Sarah Maldoror.

Mizna Film Series August: "Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting" by Assia Djebar and "Monangambee" by Sarah Maldoror
When: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Trylon Cinema
Tickets + more info: https://bit.ly/miznafilmseries

ABOUT THE FILMS
ZERDA AND THE SONGS OF FORGETTING (LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLIL)
Algerian novelist and translator Assia Djebar changed professions to make LA ZERDA ET LES CHANTS DE L’OUBLI. Using French newsreels, the film represents the colonization of the Maghreb, rethinking the dominant narrative of this history. A furious swan song to colonial violence, the film plays with documentary form, recutting images and reconstructing history alongside a soundtrack comprised of multi-vocal chants and experimental music. ZERDA employs montage in a search for truth––a truth that the colonial “killing gaze” pointedly omits or does not show. In Djebar’s cut, there is “resistance behind the mask.”

MONANGAMBEE
“Monangambee!” Spread from hut to hut, from village to village, this cry made even the bravest men in Angola shiver. “Monangambee” translates to “white death,” and in the past, this cry accompanied the arrival of Portuguese slave traders. (Nadia Kasji) Shot in and co-produced by newly independent Algeria, Maldoror’s film links the anti-colonial struggle of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s to the history of African enslavement, deconstructing and rethinking the legacy of colonial violence.

Meet Douglas Kearney, one of the readers at the launch of Tarik Dobbs' debut collection of poetry, "Nazar Boy."

Join Mizna to celebrate the launch of former Mizna guest editor Tarik Dobbs’s debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books).

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch with Tarik Dobbs, torrin a greathouse, Su Hwang, Douglas Kearney
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna

ABOUT DOUGLAS
Douglas Kearney is the author of nine books, including the poetry collections Imagine I Been Science Fiction Always (Wave Books, 2025); Optic Subwoof (Wave Books, 2022); Sho (Wave Books, 2021), a 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award, National Book Award, and Minnesota Book Award finalist; and Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016), a Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize winner, a Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Firecracker awardee, and California Book Award silver medalist. In 2023, Kearney received the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism from the Poetry Foundation. He teaches at the University of Minnesota.

☁ Mizna: 25 Years ☁

As Mizna marks its twenty-fifth anniversary year and our small team reflects on our history, we decided to revamp our Mission, Vision and Values.

Scroll through to reintroduce yourself to Mizna and stay tuned for news on how we're planning to celebrate this 25 year milestone. Announcement coming very, very soon!

Now on Mizna Online: "New Habits" by Farah Barqawi, translated by Sara Elkamel. Originally written in November 2023, Farah Barqawi’s written account of the early embodiments of witnessing the genocide on Gaza could have been written yesterday—as if time itself refuses to look away.

Read more at mizna.org

New Habits - Mizna by Farah Barqawi, trans. Sara Elkamel

Meet the author of Nazar Boy, Tarik Dobbs, whose book we're launching next week!

Tarik Dobbs’s work explores surveillance, q***rness, disability, race, and working-class identity in post-9/11 America. As an Arab American writer, Dobbs is achingly familiar with the power dynamics, violence, and capitalistic undercurrents woven through the language of the colonizer. They challenge this power in visual, free-verse, and formally intense poems—both traditional and innovative—that stretch the elasticity of borders, verbs, images, redactions, and more.

Join Mizna to celebrate the launch of former Mizna guest editor Tarik Dobbs’s debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books).

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch with Tarik Dobbs, torrin a greathouse, Su Hwang, Douglas Kearney
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna + link in bio

Insurgent Transmissions: A Palestine Film Series continues this month!

Unfolding as a series of transmissions where the filmmaker of the previous month selects the forthcoming film, last month's filmmaker Jumana Manna has selected the film Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi for our July screening.

July Screening: Fertile Memory by Michel Khleifi
When: July 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Fertile Memory is the feature debut of pioneering director Michel Khleifi. Lyrically blending both documentary and narrative elements, Khleifi skillfully and lovingly crafts a portrait of two Palestinian women: Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

Michel Khleifi carefully observes the two women in their daily lives and highlights their very different personalities and individual struggles within the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Their divergent opinions and lives play an important role in underlining their common status as Palestinians under Israeli rule, and as women in a male-dominated society. Yet, despite these contrasts, the mother and the writer share the same fight for freedom and dignity.

Nazar Boy: a debut collection of poetry by Tarik Dobbs

Ranging from sonnets to concrete poems, Nazar Boy is visually stimulating, thought-provoking, emotionally wrenching, and exquisitely crafted.

Dobbs’ poems blur and collapse narrative distances within and between places, from the Levant to Michigan, and break down dichotomies portrayed in Western media: between Arabness and whiteness, intellectualism and the working poor, Muslimness and q***rness, disability and desire. By turns irreverent and serenely gentle, Dobbs calls us to speak, to dream, and to imagine beyond those distances so that we might speak, dream, and imagine better versions of ourselves, our relationships to each other, and our places in the world.

Join Mizna to celebrate the launch of Nazar Boy by Tarik Dobbs

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna

Meet the Futurities Issue guest editor, Barrak Alzaid, who wants you to know that the deadline to submit writing is THIS SUNDAY!

Barrak Alzaid is a writer of poetry, prose and creative nonfiction whose memoir, Fabulous, chronicles his q***r coming of age in Kuwait. His current work in progress is a speculative climate fiction novel.

Excerpts of his memoir are anthologized in The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human, and New Moons. His poetry is forthcoming in the anthology El Ghourabaa: A q***r and trans collection of oddities. He has been awarded fellowships and residencies through The Corporation of Yaddo, La Napoule Foundation and 100 West – Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency. His fiction and poetry have been awarded prizes by the Barjeel Art Foundation and Nasiona Magazine. He is a founding member of the artist collective GCC.

Tomorrow, join us for the third iteration of Insurgent Transmissions, featuring "Foragers" by Jumana Manna

Insurgent Transmissions: A Palestine Film Series

June Screening: Foragers by Jumana Manna
When: June 26, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

GAZA SOLIDARITY POP-UP SALE

What: Locally made prints and watermelon pendants for sale in solidarity with Gaza
When: Wednesday June 26 at 6:15pm before the Insurgent Transmissions screening
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl

Join us for a pop-up art sale right before the Insurgent Transmissions screening featuring "Forages" by Jumana Manna! All sales go to exiled Gazan poet and Mizna Fellow Yahya Ashour to support his family in meeting their basic needs in Gaza and, when possible, eventually evacuating to Egypt.

Learn more + get tickets to the screening at mizna.org

GAZA SOLIDARITY POP-UP SALE

What: Locally made prints and watermelon pendants for sale in solidarity with Gaza
When: Wednesday June 26 at 6:15pm before the Insurgent Transmissions screening
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl

Join us for a pop-up art sale right before the Insurgent Transmissions screening featuring "Foragers" by Jumana Manna! All sales go to exiled Gazan poet and Mizna Fellow Yahya Ashour to support his family in meeting their basic needs in Gaza and, when possible, eventually evacuating to Egypt.

Learn more + get tickets to the screening at mizna.org

Still from Foragers by Jumana Manna screening as part of Insurgent Transmissions

Insurgent Transmissions: A Palestine Film Series

June Screening: Foragers by Jumana Manna
When: June 26, 2024 at 7pm
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl
Tickets: https://bit.ly/insurgent-transmissions

ACCESSIBILITY: To make this event accessible, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. This film will be in Arabic with English subtitles.

In addition to ticket fees going to support the featured Palestinian filmmakers, we will be raising money for Middle East Children’s Alliance’s efforts in Gaza, an initiative which has been responding to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

ABOUT THE FILM
Foragers depicts the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine/Israel with wry humor and a meditative pace. Shot in the Golan Heights, the Galilee and Jerusalem, it moves between fiction, documentary and archival footage to portray the impact of Israeli nature protection laws on these customs. Following the plants from the wild to the kitchen, from the chases between the foragers and the nature patrol, to courtroom defenses, Foragers captures the inherited love, joy and knowledge in these traditions alongside their resilience to the prohibitive law. By reframing the terms and constraints of preservation, the film raises questions around the politics of extinction, namely who determines what is made extinct and what gets to live on.

Now on Mizna Online: “Uncrafted,” a new column edited by Hazem Fahmy which delves into the political and craft lessons offered by anti-colonial literary lineages.

For Uncrafted # 1, Fahmy interviews Chase Berggrun, a trans woman poet, educator, and organizer living in New York City who, since the genocidal war in Gaza began, has worked tirelessly with WAWOG. In this feature, Berggrun discusses Chilean poet Raúl Zurita's "INRI."

Uncrafted #1: An Interview with Chase Berggrun - Mizna Solmaz Sharif: "I like that because there is this way that bringing in something not yet being looked at in poetry or literature allows for a didactic moment. As one is writing these poems, they are also exposing people to this information."

WHAT: Nazar Boy Book Launch
WHEN: July 11, 2024 at 7pm
WHERE: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 350 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN

RSVP: https://bit.ly/nazar-boy-mizna + link in bio

Join Mizna to celebrate the launch of former Mizna guest editor Tarik Dobbs’s debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books). The lineup will include critically acclaimed Twin Cities poets Su Hwang, torrin a greathouse, and Douglas Kearney. Join us for this free, stimulating evening; copies of Nazar Boy will be available for purchase and signing.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Tarik Dobbs’s work explores surveillance, q***rness, disability, race, and working-class identity in post-9/11 America. As an Arab American writer, Dobbs is achingly familiar with the power dynamics, violence, and capitalistic undercurrents woven through the language of the colonizer. They challenge this power in visual, free-verse, and formally intense poems—both traditional and innovative—that stretch the elasticity of borders, verbs, images, redactions, and more. Ranging from sonnets to concrete poems, Nazar Boy is visually stimulating, thought-provoking, emotionally wrenching, and exquisitely crafted.

This event is co-presented with the Minnesota Museum of American Art with funding support from St. Paul’s Cultural STAR Program.

Meet our new interns! Nadwa Hussein and Layla F***j have joined our team for the summer, join us in welcoming them.

Nadwa Hussein is a fourth-year student at the University of Minnesota where she is pursuing majors in both Asian & Middle Eastern Studies and Studies in Cinema & Media Culture. Her academic focuses include archival studies and film studies, largely influenced by her Somali heritage, which has helped drive her interest in preserving art as well as cultural histories and artifacts.

Layla F***j is a rising senior at Barnard College studying English and Literary Translation. Her work has appeared in the Modern Love section of the New York Times, ArabLit Quarterly, and in a short film in collaboration with Whatsapp.