Black Takeover of Mizna Literary Journal
Mizna, the journal of Arab/Southwest Asian & North African (SWANA) literature and visual art, is doing a special Black Takeover issue, to be published in Winter 2022. As an ongoing commitment we have made to examine our representation of our Black community, we are approaching this issue in a completely different way by giving over our journal space to a Black team to take the journal through the full production process, led by guest editor Safia Elhillo, the acclaimed Sudanese American poet.
2022-2023 Cultural Heritage and Community Identity Grants - Spring 2022
We will achieve the following measurable outcomes:
- Convene an all-Black SWANA Takeover Team of people with expertise to conceive and publish a Black SWANA Issue of Mizna
- Publish the Black SWANA Issue
- Hold at least three events to celebrate the launch, including at least one reading and an artist talk
- Present a panel discussion on the process of creating this issue at a national literary conference, AWP
- We will build our community of Black SWANA people within the broader Mizna community, articulating a commitment that this community is precious and inextricably within the SWANA region and its diaspora
- For majority non-Black SWANA community who make up Mizna's audience, this project will not aim to be an effort to educate or shift consciousness as its main aim, but rather through engaging with this project that centers Black SWANA creatives and cultural production, we hope that this majority will have an opportunity to reflect on the ways that Blackness has functioned in their communities and experience.
- Convene an all-Black SWANA Takeover Team of people with expertise to conceive and publish a Black SWANA Issue of Mizna
- Publish the Black SWANA Issue the issue is currently being printed
- Hold at least three events to celebrate the launch, including at least one reading and an artist talk We have two events publicly announced and more events in the planning phase
- Present a panel discussion on the process of creating this issue at a national literary conference, AWP This is scheduled to take place on March 9, 2023 at the major AWP conference in Seattle, WA
- We are building our community of Black SWANA people within the broader Mizna community, articulating a commitment that this community is precious and inextricably within the SWANA region and its diaspora
- Convened an all-Black SWANA Takeover Team of people with expertise to conceive and publish a Black SWANA Issue of Mizna
' Published the Black SWANA Takeover Issue guest edited by the acclaimed poet Safia Elhillo and produced by a dynamic all-Black SWANA team. The issue included an interview with Black Moroccan-Irish poet Charif Shanahan, the stunning visual art of elder Sudanese artist Kamala Ibrahim Ishag, and contributions by Fahad Al-Amoudi, Salma Ali, Shams Alkamil, Ladin Awad, Lameese Badr, Romaissaa Benzizoune, Dina El Dessouky, Atheel Elmalik, k. eltina', Samah Fadil, Shawn Frazier, Myronn Hardy, Fatma Hassan, Asmaa Jama, Marlin M. Jenkins, Abigail Mengesha, Suzannah Mirghani, Nihal Mubarak, Umniya Najaer, Sihle Ntuli, Abu Bakr Sadiq, Sagirah Shaheed, Charif Shanahan, Najma Sharif, Faatimah Solomon, Vanessa Taylor, Qutouf Yahia, Thawrah Yousif.
- Distributed it to people who preordered it, to our subscribers, and to the bookshops and libraries that carry Mizna
- Held three events to celebrate the launch:
>March 9, 2023: Black SWANA Lit: Mizna AWP Offsite, 7:30pm. Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, WA
Public event: https://mizna.org/event/2023awp-offsite/
>March 11, 2023: Black SWANA Lit: Collective Black Identity in Southwest Asia and North Africa
Panel discussion at the AWP Conference: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_detail/23070
>April 27, 2023: Black SWANA Lit: Mizna Reading + DJ, 7:30pm. Amsterdam Hall, St. Paul, MN
(Originally scheduled for February 23 at the same location, but was postponed because of the major blizzard:
https://mizna.org/event/tc-black-swana-lit/)
- Strengthened and widened our community of Black SWANA people within the broader Mizna community, articulating a commitment that this community is precious and inextricably within the SWANA region and its diaspora
This project is also supported by the NEA and St. Paul Cultural STAR. The Budget to Actuals shared here is only focused on the use of MHC funds.. This project was also supported by the following sources of income:
>Literary Arts Emergency Funds, $10,000
>Center for Arab American Philanthropy, $7,000
>National Endowment for the Arts, $15,000
>Sales from journal subscriptions and sales, $5,900
NAHID KHAN
DIPANKAR MUKHERJEE
RABI'H NAHAS
JNA SHELOMITH; ZIAD AMRA
NAHID KHAN
DIPANKAR MUKHERJEE
RABI'H NAHAS
JNA SHELOMITH