The Muslim Protagonist

01/10/2019

The Muslim Protagonist 2019 is eager to present "Homebound," an exploration of how one defines their origins from both geographical and metaphorical perspectives.

Although "house" and "home" have similar definitions, there is a stark difference between the two terms. "House" is a concrete term, referring to a building or structure in which one lives. "Home", however, is an abstract term; it can either refer to a structure or any location that one thinks of as the place in which they reside, belong to, or that belongs to them.

A home is a sanctuary, a refuge from the world. It is defined by where you experience your most beautiful and your most ugly. As the saying goes, home is where your heart is. It is where you are you, magnified or normalized.

Home.

How do you define home?
Where do you come from?
Who do you come from?
What do you come from?

Are you home, headed home, or confined to your home?

Join us for a full day of panels and workshops facilitating dialogue around using “literature and art as agents of social, intellectual, and spiritual change.”

FEATURING: Tarfia Faizullah, Ladan Osman, Shannon Chakraborty, Zainab Mabizari, Shireen Alihaji, Myree Tillotson, Shahd Batal, Nemah Hasan, and Samah Safia Bayazid, as well as Nisma Zakria's calligraphy workshop!

Stay tuned for an updated schedule and ticket link! InshAllah we hope to see you on both February 1 and February 2!

Open to people of all backgrounds, ages, faiths, and cultures, The Muslim Protagonist is NOT an event exclusively for Muslims, “minorities,” or Columbia students/faculty—everyone is welcome.

sources for theme description background:
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/qa/what-s-the-difference-between-a-house-and-a-home
https://lovingonme.com/2014/12/09/makes-house-home/

01/10/2019

01/10/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #8: Our very own Zainab Mabizari!!!

Zainab Mabizari is a first generation Algerian American born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is an MD candidate at Baylor College of Medicine, and is currently pursuing an MSc in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. In addition to being a medical student, she is a writer, poet, and storyteller.

Zainab writes at the intersection of medicine and the humanities. She has given a TEDx talk titled As I Lay Dying in which she incorporates prose and poetry to share experiences with her patients and what her interaction with death on a daily basis has taught her about life. Her poetry oftentimes gives voice to the inherently political experiences of being a woman, Muslim, and the child of immigrants.

She is passionate about health policies, women empowerment, the care of the underserved, the underrepresented, global health, social justice and activism, and medical humanities.

Learn more at: https://thezmab.com/

01/09/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #8: Myree Mustafa

Myree was born in Compton, California and raised in Lakewood. Her journey to Islam began when her uncle, Enrique, converted in the 90’s and gifted her a Quran along with teachings of his hero Malcolm X. She grew up Catholic, but ultimately came to Islam when she discovered Marium in chapter 19. It was Miriam's devotion to God and connection to her Grandmother that affirmed her decision cr. Since then she uses modeling and acting as a platform to spread awareness about Social Justice and Afro-Latinidad in Islam . She is the mother of two young boys named Muhammad and Moses.

Join us on February 2, 2019 to learn more about her work!

Watch this video to learn more about her journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD3xrHoRRz0&t=1s

01/09/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #7: Nemah Hasan

Nemah Hassan is a singer and social media influencer. Her angelic voice has attracted 70k+ followers on her Instagram. She will be joining us on February 2, 2019 to talk about being a social media artist and influencer.

Join us to learn more about her!!

Follow her on Instagram: nemahsis

01/09/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #6: Shannon Chakraborty

Shannon Chakraborty is a NY-based speculative fiction writer and history buff. Her debut, The City of Brass, is out now with Harper Voyager. Short-listed for the Locus, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards, The City of Brass is the first book in THE DAEVABAD TRILOGY, an epic fantasy set in the 18th century Middle East.

Originally from New Jersey, S. A. currently resides in Queens with her husband and daughter. When not buried in books about Mughal miniatures and Abbasid political intrigue, she enjoys hiking, knitting, and recreating unnecessarily complicated, medieval meals for her family. You can find her online most frequently at Twitter () where she likes to ramble about history, politics, and Islamic art.

Learn more at: https://www.sachakraborty.com/

Join us on February 2, 2019 to learn more about her work!

01/08/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #5: Samah Safi Bayazid

Samah is a Jordanian filmmaker who lives in Washington DC-USA. She studied filmmaking and screenwriting at New York Film Academy. Samah is also an advocate speaker who speaks for Muslims in the western media, women and youth empowerment and human justice. She is a social media influencer and activist.

Her film “Fireplace”,a short film that addresses the issue of the children of war in Syria and around the world has been critically acclaimed as well and won lately an award for DAE Studio Film Festival in The United Kingdom and The Drama Award at Deep Cut Film Festival in Canada, both awards in 2017.

Samah is also an advocate speaker who speaks for Muslims in the western media, women and youth empowerment and human justice. She was a guest speaker on different stages around the world like USA, UK, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Join us on February 2, 2019 to learn more about her amazing work!!

01/07/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #4: Tarfia Faizullah!

Bangladeshi American poet Tarfia Faizullah grew up in Midland, Texas. She earned an MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University program in creative writing. Her first book, Seam (2014), won the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award.

Focused around a long sequence “Interview with a Birangona,” the book explores the ethics of interviewing as well as the history of the birangona, Bangladeshi women r***d by Pakistani soldiers during the Liberation War of 1971.

Of her book, Faizullah has said, “I don’t believe that there is an art that can ever render something as unreasonable and as violent as human suffering. I tried to write a book that acknowledges the limitations of that rendering as much as it is helpless before those ‘images of the atrocious’ and the ways in which those images are forgotten even as they continue to haunt us.”

Check out http://www.tfaizullah.com to learn more!

Join us on February 2, 2019 to learn more about her work!!

01/05/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #3: Shahd Batal

We are SO EXCITED that Shahd is coming back to join us this year!

Shahd Batal is a Sudanese fashion and lifestyle vlogger who strives to empower women to accept and love their inner selves by creating relatable beauty, fashion and self-care videos.

As an Influencer, she pushes the diversity conversation on both brands and consumers. Demanding extensive foundation ranges is just an atom in the bigger picture of representation and why it’s essential. Batal is also known for her fashion sense. She shares her journey and unique style through her lookbooks and photos. The beautiful thing about social media is that it not only creates a sense of community many Muslim women may not find elsewhere (especially in the West), but it gives everyone an equal chance to bring something different to the table–and Batal does exactly that.

01/04/2019

Speaker Spotlight #2: Shireen Alihaji

Shireen Alihaji is a documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles covering stories on; labor rights, environmental justice, hate crimes, human trafficking, gender discrimination, sexual violence, capital punishment, health care equity, immigration/refugee reform, accessibility for people with disabilities.

As a child of dual cultural and duel faith background, she seeks to create environments for historically neglected identities to share their stories. After working for the writing/directing diversity initiatives at ABC Studios, she transitioned into community scale media organizing and she co-founded Blue Veil Films; an LA based media cooperative that helps communities of color reclaim their narratives and fund social reform based initiatives through video production/education. "The tradition of story sharing (vs telling) restores justice in affirming one's experience and reflecting back narratives that open spaces for all of us to exist."

In her free time, she volunteers as a videographer for Women's Mosque of America and guest teaches filmmaking workshops for youth.

Check out Blue Veil Films:
www.blueveilfilms.com

Email:
[email protected]

Instagram:

01/03/2019

SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT #1: We are SO EXCITED to introduce our first panelist: Ladan Osman!

Ladan Osman is a Somali-born poet and essayist.

Osman’s writing is a lyric and exegetic response to problems of race, gender, displacement, and colonialism. She examines existence in roles where imagination around female ability is limited, in the many spaces where women are so often denied automatic credibility and their logic is assumed fallible.

Throughout her writing, Osman is concerned with the question of testimony. Whose testimony is valid? Whose testimony is worth recording? Her essay “On Not Writing” informs a provocative testament to her experiences and dual identity. She holds a strong commitment to encouraging creative storytelling, and the documentation of it informs her practice.

Ladan is the author of Exiles of Eden and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony, winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize, and the chapbook Ordinary Heaven, which appeared in the box-set Seven New Generation African Poets. Her next collection Exiles of Eden, a work of poetry, photos, and experimental text, is forthcoming with Coffee House Press in 2019.

Join us on February 2, 2019 to learn more about her amazing work!

01/02/2019

ARE YOU READY FOR THE MUSLIM PROTAGONIST 2019?? Stay tuned for more updates this week + speaker spotlights!!

03/25/2018

Thank you, Ikhlas Saleem, Makkah Ali & Zahra Noorbaksh for leading an amazing conversation on Muslims in podcasts! Watch their panel below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYmAOQgNgh0

The amazing Makkah Ali, Ikhlas Saleem & Zahra Noorbaksh joined us for our second panel of the day. Check out their podcasts below!! Identity politics podcast...

03/25/2018

Thank you, Safiyya Hosein, Hussain Rashid and Zachary Hendrickson for leading an awesome discussion on Muslim representation in comics!! Watch the awesome discussion below!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7QQzEfQLjM

This year, Columbia MSA and the Muslim Protagonist hosted a panel featuring Safiyya Hosein, Hussain Rashid & Zachary Hendrickson on the role of Muslims in co...

02/24/2018

The Muslim Protagonist 2018: Authenticity?
Our second panel featuring Ikhlas Saleem, Makka Ali & Zahra Noorbaksh!!