Ahla friends,
One of my favorite parts of running Menna is the people it brings into my life.
I met Aiyah Sibay last year through a fashion line she was running that combines calligraphy and poetry. We ended up talking for a long time, but not about fashion, not about clothes, not even really about the product. We talked about Arabic poetry and literature, about what calligraphy even is and what it can carry. I could feel the depth of her passion… and my friends, know that passion is my magnet.
I've been following her work since. What she's doing below is one of her new endeavors, and one of the many side of SWANA culture that has been hidden from us.
Let’s get to it my friends
Samar
THE SHORTLIST
The Ones Worth Your Time
FOOD
Origins of Za'atar: An Immersive Culinary Experience
Thursday, August 20 | 6:00–9:30 PM
LOFT39, Midtown
A hands-on evening tracing one of the oldest culinary blends in the world, cooking together, a three-course dinner, and the actual history of za'atar and where it comes from. Wine and beverages included, plus a jar to take home. A splurge, but a specific one..
WELLNESS
BESA Pilates x MADE Hotel
Sunday, August 23 | 10:00–11:00 AM
MADE Hotel Courtyard, 44 W 29th St, Flatiron
BESA opens the MADE Hotel courtyard for a 50-minute mat Pilates class combining classical foundations with optional advanced variations. Breakfast and coffee after. A Sunday morning that earns the rest of the day.
WORKSHOP
Felt Bag Charms Workshop
Sunday, August 23 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Boyfriend Co-Op, Bushwick
Sew and stuff felt charms for your bag, keys, or backpack, ribbons, beads, embroidery, whatever you want. Templates provided, no experience needed. Cutesy activity to share with a friend or to do by yourself.
LITERATURE
Danny Ramadan + Alejandro Heredia: Crooked Teeth
Tuesday, August 25 | 7:00 PM
Strand Book Store, Flatiron
Syrian-Canadian author Danny Ramadan launches his memoir Crooked Teeth at the Strand, in conversation with writer Alejandro Heredia. The book traces his path from Damascus through Cairo and Beirut to Vancouver, through queer identity, refugee experience, and survival.
FUNDRAISER
Queer Aperitivo for Palestine
Wednesday, August 26 | 6:00 PM–12:00 AM
Rodeo Bar, Midtown
An evening of food, drinks, and DJ Dreamer raising funds for Hospitality for Humanity's Olive Harvest Delegation. Six hours, free entry, bring your people
THE FREE ONE
Free and Delightful
POETRY, MUSIC
Summer Nights: Safia Elhillo, Jenny Xie, and Nadine El Roubi
Friday, August 21 | 7:00–9:00 PM
Wagner Park, Tribeca
Safia Elhillo is a Sudanese-American poet and the first Sudanese American to win the Arab American Book Award. Her books navigate what it means to carry Blackness and Arab identity at the same time. Nadine El Roubi is a Sudanese rapper from Khartoum, based in Brooklyn, whose freestyle "#FEMALE" earned co-signs from SZA and Jarobi White of A Tribe Called Quest. Rolling Stone called her "the Sudanese rapper defying Afro-Arab taboos." Both of them, on the Hudson, at sunset, for free.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Cool Initiative To Experience
Desire & The Arabic Erotic Literature. A Course In The Park
4 classes in Sep. Sundays. 12-2pm. Prospect Park
These are the writers Aiyah Sibay has built this course around.
Sibay is a Syrian-American filmmaker, poet, and visual artist based in New York. I met her last year through one of her projects involving poetry, calligraphy and fashion and since then, got interested. Her work lives at the intersection of Arab womanhood, sensuality, and what gets inherited versus what gets suppressed. She spoke at the AWP Writers Conference this year and has shown her multidisciplinary work internationally.
Somatic work is nicely incorporated into this course. Each session opens with breathwork and meditation before moving into the texts. Sibay's framework draws on Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic", the argument that the erotic is not just sexual but a form of knowledge, one that lives in the body and can only be reached through it. Reading Nizar Qabbani or Ghada Samman from that place is a different experience than reading them from your head.
Four Sundays in September.
The Picnic House in Prospect Park
Noon to 2pm.
$108-$162 for the full course
—> Meetup App:
Wanna be the first to access our meetup app? learn more and get on the waitlist
Support menna & Become a founding member
We are building a free space to bring SWANA New Yorkers together based on their interest and lifestyles, to find each other, show up for each other, and turn a scattered diaspora into an actual community. No algorithm picking who you meet. No gatekeepers. Just our people, in one app.
We're building it now, with your support. Cause if we don't do it for ourselves no one will do it for us.
Get Closer To Your Community
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here you can get the next newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
Have an event to share? Submit here or reach out for a collab
— Menna curates cultural content and events for informational purposes only. Event details are subject to change—
