GISC Panel. Qahwah & Authors: Poetry & Visual Arts
Aline Batarseh (Visualizing Palestine) Esra Mirze Santesso (Muslim Comics & Warscape Witnessing) Mouna Ammar (Zmagria: Poems) Noor Hindi (Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. )

Tuesday, February 25, 2025
6:00-8:00 PM
Off Campus Location
Tuesday February 25, 2025 | 6:00 PM | 27th Letter Books, 3546 Michigan Ave, Detroit
RSVP: http://bit.ly/Qahwah25 | Add this event to your calendar!
Join the University of Michigan Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at 27th Letter Books in Detroit at 6PM on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 for a panel discussion on new and exciting poetry and visual art & analysis from Muslim and Arab American authors & editors. Find out what Muslim readers are talking about! Coffee, tea, & pastries will be served.
Featuring:
Aline Batarseh (Visualizing Palestine)
Esra Mirze Santesso (Muslim Comics & Warscape Witnessing)
Mouna Ammar (Zmagria: Poems)
Noor Hindi (Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. )
Speaker bios:
Aline is a Palestinian from Jerusalem. She lived most of her life in Palestine and moved to the U.S. with her family in 2015. Aline joined the Visualizing Palestine team as Executive Director in 2021. She has more than 20 years of experience working with several Palestinian and international nonprofits at the intersections of gender equality, reproductive justice, children’s rights, mental health, and social justice.
Esra Mirze Santesso is a Professor of English at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Disorientation: Muslim Identity in Contemporary Anglophone Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing (Ohio State UP, 2023) which received an honorable mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Middle Eastern Studies at the MLA. She is the also the co-editor of Islam and Postcolonial Literature (Routledge, 2017), and Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction (Manchester UP, forthcoming). Her essays have appeared in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Religion and Literature, Critical Muslim, Postcolonial Interventions, Recherche Littéraire / Literary Research, The Comparatist, and Postcolonial Text. Her interview with Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2006 came out in PMLA. She teaches courses on postcolonial theory, human rights narratives, and immigrant literature.
Mouna Ammar is a mother, writer, researcher, independent scholar, postpartum doula, educational linguist, and wayward chef living in Ann Arbor by way of Los Angeles and Algiers. Her favorite themes are love of land, strength, self-discovery, and sustaining traditions. She has been writing since she was a teen and, as an author of Algerian origin, she brings a fresh voice to the expansive body of literature by Arab Americans. Her inspirations are as eclectic as Aja Monet and Mahmoud Darwish, Sonia Sanchez and Agha Shahid Ali. Mouna's debut collection of poems entitled "Zmagria" offers an invitation to others to seek a reflection of themselves in her words. She can be found on her Instagram page @frommouna_ammar
Noor Hindi (she/her/hers) is a Palestinian-American poet. Her debut collection of poems, Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow (Haymarket Books 2022), was an honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award. She is currently editing a Palestinian poetry anthology with George Abraham (Haymarket Books, 2025). Noor Hindi is calling on you to join the global fight for the survival and liberation of Palestinians and all oppressed people. Anywhere and everywhere you are, you can disrupt, advocate, speak out and refuse in small and big ways. Revolution until freedom. Follow her on Instagram @NoorKHindi.
For more events from the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan, please visit ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact [email protected]. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
RSVP: http://bit.ly/Qahwah25 | Add this event to your calendar!
Join the University of Michigan Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) at 27th Letter Books in Detroit at 6PM on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 for a panel discussion on new and exciting poetry and visual art & analysis from Muslim and Arab American authors & editors. Find out what Muslim readers are talking about! Coffee, tea, & pastries will be served.
Featuring:
Aline Batarseh (Visualizing Palestine)
Esra Mirze Santesso (Muslim Comics & Warscape Witnessing)
Mouna Ammar (Zmagria: Poems)
Noor Hindi (Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. )
Speaker bios:
Aline is a Palestinian from Jerusalem. She lived most of her life in Palestine and moved to the U.S. with her family in 2015. Aline joined the Visualizing Palestine team as Executive Director in 2021. She has more than 20 years of experience working with several Palestinian and international nonprofits at the intersections of gender equality, reproductive justice, children’s rights, mental health, and social justice.
Esra Mirze Santesso is a Professor of English at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Disorientation: Muslim Identity in Contemporary Anglophone Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing (Ohio State UP, 2023) which received an honorable mention for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Middle Eastern Studies at the MLA. She is the also the co-editor of Islam and Postcolonial Literature (Routledge, 2017), and Muslim Women’s Popular Fiction (Manchester UP, forthcoming). Her essays have appeared in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Religion and Literature, Critical Muslim, Postcolonial Interventions, Recherche Littéraire / Literary Research, The Comparatist, and Postcolonial Text. Her interview with Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize winner for literature in 2006 came out in PMLA. She teaches courses on postcolonial theory, human rights narratives, and immigrant literature.
Mouna Ammar is a mother, writer, researcher, independent scholar, postpartum doula, educational linguist, and wayward chef living in Ann Arbor by way of Los Angeles and Algiers. Her favorite themes are love of land, strength, self-discovery, and sustaining traditions. She has been writing since she was a teen and, as an author of Algerian origin, she brings a fresh voice to the expansive body of literature by Arab Americans. Her inspirations are as eclectic as Aja Monet and Mahmoud Darwish, Sonia Sanchez and Agha Shahid Ali. Mouna's debut collection of poems entitled "Zmagria" offers an invitation to others to seek a reflection of themselves in her words. She can be found on her Instagram page @frommouna_ammar
Noor Hindi (she/her/hers) is a Palestinian-American poet. Her debut collection of poems, Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow (Haymarket Books 2022), was an honorable mention for the Arab American Book Award. She is currently editing a Palestinian poetry anthology with George Abraham (Haymarket Books, 2025). Noor Hindi is calling on you to join the global fight for the survival and liberation of Palestinians and all oppressed people. Anywhere and everywhere you are, you can disrupt, advocate, speak out and refuse in small and big ways. Revolution until freedom. Follow her on Instagram @NoorKHindi.
For more events from the Global Islamic Studies Center at the University of Michigan, please visit ii.umich.edu/islamicstudies
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact [email protected]. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: | Off Campus Location |
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Location: | 27th Letter Books: 3546 Michigan Ave, Detroit |
Website: | |
Event Type: | Lecture / Discussion |
Tags: | Discussion, Global Islamic Studies, Middle East Studies, Poetry, Presentation |
Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Global Islamic Studies Center, International Institute |
The Global Islamic Studies Center organizes a number of public events each year such as lectures, conferences, and films, many in collaboration with other U-M units. Please use our searchable events calendar for information about upcoming programs sponsored by GISC and the Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies Seminar (IISS).