You’re Invited: Reclaiming Ramadan 2023
To Our Beloved Muslim Communities,
As Ramadan 2023 approaches, we’ve been hoping to reclaim Ramadan and create spaces of solidarity to define Ramadan for ourselves.
That’s why we (Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity [MASGD], Masjid Al- Rabia, Queer Crescent, Queer Shia Collective, and Unity Mosque) are delighted to announce a joint Ramadan calendar of events by and for our communities. We want to invite you to join our Reclaiming Ramadan event series!
Our goal is to provide space for all Muslims (and Muslim-ish folks) while prioritizing the most marginalized within our communities. This includes our siblings who are Black, LGBTQ+, Shi’a, disabled, converts, incarcerated, etc. who are often excluded from participation within mainstream Muslim communities. We also seek to dismantle traditional ideas and norms of what it means to be Muslim. Thus, we define Muslim as a person who identifies with “muslim-ness” in any way — cultural, political, spiritual, convert, revert, etc.
Beginning now and throughout Ramadan, you can access our shared calendar detailing events offered in collaboration with each of our organizations shown below. We are offering a Ramadan decorations event which will also be a kickoff introduction space to introduce our respective queer and trans Muslim orgs on Saturday March 25th at 3 pm CDT.
We understand that our communities live in different time zones and have different accessibility needs. This is why all of our listed events will be held remotely via Zoom, and many of our events will include live closed captioning and/or ASL interpretation. If you’re unable to attend events or feel Zoom fatigued, we will also be sharing resources to provide various ways to process, celebrate, and participate throughout this month.
All event details and resources can be found in this doc.
We hope to be in community with you all soon!
With Love & Solidarity,
Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD)
Masjid Al-Rabia
Queer Crescent
Queer Shia Collective
El Tawhid Unity Mosque
Letter from New Leadership
Salaams MASGD community,
InshaAllah you’re all doing well. We have some incredibly exciting news! We have hired our first two team members. If you’ve joined us for programs the last few months you’re probably already familiar with Mx. Yaffa (no pronouns) and Safae (they/them). Safae has been with us since Ramadan, first starting as a contractor as our Ramadan Coordinator 2022. Safae joins us with a multitude of experience, including as a filmmaker and web developer. Safae joins as our Admin and Programming Coordinator, supporting our programming sustainment and expansion into 2023. Safae will be hosting monthly Community Space Sundays (second Sundays of the month) with a focus on creating and sharing creative expression. They will continue to support our monthly community event programs.
You may have joined one of the programs that Mx. Yaffa has hosted during these past few months or gotten to know them as a fellow participant. Mx. Yaffa joins MASGD with over 13 years of experience community and movement building, founding and running non-profits, coalition building, peer support, engineering, and a multitude of other experiences. Mx. Yaffa will be working to sustain and grow MASGD to better serve our QTM community.
As part of this shift in leadership we are excited to announce a few new programming options and community investment opportunities.
In addition to our new monthly offering Community Space Sundays, we will be continuing our monthly community events. Community events are an opportunity for our members to host events for the community that center QTM belonging and wellbeing. To ensure that our most marginalized community members are able to host these spaces our team will support you in all logistics and any skill being needed to host your event the way you envision it. Additionally, we are launching our community event fund, ensuring that every facilitator is paid $250 for their labor. If you are interested in hosting an event please contact Safae at safae@themasgd.org.
We are also looking to expand our programming to include a longer term skill building program. This 6 month program will be a space to skill build, support one another, and financial project support. Be on the lookout for an official announcement and application process Feb ‘23.
And so much more…. And we need your help. After 2.5 years of exclusively virtual programming we are looking into safely restarting our in-person retreat. We would love to hear from you what direction you would like us to take as an organization, the types of events you’re interested in, access needs we need to build into every program, and if you’re interested in a return to in-person gatherings.
Looking foward to seeing you all for one final 2022 program and we’ll be back for our first Community Space Sundays on January 8th, 2023!
SC, Mx. Yaffa, Safae
