ALHAMDU

(short for al-hamdu li-llāh الحمد لله)

is an evolving experiential art installation and archive created by MIPSTERZ that explores Muslim Futurism—a cultural and artistic imagining of a Muslim future free from the oppression* of today, set in a utopic tomorrow of our collective creation.

*consists of—but not limited to—anti-black racism, orientalism, homo-trans-xeno-Islamo-phobias, sexism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, nativism

ALHAMDU visually and interactively envisions a future where Third Culture is the dominant wave, where Muslims exist loudly alongside each other in their found-families.

This is a surreal, multi-chromatic journey.

This is a bright world that exists tomorrow, shared today.

The project will take shape in the form of a physical and digital immersive art installation with related public programs.

In order to focus our exploration, we have selected 5 core themes that reflect the legacies and intersections that have come to define American culture and history: Imagination, Identity, Community, Resistance, and Liberation.

Each theme is explored from an artistic and academic lens that interactively considers what “Muslim Futurism” means, draws from, and works toward.

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Imagination

Identity

Community

Resistance

Liberation

ALHAMDU installations consist of original MIPSTERZ artwork and contributions from Muslim + Muslim-adjacent + ally artists.

We invite artists to contribute to our growing archive of Muslim futurism art.

ALHAMDU public programs are designed to be accessible and expert-informed to foster meaningful dialog and understanding.

We seek input from academics, community leaders, and thought-provokers to broaden our capacity for analysis and imagination.

We invite thinkers to share their ideas, critiques, and conceptions of Muslim futurism.

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Learn more @ MIPSTERZ.com

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC
"ALHAMDULILLAH"

advisors

Zaheer Ali

Oral Historian & Public Scholar (MA, MPhil) Columbia University’s Malcolm X Project and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011) CNN’s Witnessed: The Assassination of Malcolm X (2015) Brooklyn Historical Society's "Muslims in Brooklyn" (2017-2019) Netflix’s "Who Killed Malcolm X?" (2020)

Peter Wright

Educator (JD, PhD) Associate Professor & Chair, Department of Religion, Colorado College Co-Chair, Arabic, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Colorado College

Aisha Shillingford

Activist & Educator (MSW, MBA) Artistic Director, Intelligent Mischief Credits: Wakanda Dream Lab, Racial & Economic Justice at the New Economy Coalition, Social Transformation Project, Innovation Strategy at Movement Strategy Center, Race Forward Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy, Laundromat Project Creative Change Fellowship

Anaïs Duplan

Poet, Artist, Curator (MFA) Founder & Curator, Center for Afrofuturist Studies Public Programs fellow, Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem (2017-2019) Plughaupt Fellow, Iowa Writers Workshop (2017) "Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture" (2020)

Nebil Husayn

Educator (PhD) Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of Miami Credits: Fulbright fellow, The Hāshimid Genealogy Trust, Middle East Studies Association of North America

Donna Auston

anthropologist, writer, and public intellectual

Sylvia Chan-Malik

Educator & Author (PhD, MFA) Anschutz Distinguished Fellow in American Studies, Princeton University Associate Professor, Departments of American Studies and Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey "Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color and American Islam" (NYU Press, 2018)

Hussein Rashid

Educator, Author, Consultant (PhD) Founder, islamicate, L3C Lecturer, Columbia University Credits: "The Secret History of Muslims in America" (New York Times), American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Religion and Comics at Claremont Press, Religion Dispatches, The Islamic Monthly, Cyber Orient

Rebecca Hankins

Professor

Omid Safi

Educator & Author (PhD) Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University Credits: Duke Islamic Studies Center, Pluralism Project at Harvard University, Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion, Sufi Heart podcast, Illuminated Tours/Courses Author: "Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism" (Oneworld, 2003) "Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition" (Yale, 2018)

Ali Asani

Educator (PhD) Harvard University: Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Faculty, Departments of South Asian Studies and African and African American Studies Author: "Celebrating Muhammad: Images of the Prophet in Popular Muslim Poetry" (1995) "Al-Ummah: A Handbook for an Identity Development Program for Immigrant Muslim Youth in North America" (1996)

Zahra Ayubi

Educator & Author (PhD) Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Department of Religion, Dartmouth College Faculty, Program in Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar "Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society" (2019)