New Article and Artwork for Pride 2025

In HALA Collective Blog

New article is up on the HALA Collective Blog: No “Happy” in Pride for 2025 By Micaela Kaibni Raen. It is accompanied by new artwork “No Pride in Genocide (Queer Tatreez).” Thank you @mamaganuush and @thehalacollective for being the embodiment/vision of love for our communities of color and activism towards justice.

Click here to view it:

https://www.thehalacollective.com/blog/no-happy-in-pride-for-2025-by-micaela-kaibni-raen

Short excerpt from the article: 

Our grandmothers’ tears of Tatreez live on through us. Her tightly sewn stitches hold hope, resistance, and sumud...our cultural inheritance. We are more than fierce grief...we are ancestral indigeneities in human form dreamed into being by our ancestors. We were formed by dreams, sand and stardust but we are shaped by love. We are Palestine. With Palestine, and so much of the world, facing genocides and health catastrophes, it is a crucial time for all of us to continue building our community movements…demanding racial, gender, and land justice. 

Queer Tatreez Visual Poetics Chosen for Tendrils Literary Journal

Tendrils Literary Journal is a print publication as well as a highly competitive and curated online journal. For the online journal, only nine works were chosen out of many submissions and I am honored to be included in the issue. 

I am so excited to announce that work "Whispers (Queer Tatreez)" was chosen for online publication. The poem has a variable structure and questions...what happens to us when we can no longer hear the whispers of the poppies? The artwork in the poem is vividly stunning and references trauma, tears, and sumud.

Link to the issue:
 

Trauma and the Body Issue, June 2025
https://www.tendrilsjournal.com/issue1-trauma-and-the-body

 
Link to my work in the issue:
https://www.tendrilsjournal.com/issue1-trauma-and-the-body#whispers

Queer Tatreez Artwork - Gallery Exhibition

Many thanks to Doris Bittar and the Protea Gallery, in Los Angeles, for believing in and featuring my work. 

 

                                               

Queer Tatreez is an artistic style born out of Indigenous femininities, ancestral geographies, gender diversity/inclusivity, and the land that gives us life. The feminine images and Tatreez shown here symbolize cultural resistance, timeless existence, and the intrinsic loving divinity found through feminine connections.

You can see the work online by going to @protea.gallery on IG or by visiting these links:

Death Equals Silence (Queer Tatreez)
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLUzm2Rxumr/

Incendiary Kalaf الْكَلَفُ  (Queer Tatreez)
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLPqt7NxRVf/

Homecoming in Tetas' Tatreez Galaxy (Queer Tatreez)...For Gaza
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLPpbxPRXmC/

"For Queer and Trans Palestinians

in Palestine, and those

living in exile,

our love transcends empire."

--Micaela Kaibni Raen

Time in the Studio

 Last week, a gallery asked for one of my art pieces for inclusion in a show. I was very honored to be included. Then they said that they also want a picture of me working in my studio.

For so long...so many emotions have been poured into my art. Rage, tears, grief, frustration, despair, love, sexuality, pride, glitter, and sumud…my teary eyed hope.

However, on this day I was asked to take a picture of myself in the studio creating…what showed up was joy.

Click on the link to check it out...
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLOVXfDRN2P/

Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry

New Anthology Available for Purchase

This anthology is brimming with vivid Palestinian cultural vibrance while being deeply honest, fiercely emotional, powerfully resistant, and spiritually transcendent. Thank you for all you do…George Abraham, Noor Hindi, and Haymarket Books.

I am so honored to be included with such talented and amazing poets! The anthology includes one of my Queer Tatreez works of visual poetics.

Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry

Purchase at Haymarket Books

P.S. -->I am loving my shirt by MDabaieEye on Etsy.<--

New Queer Tatreez Artwork in Baladi Magazine

Dedicated to Queer/Trans Palestinians

living in Palestine and those in the exile.

Thank you so much Baladi Magazine
for this amazing opportunity
 to share my dreams
for our beloved Palestine 
and for us all. 
The artist statement included
discusses the inspiration for the artwork.

Click here to view:

Whispers' Screams (Queer Tatreez)

https://baladimagazine.com/whispers-screams-queer-tatreez/

Click here to view:

Wahid واحد (Queer Tatreez)

https://baladimagazine.com/wahid-%d9%88%d8%a7%d8%ad%d8%af-queer-tatreez/

Check out the magazine here..

Baladi

https://baladimagazine.com/

More exciting announcements to come! 

Tatreez Thoughts - Micaela Kaibni Raen

My creative works are most often inspired and centered by Tatreez, Indigenous Palestinian embroidery and textiles. Palestinian Tatreez, an organic part of our culture, also shares imperative values with gender, racial, and land justice movements. 

Wearing, creating, and working with Palestinian Tatreez is a powerful remembrance and way to connect with our ancestors, our communities, and ourselves. I want to thank our grandmothers for leaving this full, rich, emotional, and visionary legacy. A legacy of traditions, family, culture and identity. A legacy of hope, sumud, and land stitched in Tatreez.

I am so grateful to the Palestinian Tatreez Artists from yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They are the true archivists of our herstory, history, identity, and culture. Each new stich they lay, designs an exquisite blueprint for our futures. 

All quotes by Micaela Kaibni Raen.

My Act UP! Jacket and Ensemble from the 1990s is on Display

I am so honored to have my activist clothing from the 1990s on display at the Resistance Exhibition for A Night of Unstageable Works at 7:30 p.m. at TheaterLab in New York.  May 17th will be a memorable night. 

For more information check out... www.theaterlabnyc.com and @lighthouseladiesco

Sponsored by the Lighthouse Ladies. Thank you for all your hard work, Dot Persica.

Here is a Sneak Peek...

There will also be three new Queer Tatreez art pieces on display at the event. Artwork is dedicated to Queer/Trans Palestinians, Southwest Asian/ North African (SWANA) Queer/Trans women, Dykes, and sapphic folk.

After the show, the 1990s items will be on display at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York. For more information about the Archives go to https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org

Exciting News!

Thank you Tin House! I am honored and excited to work with so many talented creators this summer…and beyond the moon to study poetry with Lena Khalaf Tuffaha!

 

“Our grandmothers’ tears of Tatreez live on through us. Tatreez, Indigenous Palestinian embroidery, holds hope, tears and sumud...our cultural inheritance. Their gift to us for the enduring. We are more than fierce grief…we are ancestral indigeneities in human form dreamed into being by our ancestors. We are love, strength, art, magic and so much more. We were formed by dreams, sand and stardust, but we are shaped by love. 

We are poetry. We are Palestine.”

— Micaela Kaibni Raen

Something Beautiful

Ask the Night for a Dream:

Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora

Available Now for Pre-order.

I am deeply grateful to represent my family and homeland through art and poetry. It means so much to be included beside so many talented creators within the pages of this beautiful and powerful anthology. 

 

Palestine Writes Press

Order Link

https://palestinewrites.org/product/ask-the-night-for-a-dream-palestinian-writing-from-the-diaspora-2024/

New Artwork is Stunning in this Beautiful Chilean Magazine.

Ultramarine Literary Review

 

"Last Flight Home” speaks to the global loss of life in Queer/Trans communities. Most of us surviving without basic human rights.

Click here to see the Artwork and the Artist Statement Online:

https://www.ultramarinereview.com/art-and-photography?pgid=m49781cs-29f9a094-8cc5-4693-a4c4-4b56e2409945

Quote from a National Organization for Women's Event in 1990

It is hard to believe that 1990 was 35 years ago! It must be time to start working on my memoir. While preparing some items for the archives, I found my speech notes from this event. Here is a quote from the talk.

Yellow Medicine Review

Thank you, Yellow Medicine Review,  for publishing my visual poem in such vibrant color. It means so much to be able to share my words and my art in color; it's full expression.

The Fall 2024 issue contains many works by

talented Indigenous creators and six of my works. 

The issue is available for purchase at 

http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/store/c2/Current_Issue.html

Please consider purchasing the issue. 

It is a great way to support Indigenous creators. 

Feminist and Indigenous Publication Announcements

Recent & Coming Soon

Chapter House Indigenous Literary Journal

Visual Poetics dedicated to the Palestinian Poppy. 

CLICK HERE TO READ --> 

https://chjournal.com/micaela-raen

Yellow Medicine Review

Winter 2024 Issue

Six works include: 

poetry, visual poetics, and flash nonfiction.

 

Now Available for Purchase 

http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/store/c2/Current_Issue.html

Writers Resist 

Artwork "Death Equals Silence"  and Artist Statement

Available in Issue Three (2024)

Click here to see it...

https://www.writersresist.com/2024/06/19/death-equals-silence/

Sinister Wisdom

Cover Art for the SWANA Dykes Issue

Pending Winter 2026

Art for Palestine

(Art for Mankind) Donated Art
To be Featured on IG and on website for purchase.

Pending Spring 2025

Anthologies Available for Pre-Order

Ask the Night for a Dream:

Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora

Edited by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Publisher: Palestine Writes Press

Poem Included: Sitti's Stars

    Pre-order Link:

https://palestinewrites.org/product/ask-the-night-for-a-dream-palestinian-writing-from-the-diaspora-2024/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry

Editors Editors: George Abraham & Noor Hindi

Publisher: Haymart Books, Pending May 2025

Visual Poetic Poem Included: 

Silence of Fire (Queer Tatreez)

Pre-order Link

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2527-heaven-looks-like-us

More exciting announcements coming soon!

 
 

AWP Conference in Los Angeles

                   SAVE THE DATE

For more information about the AWP Conference:
https://awpwriter.org/AWP/Conference-Bookfair/Overview.aspx

Hire me for your next project...

A Year in Review

As we move forward, we bring with us those affected by genocides, past and present, around the globe...and in so doing, we grieve unconceivable losses to humanity and our mother-planet. Through art and poetry, my work mourns violence against humanity and strives to uncover new perceptions through the lens of culture, love, loss, grief and rage. Through artistic activism, I process deep emotion, dream my people free, and seek out new futures.

Published work in 2024:

• 15 Poems
• 1 Queer Tatreez Visual Poem
• 1 Visual Poetic Poem
• 2 Flash Nonfiction Pieces
• 1 Article/Blog
• 2 Queer Tatreez Visual Art Pieces

I am my grandmothers’ dream, and she is mine. We exist together through Tatreez, Indigenous Palestinian textiles and embroidery. Together, we share cultural memory, ancestral wisdom, and visions of new futures. Thank you to the journals and magazines that have supported my work and my voice. I am deeply grateful to represent my family and homeland through art and poetry. I admire your courage and resolve in showcasing Indigenous Palestinian voices during this turbulent and violent time. It means so much to me to be included, beside so many talented creators, within the pages of your publications.

For more detailed information, 

click on the "Publications" tab above.

New Publications Available for Purchase

Yellow Medicine Review

Fall 2024 Issue

I am so inspired by the talented authors in the current issue of Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. I appreciate YMR so much for their mission and hard work on this beautiful publication. So honored to represent my family and homeland through art and poetry.

  

Yellow Medicine Review Store

http://www.yellowmedicinereviewstore.com/

Ask the Night for a Dream

Published by Palestine Writes Press

Pre-order available for this new anthology! I am deeply grateful to represent my family and homeland through art and poetry. It means so much to be included beside so many talented creators within the pages of this beautiful publication.

  

Palestine Writes Press Order Page

https://palestinewrites.org/product/ask-the-night-for-a-dream-palestinian-writing-from-the-diaspora-2024/

Purchasing these publications

is an important way to support

Southwest Asian/North African creators.