Micaela Kaibni Raen's global mission is to advocate for global human rights reform while connecting and empowering activists/creatives resisting colonialism. She is the creator and founder of Queer Tatreez.
Distinctions:
2026 Lavender Residency Fellowship
2025 Tin House Summer Workshop
2023 Yalda Award in Poetry
2023 Soaring Gardens Fellowship
2024 Nomination Pushcart Prize
2024 Nomination Best of the Net
- Association of Writers and Witing Programs
- Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc. (RAWI)
- Lesbian Herstory Archives (New York)
- HALA Collective
- ACT UP! AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power!
Queer Tatreez is visual art and poetry inspired by the intricate patterns of Indigenous Palestinian Tatreez embroidery and textiles. Queer Tatreez is dedicated to queer and trans Palestinians, living in Palestine, and those living in exile.
Queer and Trans Palestinians have always created, shared, and celebrated Tatreez. As the culture of Tatreez evolves, it is becomes more diverse and inclusive. Queer Tatreez is a new evolution of both Tatreez and visual poetics stitching together Indigenous teachings rooted in colonial resistance and the Indigenous geographies.
Many Southwest Asian/North African (SWANA) and Southeast Asian (SEA) cultures have culturally specific forms of embroidery. Embroidery can become a point of connection that bring together queer and trans communities. Connecting across heritage, in shared poetic/artistic space, safe to both grieve our losses, mobilize resistance, and celebrate our lives.
Although Queer Tatreez is still evolving, it can act as embroidered mirrors...a space where we can see ourselves and each other, while also reflecting us back to our broader justice movements. Ultimately, empowering us to dream new futures for ourselves and our communities.
Queer and Trans Palestinians have always created, shared, and celebrated Tatreez. As the culture of Tatreez evolves, it is becomes more diverse and inclusive. Queer Tatreez is a new evolution of both Tatreez and visual poetics stitching together Indigenous teachings rooted in colonial resistance and the Indigenous geographies.
Many Southwest Asian/North African (SWANA) and Southeast Asian (SEA) cultures have culturally specific forms of embroidery. Embroidery can become a point of connection that bring together queer and trans communities. Connecting across heritage, in shared poetic/artistic space, safe to both grieve our losses, mobilize resistance, and celebrate our lives.
Although Queer Tatreez is still evolving, it can act as embroidered mirrors...a space where we can see ourselves and each other, while also reflecting us back to our broader justice movements. Ultimately, empowering us to dream new futures for ourselves and our communities.
Short Biography
Micaela Kaibni Raen is a queer Palestinian American mother, cultural worker, and global human rights activist. She is an award-winning published author and multimedia visual artist. Her work stitches eco-feminist poetics with Indigenous Palestinian textiles into print and digitized spaces to breakthrough a technomediated world. She grew up in the Little Arabia community in California and graduated from Chapman University.
A Tin House alum, she has been awarded the Yalda Award for Poetry as well as nominations for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. For over 40 years, she has advocated for Palestinians, Indigenous and displaced peoples, women, queer/trans youth in foster care, those affected by HIV/AIDS, and global queer/trans communities of color. She has participated in the Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.; the National Organization for Women; ACT UP!; and Queer Nation. Micaela Kaibni Raen is the creator of Queer Tatreez, a style of visual art and poetics inspired by Indigenous Palestinian embroidery.
A Lambda Literary fellow, her work has been featured in Bint el Nas; Mizna; Qafiyah Review; Yellow Medicine Review; Noor; Rowayat; Koukash Review; The Poetry of Arab Women; El Ghourabaa; Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora; and Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry. With artwork showcased in Resistance at A.R.T./New York and featured by Protea Gallery, her work also appears in several publications.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/micaelakaibniraen
IG: @micaelakaibniraen
IG: @queertatreez