photo credit Fabian Hugo

SAGIRAH SHAHID a Black American Muslim poet and performance artist from Minneapolis, Mni Sóta Makóče. Her silk-tongued verse and conceptual art creates lasting experiences for in-person audiences. Sagirah’s conceptual art focuses on curating participatory community spaces that offer healing, affirmation, and resistance against oppressive ideologies. In 2015 Sagirah received a Loft Literary Center Mentor Series  Award in poetry, a Minnesota Center for Book Arts Mentorship award in 2016, and received a performance arts and storytelling fellowship from the Twin Cities Media Alliance in 2018. In 2020, Sagirah was one of 23 artists selected by Muslim Advocates and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design to be featured in the American Muslim Futures virtual exhibit. Sagirah is a member of the Mizna writing collective and is a former poetry editor of Overtly Lit journal.

Sagirah is a fiscal year 2017 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.