Since 2016, our young organization, Gathering All Muslim Artists (GAMA) has experimented with different ways of supporting creatives in our community including transforming Halal restaurants into rotating art galleries, merchandising artists prints, auctioning art pieces, organizing learning workshops, and collaborating with peer Muslim institutions to create spaces for artists to thrive and experiment. Our programs provide safe spaces for emerging Muslim artists to develop their craft, cope with discrimination, and liberate their stories to heal, unite, and utilize art as a conversation and education piece to strengthen our communities.

Our sold out gallery launch ‘Eat your Art Out’ on May 12th 2018, was a culmination of everything we have learned from our community and our programs. It reflects our hopes and dreams for Muslim Artists and strongly demonstrates who we are as an organization:

Our vision is to build a platform that nurtures Muslim artists in order to weave the arts back into the mainstream Muslim narrative and to develop a culture of creativity and patronage within the broader Muslim community.

The room was full of laughter, awe, and pure admiration as our creatives shone their light brightly through their expression. Following are key highlights:

Standing in Solidarity with our Community: In typical GAMA fashion we held our event at a Muslim Halal restaurant: L’Aziz Pizza & Eatery in Union City We work closely with Muslim institutions and business so we can all thrive together as a cohesive community.
Celebrating Art in all its forms: We recognize and uplift the creativity in all forms. Our program included:
Spoken word: from Narjis Sheikh, Zahra Seyed and Laura Miller.
Guitar and singing performances including an italian opera in training Abbas Jaffer and Umar Atalla Khan
Featured poet Roger Rojas presented rap verses on his spiritual struggles and triumphs.

To see videos of open-mic performances see here (https://www.facebook.com/theGAMACollective/videos/569664023433179/)
Event Pictures can also be found on our Facebook album. (https://www.facebook.com/pg/theGAMACollective/photos/?tab=album&album_id=571998443199737)

Artists were Front and Center: Our three featured artists, Nafiseh Mirnezami, Yasmeen Rasheed, and Fahd Butt, where given space and time to share their stories, their passions, and present their work. Nafiseh’s art was inspired by verses of the Holy Quran, Yasmeen’s digital art pieces were connect to personal stories of overcoming trauma, and Fahd’s paintings were connected to pop culture and sci-fi. During the silent auction three of the six art pieces were sold.
Follow the Money: All our artists and volunteers were compensated for their work and time. As a non-profit, this is not always possible, but due to the enthusiastic support from the community and our sponsors, this was made possible!
Attendees left awe struck and inspired:
Attendee Guled Muse shared his thoughts: “’Eat Your Art Out’ gave me plenty of food for thought about the creatives in my ummah! My friends and I witnessed a range of Muslim artists like ourselves who spoke their truth through visual art, music, or poetry. This event left me exhilarated about the breadth of talent in our community. We need to support organizations like GAMA – that helps artists with exposure, open the door of curiosity to people who are unfamiliar to our culture, and develop the support Muslim youth need to express themselves freely in the arts.”
Featured artist Yasmeen Rasheed expressed: “I just recently attended my first GAMA event [“Eat Your Art Out”] as an artist and felt a warm welcome by all. Prior to this event, I had never had a Muslim community support my artwork in an environment that wasn’t aiming to directly make a profit to the organization. GAMA genuinely cares about the artists and about fostering an oft neglected but integral part of our tradition–the arts. In a community that respects medical professionals as the pinnacle of success, we need organizations like GAMA now more than ever–to tell our stories, share our experiences, and connect us on a deeper level than the superficialities of lucrative professions.”

This event was a true collaboration and we want to acknowledge and thank our volunteer staff: host Abbas Mohamed, our photographer Fatima Zehra, Tamara Shoubber and Narjis Sheikh. Alhumdulilah, it was such an honor to host this event for our community. We also want to thank our sponsor Halalfest (www.halalfest.com) for making this event a reality, and to L’Aziz Pizza + Eatery (www.instagram.com/eat_laziz) for hosting us.

We hope to see you at GAMA’s next event, inshallah!