MSA marks Arab Heritage Month Student group celebrates with food, performances throughout April

By AVA MANDOLI daily senior staffer @ava_mandoli

This April, Northwestern Multicultural Student Affairs formally recognized Arab Heritage Month for the first time.

Weinberg junior Sara Ibrahim, the Middle Eastern North African Student Association copresident, said this acknowledgment is a step in the right direction toward increasing MENA visibility on campus. She said this has historically been limited by the lack of a MENA category on the U.S. census.

“One of the big reasons why there was never any programming or community for MENA students is because we don’t have faculty in MSA,” Ibrahim, a former op-ed Daily contributor, said. “That all goes back to being invisible on the census. You can’t create jobs or community for a community that doesn’t exist on paper.”

MSA didn’t organize any programming for Arab Heritage Month this year, which Ibrahim said is because MSA doesn’t have staff members dedicated to supporting MENA students. Instead, the MENA Student Association, which was founded in spring 2021, planned April’s events, some in collaboration with the MENA Studies and MENA Languages programs.

The student group organized an Arabic calligraphy workshop, poetry readings, speaker events and more throughout the month. The second annual Arab Expressions event takes place Friday, featuring spoken Arabic poetry, live music from oud and tabla players, a traditional dabke dance performance and food from Al Bawadi Grill.

Last Spring Quarter, the

» See ARAB HERITAGE , page 6 from Evanston Township High School just to go to Jamba. He even started an Instagram account, @bringbacktheevanstonjamba, to advocate for the smoothie shop’s return to downtown.

“It was kind of a joke but kind of serious,” Holmes said. But in the fall, Holmes — now a senior at Boston University — will see his dream come true. A new Jamba location is set to open at 1732 Sherman » See JAMBA , page 6