Searching for Stars

This poetry collection reflects on Muslim diaspora, heartbreak, trauma, healing, resistance, and unrequited and limitless compassion. This collection honors the labor of being a Muslim woman in a post-9/11 America, reclaiming her agency and learning to love the most seemingly unlovable parts of herself, committed to resistance and to shifting the narrative to exposing the complicity of America in the systemic oppression of people of color, while highlighting the transformative power of accountability and responsibility. Dina's poems discover shared roots between Black, brown, and African diaspora and draws on a global experience of resistance to white supremacy, militarization, misogyny, and colonialism. Dina is a new mom, a Muslim-Egyptian immigrant, writer, poet, abolitionist, and advocate living in Nashville. Her writing and activism focus on resisting state violence, surveillance, institutionalized islamophobia, and racism. She writes and advocates to change the dominant narrative into a more critical, radical, and intersectional one in resisting a larger system of racialized policies and state violence. Dina's writing has been featured in various in-print and online platforms including books, news media, and political analysis publications from her past work in organizing and policy analysis. Her poetry unearths trauma and healing, narrates the labor of compassion, and reflects the Muslim diaspora. As a new mother, Dina has been enjoying her new role and discovering the ways that motherhood and giving life is also revolution. You can connect with Dina on Instagram @dinaelrifaii