Queer Book Club: Hijab Butch Blues
Schedule
Wed May 08 2024 at 07:00 pm
Location
3032 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN, United States, Minnesota 55406 | Minneapolis, MN
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Join us for Queer Book Club on Wednesday, May 8th, at 7pm at Quatrefoil Library, 1220 East Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55407. We'll be meeting to discuss Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. Anyone is welcome to join whether you've read the whole book or just skimmed a few pages.When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher—her female teacher—she covers up her attraction, an attraction she can’t yet name, by playing up her roles as overachiever and class clown. Born in South Asia, she moved to the Middle East at a young age and has spent years feeling out of place, like her own desires and dreams don’t matter, and it’s easier to hide in plain sight. To disappear. But one day in Quran class, she reads a passage about Maryam that changes everything: When Maryam learned that she was pregnant, she insisted no man had touched her. Could Maryam, uninterested in men, be . . . like Lamya?
From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own—ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant.
This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life.
We meet the second Wednesdays of every month!
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Where is it happening?
3032 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN, United States, Minnesota 55406Event Location & Nearby Stays:
