So welcome to our audience that is viewing from home during this lockdown. My name is Kashmir Meriam and this is my sister Aisha. Aisha would you like to introduce yourself and what we do is the strangers organization? Yes, ala mualleku, Bismillahir wassalat wa salam ala Rasulullah, salam Allah wa a'ala you assalam. My name is Aisha and I am part of an organization called the Strangers and our goal is to revive the message of Islam. We do this through different means. One of the means is through spoken word, poetry, through the collective voice of Muslim poets around the world and just being able to clear up misconceptions. So that's our main goal. Yes, Kashmir. Yes, excellent. Juzak wa khayr. So the work that we do is the strangers is we host a lot of poetry fans. A lot of the time they're in person and so we have our poets go on stage, they compete for trophies and prizes and we just have a good time. It's basically to platform the Muslim voice so that we can portray the true message of Islam through the art spoken word poetry. So it's a creative art. It's something that is powerful and empowering and that's what we wanted to do for you today. So we have a great show lined up for you all. We hope that you enjoy watching and I just wanted to clarify a few things that are a little bit different about Islam poetry versus wisdom poetry or any other type of poetry shaped beer, whatever you whatever type of poetry you are into. So the difference between Islam poetry is that it is about the content of the poem. So how deep is the local content, how relevant is it to the audience, how powerful is the methods that are used to articulate what is being said in the poem. And second of all, the powerful thing about Islam poetry and probably one of the more important traits of Islam poetry is that it is heavily about the way in which the message is revealed to the audience. So it's not just about reading from a sheet of paper, it's about how that message is delivered. So that's something that we put a lot of emphasis on as the strangers and we do with all of our poets as well. So in Shala today you'll be hearing some Islam poetry and I hope that you enjoy the show and all of the poets that we have lined up. There are three simple rules that we have for the poets. That is number one, the content has to be appropriate. So no curse words. There is no inappropriate content and our poets do understand that. The second rule is that we have to make sure that the poem is under five minutes and number three is just to be respectful of everyone that is up there performing. Everyone is sharing something that is meaningful to them and that's something very personal and we have to respect that because that's very sanctified. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce our judge for this evening. Her name is Tani Salah. Is Tani there? Tani here. Assalamu Alaikum Tani, how are you doing? Tani Allah we're doing good. Perfect, so I have Tani your bio here, I'm just going to read it and hopefully that will explain to everyone your background in poetry. I personally I know Tani from before, she's a slam poet so she knows the thing or two or more than a thing or two about performance and that's one of the reasons we chose to have her on our platform today and that's something that means a lot to us because I think to be a writer is one thing but to be a performer is something something else. So Jessica Herp are joining us today. So Tani Salah is an educator, poet and activist based in Brooklyn, New York with a bloodline to Palestine. The graduate of Columbia University, a former professor of curriculum development at the Cooney Graduate Center. She's also a member of the New York and slam team. She competed internationally and holds many flam titles from Europe to Africa. Tani has also been featured on HBO's Death Power 3 Jam. She is a passion about peace and activism and carries that into the classroom as an educator showing how life creates art and using it all as a tool of expression. As an artist dedicated to bringing light and solutions to communities where people voices have been silent, Tani has performed at a number of world famous stages including the Apollo Theater in New York City, to universities in the US, South Africa, Germany, Canada, Palestine, Jordan and many more. Okay so Tani, you told me to take one or two lines from your bio but I felt like everyone needed to hear that. So welcome. So we'll have Sister America up. Salam Alaikum. Alaikum Assalam. We're Ahmadallah, everybody get this sister. Please introduce yourself and go for it. Okay, my name is Amira. I'm a high school student in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The poem I'm going to perform today is about hypocrisy in Islamophobia to particularly in the states but everywhere. Dun Dun Kamal Jockey, towel head terrorist, too many names to list, go back to where you came from, get out of our country. Well guess what? I was born here in Miss. Sorry for San Bernardino, Fort Orlando, for Boston, for the KKK. Oh yeah, that wasn't us. No, no, they're just white and they're just mentally ill and can be forgiven. But if they were brown, black or yellow, we'd be apologizing for things we never did. Yellow and scream about the Middle East forcing religion on oppressed girls and women. But you'll send out flyers calling to kill all Muslims because we won't undress to fit your American vision. Okay hypocrites. Build a wall to keep out these immigrants strengthen border security, keep out these dangerous refugees. You can text them in the womb but not when bombs are being dropped on their dads and moms and schools and homes. And where is your humanity when you can watch a video of a child dying and use the excuse that it was their fault for trying? How did you forget that God loves all his children when you're always paraphrasing the book in which it was written? Discriminate against Muslim women and our veils, the same veil that Virgin Mary wore and it's okay when Dun's wear it, right? But hey, I'm not here to hate you. I can't resent you or hate you because the very same religion that you call this tasteful has taught me that it is wrong to do so. And so I'll leave you with the customary greeting. Assalamu alaikum peace be upon you. Wa aalaikum assalam and upon you be peace. So the next time you see a Muslim, say salam. We don't bite or bomb, I promise. That's it. I remember reading that poem in your submission and it's so true and I love the way you ended it as well. Because it's even though it's said in like a very light hearted manner and it's a very heavy thing that Muslims have to deal with constantly to be viewed in a certain way. And you know, I love bless you for being able to clear up that misconception. I hope that you did. Just a cool. I'm sorry I had it muted. Yeah, just like her sister, Mira, I like the fact that you highlight some of the typical stereotypes that we get as Muslims. Because it's true no matter how much we say it, people still perceive as in a certain kind of way. And I think you did a great job of articulating that. Sister, if people want to follow your content or read more of your poetry, do you have a book or social media? I do not, but I do write for the website that's going to launch called muslim.co. Later in April at the beginning of Ramadan. So you can go there to more of my writing eventually once we launch, but I don't have any social media. Perfect. So muslim.co. Yes. Perfect. That's so easy to remember in insha'Allah. I'll definitely be checking out more of your writing and do zakla here for sharing your content with us. And yeah, we'll be speaking to you soon insha'Allah. Salamu alaykum. Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to thank everyone here. I want to thank primarily for hosting this on their platform every single year. When we host this, it's just an amazing success. And I can say I'll have a little laugh on the bottom of my heart being this was nominally successful. But zakla here, I wanted to make special zakla here to Hany for doing this. I'm doing a very, very difficult job of judging. It can live with you all over the world. I met a lot of award-you and you know, for taking the time out, you're also a mother. So, you know, I know it's difficult juggling duty, so you've held the award before that. And yeah, you're having a closing remarks, Aisha. I just wanted to say that humdulillah, humdulillah, humdulillah. We are loveless all of the viewers for attending. I pray that we all benefit in an event without our poets. Now, saying that as well, I'm not sure if you can see me. Okay, you can see me now. No further ado, you can find the strangers on Instagram. Our website is in the works. Inshallah, so please do definitely follow up with more information about the Weger campaign, which is a current campaign that we're doing. We hope you enjoyed the letter, the final compilation. A lot of heart went into it from our poets and thank you again to everyone. And of course, this is the Baha'i. You did an amazing job, JazakAllah. Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. And ikna. Of course, ikna. And lastly, I just want to say the greatest thank you to all of our poets for attending their pieces. I was my blowing and touched my heart. And I'm sincerely saying that as someone who's been to a lot of poetry, slams and a lot of poetry over the years, as Tani and As Aisha can both. And as few we had an amazing level of talent tonight, and Somaila Rawardi, and yeah, I'm going to close it right there. And it's salamu alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.