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publications
a sampler of academic writing, poetry, essays & journalism

Tropical Leaves
_heaven is crowded with children in the playground of the hereafter they arrive tattered &

disarm humanity
dreaming of a future without blood on our hands: meditations from the third decade of the third millennium 

"Part manifesto, part scholarship, part extended poetic engagement, Umniya Najaer makes a radical bid for a better future in a singularly peerless transdisciplinary work."  —Nour Eldin H., Mizna assistant editor

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Appears in: Mizna 25.2: Futurities​

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IF THERE IS AN UPPER LIMIT TO THE HUMAN CAPACITY TO COMPUTE MASS ATROCITY THEN THERE MUST BE A HARD LIMIT ON LETHAL TECHNOLOGIES BECAUSE THE IMPLICATION IS THAT AS VIOLENCE ESCALATES IT ALSO BECOMES INCREASINGLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

THEREFORE, TO PROTECT THE HUMAN COLLECTIVE, WE MUST
DISARM HUMANITY.

 

Dandelion Parachute Seed
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dear alice, "for the murder of [your] bastard child" of the starry eyed tribe born to children

Archive-based epistolary essay about the case of Alice Clifton, an enslaved girl trialed for murder in Philadelphia in 1787.

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Appears in:  So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth (2023)

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Intimate portraits of the Sudanese diaspora in poems. 

Themes include  Biyout al Ashbah,  the government's unofficial torture sites and building home after loss.

 

Akashic Press

Afternoon Light
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Sea Turtle
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SPINNING 
zuihitsu on planetary and cosmic consciousness

Zuihitsu is a Japanese literary form dating back to 1002AD.

This Zuihitsu explores the potential for metamorphosis in human consciousness.

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Appears in: Mizna 23.2 Black SWANA Takeover Edition

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The case of Ayyub Abdul-Alim fits a decades-long pattern of government criminalization of African-American Muslims.

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Appears in: The Nation

City Reflection
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Umniya Najaer

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