Lana Barkawi

Lana Barkawi, Ph.D., is executive and artistic director of Mizna, a multidisciplinary Arab arts organization based in St. Paul with a mission to be a space for Arab and Arab American film, literature, and art.

She serves as the publisher of Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America, the only journal of Arab American literature in the country, and oversees Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, among the largest and longest-running Arab film festivals in the country. Her interest in fostering a local, national, and international space for Arab and Muslim art and community has brought Mizna in partnership with many artists and organizations to present creative work that creates change.

She has served on grant panels for the Knight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Center. She is a member of the board of directors of St. Paul’s Cultural STAR Program.