About Menna

Menna is a free SWANA events guide and weekly newsletter for New York City, built to help Middle Eastern and North African New Yorkers find each other, support one another, and experience their culture. At its core is a free weekly newsletter and a searchable events guide covering the city's SWANA cultural and social scene. The idea is simple: the community exists, the culture exists, the people exist. Menna is the thing that brings them together.

Menna is based in New York City and covers all five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island — plus virtual SWANA events open to NYC residents.

1. Amplifying SWANA culture in New York. Highlighting and celebrating the artists, thinkers, organizers, and cultural projects shaping New York's creative landscape and expanding representation beyond stereotypes.
2. Supporting underrepresented creatives. Creating visibility and opportunities for emerging and overlooked SWANA artists by giving their work an audience, meaningful promotion, and community support.
3. Connecting people to their roots. Helping people experience and engage with their heritage in ways that feel contemporary, authentic, and personally meaningful rather than nostalgic or cliché.
4. Building real-life community. Creating opportunities for people to meet, gather, and form genuine connections offline, strengthening a sense of belonging and shared identity across a highly dispersed community.

SWANA stands for South West Asian and North African. It's a geographic term for the region commonly called the “Middle East,” stretching roughly from Morocco to Iran, and it covers a huge range of cultures, languages, and identities — including Arab, Amazigh, Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Persian, and many more. Many people prefer SWANA because it describes the region on its own geographic terms rather than through a Eurocentric, colonial lens. It was coined by activists in the 1990s as a decolonial alternative to “Middle East.”

SWANA (South West Asian and North African) and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) refer to roughly the same region, but the framing differs. MENA is the older, more widely recognized term, common in academia, business, and government. SWANA is a newer, decolonial alternative that centers geography over the politically loaded “Middle East.” Neither has a single fixed definition, and people choose between them based on context and preference. At Menna, we use SWANA because it best reflects how our community sees itself, while recognizing MENA is the term most institutions still use — including the U.S. Census, which recommended adding a MENA category in 2024.

Menna was founded by Samar, an Arab American New Yorker who spent twelve years in the city before realizing how hard it still was to find her own community here. So she started doing the finding for everyone else. Each week, she personally combs through New York in search of the events, people, and cultural moments worth knowing about, sharing her discoveries with newsletter subscribers — a community drawn to thoughtful culture, emerging artistic movements, and experiences that go far beyond clichés and stereotypes.

Menna reaches 4,500+ newsletter subscribers with a 70% open rate, plus roughly 15,000 New Yorkers who follow Menna on Instagram for SWANA events. Both audiences are highly engaged and concentrated in NYC.

Menna's audience is made up of New Yorkers who feel connected to the SWANA world — curious, educated, and socially and politically engaged. They are interested in experiencing their cultures beyond clichés and stereotypes. They are true New Yorkers, deeply immersed in the fabric of the city, while also looking for meaningful ways to honor, explore, and connect with an important part of themselves.

Yes. Menna is completely free, and always will be. Menna is self-funded by design, with no grants, investors, or backers, which is what keeps the voice independent and the values intact. Readers who want to help keep it that way can support Menna directly, but nothing is ever behind a paywall.

The Menna newsletter is a free weekly email that curates New York's SWANA cultural scene: the events worth leaving the house for, the creatives worth knowing, and the cultural gems before they hit everyone's radar. It's written for SWANA New Yorkers who know there's far more to the culture than the clichés. 4,500+ people currently read it. Think of it as a trusted friend who already did the homework on where to be and who to know. Subscribe here.

Menna sends one newsletter a week. It's written on Tuesdays and lands in your inbox every Wednesday at 11 AM Eastern. One email a week, no spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime. Best enjoyed with strong coffee.

Sign up at itsmenna.com/newsletter. It takes one click — no credit card, no commitment.

Menna covers the SWANA cultural and social scene across New York City: art shows, music nights, film screenings, talks, parties, food events, community gatherings, and more. The focus is on events that reflect the depth and range of Middle Eastern and North African culture, not the tired clichés. If it's a room worth being in, Menna wants you to know about it.

You can submit an event at itsmenna.com/submit. If it's relevant to the SWANA community in New York and worth our readers' time, it may be featured in the newsletter or events guide. Whether you're an organizer, an artist, or a venue, we want to know what you're putting on.

At its core, it must align with Menna's values: being anti-colonial, anti-bigotry, inclusive of all faiths, and affirming of queer communities and identities.

Beyond that, we have a soft spot for projects that push boundaries. If you're bringing something new to the table — an experimental format, an unexpected collaboration, or a fresh take on culture and community — you'll probably get extra love from us. We believe culture is alive and constantly evolving, and we're excited by work that reflects that.

Menna partners with creatives, organizers, venues, and organizations who share our commitment to the SWANA community. You can reach out through itsmenna.com/collab to start a conversation. Whether it's co-hosting an event, a content collaboration, or something we haven't thought of yet, we're open to working with people building real things for our community.

Yes. Because Menna is self-funded and protective of its voice, partnerships are chosen carefully and held to the same standards as everything else we put in front of our readers. We have a highly engaged community across our various channels and plenty of testimonials to prove Menna's impact. Know that we have a soft spot for unexpected, experimental, and new takes on culture. To explore working together, reach out at hello@itsmenna.com.

Yes. Menna works with select businesses and brands that genuinely resonate with the SWANA community and our audience of engaged New Yorkers. Because Menna is self-funded and protective of its voice, partnerships are chosen carefully and held to the same standards as everything else we put in front of our readers. To explore working together, reach out at hello@itsmenna.com.

Because Menna takes no grants, investors, or outside backers, reader support is what keeps it independent and free. You can contribute directly through the donation section on the homepage — either as a one-time donation or as a founding member ($25/month). Every dollar goes straight back into the work: the newsletter, the events, and what we're building next for the community. If Menna has ever put you in the right room, this is how you help keep it going.

We love hearing from people who want to contribute — whether that's social content, weekly features, photography, event tips, or ideas we haven't considered. The best way to reach us is at hello@itsmenna.com or through itsmenna.com/contact. Tell us who you are and what you'd like to bring to the community.

You can reach Menna by email at hello@itsmenna.com, through the contact form, or on Instagram at @menna.NYC. Whether it's a question, an event, a collaboration, or just a hello, we'd love to hear from you.