MINARA IS COMING BACK! · STAY TUNED FOR WHEN WE REOPEN · DONATE TOWARDS RENOVATIONS →
Bring Back Minara.
Minara is a culture salon and café rooted in the majlis — a gathering place for art, conversation, and imagination.
FEATURED IN
Minara Is Coming Back
Thanks to over 300 donors, we raised $50,000 and secured our lease at 361 Huron Ave. Minara is coming back!
Stay tuned for our reopening date. In the meantime, any additional donations will go directly toward renovations to make Minara a truly sustainable home for our community.
Help us build something lasting. Make a tax-deductible donation today.
In the News
WGBH CULTURE · DECEMBER 30, 2025
A New Café in Cambridge Aims to Build Community Through Conversation
WGBH Culture featured Minara as a gathering space rooted in the majlis tradition, celebrating our mission to create community through conversation, art, and shared meals.
READ FULL ARTICLE
CAMBRIDGE DAY · MARCH 4, 2026
Minara in Limbo
Cambridge Day covers Minara's uncertain path forward as the community salon and café navigates the challenges of securing a permanent home in Cambridge.
READ FULL ARTICLE
EDIBLE BOSTON · SPRING 2026
Creating Community in Third Places
Edible Boston profiles Minara as a community third place rooted in Muslim food traditions — a café and cultural salon where everyone is welcome around the table.
READ FULL ARTICLE
THE BOSTON GLOBE · MARCH 21, 2026
Eid Celebrations in Massachusetts Come at a Painful Time for Muslims
The Boston Globe features Minara as a gathering place for the Muslim community in Cambridge, marking Eid al-Fitr amid a moment of grief and celebration held hand in hand.
READ FULL ARTICLEComing to Minara has felt like coming home.
Maryum Khwaja
From Our Community
“I have been searching for a long time for a space where I can be in community with fellow Muslims and learn in an open-minded space, without judgement, and feel a sense of belonging and kinship.”
Reem Atassi
“Minara has given us a place to connect, unwind, and feel welcomed, so we're eternally grateful for this space.”
Omar Ali
“Minara is alive with the energy of people gathering to grow.”
Victoria Marsh
“It is the kind of space that makes you feel like your dreams of a better world are possible.”
@sssarsura
“The moments I spent there were explosive with welcoming energy and genuine human connections.”
Nada Alaeddin
Our Gatherings
A living record of every gathering Minara has hosted. The conversations, performances, and moments of community that built this space.
A majlis for today —
open to all.
Minara is a culture salon and café rooted in a long-standing Muslim tradition: the majlis — a gathering place where anyone can walk in, meet a friend, and take part in conversation, listen to stories, and join in the shared work of building community.
Across generations and geographies, majlis spaces brought people together to create, debate, and imagine collectively, shaped not by exclusivity but by an open door. Minara is built in that spirit. We are creating a majlis for today, open to all and shaped by what we build together.
WHAT WE ARE
Minara lives as a:
Third Space
To read, dream, talk, meditate, pray or create. A place to share tea with loved ones or sit with a soon-to-be friend.
Gathering Ground
For workshops, film screenings, talks, performances, and family play — among many offerings shaped by the people who walk through the door.
Café
Rooted in global Muslim flavors, changing with seasons and special events. As a nonprofit project, our café sustains the programs and gatherings that happen here.
Groups Who've Gathered at Minara
From artists to activists, scholars to storytellers — these are the groups and organizations that have hosted events, organized, and created at Minara.
Founding Team
Space Director
Jana Amin
Food anthropologist, recent Harvard College graduate, and two times Tedx speaker, Jana reimagines food as a conduit for community healing, archiving, and political education. At Harvard, she led the Society of Arab Students and curated Surah, a digital archive of Muslim women on social media. Driven by her love of the culinary, Jana wrote an award-winning senior thesis on Palestinian kitchens, based on six months of ethnographic work with Palestinian women in Cairo.
Development Director
Abbas Rattani
Process Artist, Filmmaker, Producer, Human enthusiast, and Founding Director of the award-winning Muslim arts & culture collective—MIPSTERZ. He brings over 20 years of experience in prototyping creative ideas, building community, and enabling flourishing. At MINARA, Abbas works to take your ideas of what a catalytic space should be, and turns them into something you can feel.
Creative Director
Ahlam Said
A strategist and storyteller with over 15 years of experience building campaigns and crafting narratives that inspire action, Ahlam's work stretches through advocacy, nonprofits and creative startups. She founded Mennās, a woman-led social enterprise rooted in Yemeni heritage, creating a brand that bridges cultural preservation with economic dignity for artisans. At MINARA, Ahlam leads the creative vision, drawing on her background in production, brand building, and community organizing to shape a space of connection and hospitality.
Technical Director
Yusuf Siddiquee
Sound artist, curator, and co-founder of MIPSTERZ. Yusuf has produced shows and exhibitions for Tribeca Film Festival, The Shed, Kennedy Center and beyond. Blending mixed media with interactive storytelling, he works across film and music to strengthen a sense of belonging. A NEW INC alum, at MINARA Yusuf brings 15 years of experience in nonprofit financial management for cultural institutions such as StoryCorps and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
COMMUNITY
Join Our
Community
Over 1,000 people have joined the Minara community. Be the first to hear about events, programs, and what's brewing at the salon.
MINARA is the latest major initiative of MIPSTERZ, an award-winning nonprofit arts and culture collective with over a decade of experience of building communities, incubating creativity and amplifying marginalized voices.