In Partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital: An Evening of Conversation with Aymann Ismail
In partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, join us for a conversation with Aymann Ismail. She will be discussing her book, Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith, and Finding Meaning in America.
A book signing will follow the program.
Admission: Free and open to the public. No RSVP required.
Location:
Folkman Auditorium
Located in the Enders Research Building
320 Longwood Ave
Boston, MA 02115
“[Ismail’s] memoir thoughtfully examines the challenges of preserving faith…His storytelling balances humor with reflection…A warm and insightful exploration of how faith sustains and evolves across generations.”
—Kirkus Reviews
About Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith, and Finding Meaning in America:
From Slate staff writer Aymann Ismail comes an exquisite memoir about fatherhood, religion, and the search for identity in an ever-shifting world.
The son of Egyptian immigrants, Aymann Ismail came of age in the shadow of 9/11, tracking the barrage of predatory headlines pervading the media and influencing the popular consciousness about Muslims. After a series of bomb threats were directed at his Islamic school in Teaneck, New Jersey, just a few miles from downtown Manhattan, his parents—anxious that it was no longer safe to be so explicitly Muslim—enrolled him in public school, where he was the only Muslim his new friends had ever met. In the privacy of their home, they turned to their faith for guidance on how to live, adhering to traditional notions about gender roles, and avoiding the putative American dangers of alcohol, sex, and rebellion.
And yet, Aymann is undeniably an American teenager, negotiating his place in multiple worlds while chafing against the structures of his upbringing. He eventually embarks on a career in political journalism, in part to establish his own version of things. In time, though, he also gains a deeper understanding and appreciation for his parents' values and sacrifices—his father’s grueling work ethic as a town car driver, and his mother’s adeptness at managing their itinerant family.
When Aymann meets and falls in love with Mira, a woman with her own ideas about the modern Muslim family, his world shifts yet again. After Mira gets pregnant with their first child, Aymann begins to reckon with his past, future, and the beliefs that have shaped his life. What does it mean to be a Muslim man? More still, what does it mean to be any man—and a father to a baby boy and girl? And how best to honor one’s cultural heritage while holding space for change and discovery?
In lucid, confident prose, Aymann Ismail questions the sturdy frameworks of religion and family, the legacies of his childhood, and what will become his children's ethical and intellectual inheritance. To reckon unflinchingly with these questions offers him a road map for his young Muslim children on how to navigate the singular journey into adulthood.
About Aymann Ismail:
Aymann Ismail is a staff writer at Slate, the author of Becoming Baba, and the president of AMEJA. He was formerly the staff video and photo editor at ANIMALNewYork. He grew up in Newark, NJ, received an art degree from Rutgers University, and was arrested by the NYPD for trespassing on the Williamsburg Bridge in 2016.
In 2018, he received an ASME Next award. In 2021, his essay The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd was nominated for a National Magazine Award in Reporting and won a Writers Guild Award.
His work has been featured by CNN, The New York Times, NPR, GQ, among others. He still lives in Newark.