Mustafa (@mustafathepoet)

My debut album, Dunya, is out everywhere. Listen to it, I hope it makes you reconsider the dark. I tried my hand at beauty when it wasn’t in the cards. Free all my people from the grasp of this wretched Dunya and glad tidings to the ones who have left it. There are far too many names to mention but wallahi wallahi if you even nodded at me while I walked the rope to the end of this record, I will think about you forever. Thank you Saqqara, Cairo, Stockholm, Toronto, NY, every city I escaped to in my writing- and every person that met me there.

My song NAME OF GOD is out everywhere, all this loss all this loss, let us carry it well- in His name, video directed by me with spiritual assistance

My first ever tour. Head to Mustafathepoet.com, all tickets are available there now. My performance of some songs off Dunya are on YouTube- directed by @bytanima For Ethiopia and Sudan you’ll be directed to email addresses, send them a note & you’ll receive information on the shows. Photos by @misanharriman Styled by @reemith See you out there

Tiny desk is out now, means many worlds to me. Thank you NPR, my beautiful team of performers Fletcher Yunus Wesley Hornpetrie Nadine El Roubi SAFA Dua Kheiry Batool Ibrahim Bousaina Ibrahim Music directed by Dylan Wiggins, My dear Dev Hynes with the cello arrangements, Taylor Torres- master of sound

#tinydesk • ⁠ @mustafathepoet maintains hope in dark times. For this Tiny Desk, the Sudanese Canadian artist features material from Dunya, one of the best albums of 2024, plus “Stay Alive,” an earlier song of his that he says became “the thesis of everything that I believe in.” 💗⁠ ⁠ Tomorrow only on npr.org/tinydesk or @nprmusic's Youtube ‼️⁠ ⁠ Photo: @joshualbryant | Joshua Bryant/NPR⁠

A lifetime in the making, my first ever poetry publication- Nour, on ceremony, on worship- is out now. I want to thank all the poets for believing in me, the new ones and the ones who built new languages for us. Link in my bio to download it, I’ll choose a few of you to give the physical to for free. In collaboration with @wepresent @wetransfer. Liv, thank you. Worship began as a stranger and it later became the only call worthy of this breath in my body. All the contributors I’m indebted to forever. Warsan Shire, who helped me see the world in colour as a child, George Saunders- who gave me a new ink to write with that never runs out, I am so moved by your trust in me. My artists, I’m transformed by your words and your eyes. Deep thanks to Daniel Kaluuya who has always been a giant to me; for leading the conversation on faith today. These are the poets, these are the doorways. Safia- what am I without the library we built? The editor and artist and sudaniya I hoped for. And Yasin, my reminder of God. Enjoy it, live with it. Time is an animal but I’ve always believed I could step outside of it. Into that backyard, into a poem, into someone’s heart. The first ceremony was robbed from me, but I’ve always believed it could be repeated. As long as there’s a question in the throat and a light in the sky, even if that light comes from fire, even if the sky is the only audience, watching from the stage.

I’ll go Anywhere

Thank you for listening to Dunya, and a deep thank you to the most integral people I know for leading conversations around the album this week; around faith, community, Sudan and light. Angelina & the atelier, Dua, Ramy, Anok and Daniel ❤️. the Kitaba listenings. Looking forward to returning to the stage to sing this time. In an age where all systems that once protected art have been decentralized and a lot of us are being forced into doing undignified work to compete in this war on attention, the listenings and conversations have served as an alternative pathway. we have to meet each other somehow. Nour nour nour nour nouriiiiii

😢thank you @thefacemagazine for the cover, and to the greatest living essayist in America Hanif Abdurraqib for the words @nifmuhammad, DUNYA is 2 weeks away Photography @adraintbereal Styling @stella_greenspan Words @nifmuhammad                                                   ⁠ Editor-in-Chief @m_j_whitehouse⁠ Fashion Directors @reed_danny @emersondanielle⁠ Art Director @sandra_leko_⁠ Design Director @ethnosaurus⁠ Deputy Editor @olivepometsey⁠ Music Director: @_davyreed ⁠ Groomer Taylour Woodruff Producer @_bampy Local production @indigoprojects Local producer @hillgs Local production manager @shanalyne Photographer’s assistants @surferfresh Stylist’s assistants Leonard Murray and Casey Huang Production assistant @josiegonzalez_ Retouch @thehand.ofgod

No love uncovered. “Old Life” from the upcoming debut album Dunya is out everywhere. Produced by @dahi & @simononthemoon. Cape under the kuf and we’re soaring. So close to the world of me. Director - Tanima Mehrotra @bytanima Producer - Farah Idrees @idr_farah DP - Zayd Ezzeldine @zezzeldine 1st AC - Luke Jamison @lukejamison_ Gaffer - Moe Al-Kayed @moe_al_kayed Editor - Daniel Antebi @dantebi_ Color - Houmam @hhoumam Location - Tea at Shiloh @tea__at__shiloh Production Company - Studio Puja @studiopuja

One year ago today, I buried my big brother on my birthday. This year I’d like to exchange your well wishes for your prayers. The only gift I’ll accept is a donation in his name: a tree, a meal, another prayer. I think I hide it well, but every hour passes like a blade moving through my chest. How I failed to protect him. Not an hour passes without his memory falling over me, without the memory of sirens, red and blue fireworks that never reach the ground. His last words our unknown anthem. The screams of my family still lodged deeper into my heart than any song. His killer running and running; may he die every day until we find him, ameen. I’ve lost so many people since losing my brother. The bullets ricochet. To those of you who fought the tide and remained with me in the worst year of my life, may the angels take your names where I can’t, ameen. If I’m no longer of service, dear Lord free me from this life, ameen. 24 hours before my brother’s death, I told him, “There’s nothing for us here. You have to leave Toronto.” He replied “InshaAllah, I will leave.” And he did, though not in the way I imagined. I resent him for leaving. I resent all I didn’t ask him. They left his body on that concrete until the sun fell. 12 hours. 12 hours my mother laid next to him beyond yellow tape. Her cliff. May those officers never know peace, ameen. To serve, to serve. May Allah have mercy on my Mohamed, and allow him a safe passage to paradise. I was once a little brother.

MY DEBUT ALBUM- DUNYA, will be out on the 27th of September. I gave it all of me, it’s taken so much from me. I considered burying it with everything else I lost but what’s the use of all this digging? We’ll take it to the sun, make use. For the love of God, for the love of the hood, for the love of graveyards with enough friends to host a ceremony, a pickup game. There are no words for how this album has held me, there are less words for how the world let me go as I wrote it. Dunya in all its illusion. Some of these songs are skies, some of these songs are ground and no escape. Thank you all for your patience, and thank you to every person that lifted just a finger to see this come forward, I owe you all my years. Album cover by @Renellaice SNL is out now everywhere