Wisconsin’s first and only Muslim owned art gallery hosted its first ever Eid Bazaar June 3.
Nadiana Art Gallery, 4818 S. 76th St. STE. 6, Greenfield, is the state’s first Muslim-owned art gallery. It opened in 2023 by Jordanian immigrants Nadia Al-Khun and her husband Ahmed Obeidat. Al-Khun is a biotechnologist, genetic engineer with a love for art and creating her own works and Obeidat a neurologist, neuroimmunologist, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and photographer.
The bazaar brought out community members around the greater Milwaukee area to support a range of Muslim and Arab owned businesses. Business present ranged from jewelers, bakeries, henna, fooderies, artists and clothing shops.
As its first ever bazaar, tailored for the coming Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, Al-Khun was excited to see every business there run by Muslim and Arab women.
(Photo by Omar Waheed)
“I’m excited for them to have a space to show their business and get connected with the community,” Al-Khun said. “It’s nice to have us here in this country. We always want spaces to gather for our holidays, but we can’t find other spaces just for us.”
Al-Khun points to the large lack of spaces geared towards Muslim culture. Wisconsin, as an alcohol heavy state, generally lacks venue spaces outside of mosques or small Muslim owned businesses that can accommodate large gatherings.
Vendors were equally as excited to have ample space to connect as a community and get their name out there.
Zatoon Charcuterie, Milwaukee’s first halal charcuterie business founded by Magida Jaber, was eager to have a community that typically isn’t the target for charcuterie give it a try.
“It’s hard to find because I used to always love to do charcuterie but it always used to be just the cheese and crackers. I used to use halal deli meat, but I felt like it wasn’t at the level of what charcuterie could be,” Jaber said.
Jaber saw a gap in the market. She decided to source all her products from Michigan and Chicago for quality halal meats, cheese and sweet treats. Zatoon also uses hot honey and Jordanian honey to add another bit of cultural respective flair to it.
Yasmeen Ali, medical laboratory technician and owner of CocoPalm, recently started selling her Levant and halal inspired sweet treats. The Eid Bazaar marked one of the first few times she sold her goods as a business.
“Before I just did it for my family. They would request themes and I would go with the theme,” Ali said. “It’s really new for me because it’s a hobby. I love baking and I love the design of it too.”
Her sweets are mostly chocolate covered — where she sourced “Coco” in the name — and utilizes Medjool dates from the Levant, the historical area encompassing Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Turkey.
