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AboutMasiraمسيرة

Masira means journey.

مسيرة: a journey, a procession, a path walked together. Masira is a Chicago house of culture and hospitality, founded by Abu and Ramzy.

i. How it started

Masira began where hospitality always begins: at home.

Two friends devoted to coffee, fashion, culture, and community did not wait for a space, an investor, or a staff. They simply began to host. The first cups were poured in their apartment.

Then the journey took to the city: a community house in Pilsen, a gallery, a play space, and at last an evening among the antiquities of the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Coffee, music, art, and a cause behind every ticket. Hundreds came.

an apartment → pop-ups → cultural gatherings → institutional spaces → a first home

ii. Who

Masira is Palestinian-, Lebanese-, and South Asian-owned. Its heart lies in the Middle East and North Africa, with South Asian and diasporic threads woven through: specific in its culture, open in its welcome.

  • AbuCo-founderTravel photographer. Born in Dhaka, raised in Atlanta. Across 27 countries, camera in hand, he soaked in the ways other places welcome a stranger, and carried them home to Chicago.
  • RamzyCo-founderPalestinian, and a medical student. He tends to a cup of coffee the way he is learning to tend to people: with patience, precision, and care. Every drink on the menu begins with him.
  • Ryan FakihBeityChef and owner of Beity. The kitchen, the room, and the hospitality that makes it a home.

And everyone who played a set, made a poster, cooked, photographed, gave, stayed late to clear the tables, or brought a friend. Masira was built in company.

iii. Generosity

Giving wasn’t added later. The gatherings have raised over $30,000, and at several Masira matched event profits at 1.5×.

  • Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)
  • Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA)
  • Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
  • Midwest Immigration Bond Fund
  • BRAC
  • Human Development Fund
  • American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center

Each gathering’s page names what its tickets supported.

iv. A first home

Masira means journey. Beity means my home. In 2026 the journey found its first home, within Ryan Fakih’s MICHELIN-recommended restaurant in Fulton Market. Every journey deserves one. The pastries come from Ryan’s MICHELIN-recommended kitchen.

Beity is a first home, not a final destination. The gatherings still travel the city; now they have a door to return to.

v. What we believe

  1. We believe the places people come from matter.
  2. We believe the places they are going matter too.
  3. We believe food, coffee, music, objects, photographs and stories can carry memory.
  4. We believe hospitality can turn strangers into company.
  5. We believe culture should be lived rather than displayed.
  6. We believe generosity should be part of how a business behaves.
  7. We believe beautiful things can still feel human.
  8. We believe a place becomes meaningful because of what happens there.
  9. And we believe there is something worth preserving in the moments when our paths cross.

So far

  1. beforeCoffee at home, in an apartmentchicago
  2. 2025.10Café MasiraChicago, IL
  3. 2025.11All Eyes on SudanCafé Masira
  4. 2026.01F*CK I.C.E.Pilsen Arts & Community House
  5. 2026.05The Chai Break Vol. 1Tala Gallery
  6. 2026.05The Eid GatheringParallel Play
  7. 2026.08Night at the MuseumISAC Museum
  8. 2026Masira at Beitya first home

Where paths cross.

contact@ourmasira.cominstagram @our.masira