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Tuesday, September 03, 2019
The Muslim Writers Collective pushes boundaries while building ‘Empathy’
Theater Preview | Chicago Reader: The Council on American-Islamic Relations estimates that between 300,000 and 500,000 Chicago residents (11 to 18 percent of the city's total population) identify as Muslim. But what Muslim identity means is a question rich with storytelling possibilities.
This is quite exciting to hear. I think we, as a country, have not had enough representation of American Muslims, and have let the extreme events we see on the news dictate our views toward them. In a lot of ways, we know what we see, and the 21st century has been very hard on the western Muslim community. It’s great to hear that there are people out there trying to change the narrative and give Americans a truthful representation of their religion and culture. I think this quote in particular highlights some incredible progress being made:
"’Initially it was entirely the Muslim audiences,’ notes Ali. ‘As you know, we don't really have that many stages that are happening in our community. As time has gone on, it has definitely become more diverse...’”
A lot of times (I know I have done this), a production about a particular minority group mostly garners the attention of that minority group who is craving some representation, but to hear that the audiences are slowly becoming more diverse and including groups other than American Muslims means there are more and more people hearing the true voice and the real narrative of the people. I am hopeful that a continued and growing representation of western Muslims will shift the negative view of them this century has established.
1 comment:
This is quite exciting to hear. I think we, as a country, have not had enough representation of American Muslims, and have let the extreme events we see on the news dictate our views toward them. In a lot of ways, we know what we see, and the 21st century has been very hard on the western Muslim community. It’s great to hear that there are people out there trying to change the narrative and give Americans a truthful representation of their religion and culture. I think this quote in particular highlights some incredible progress being made:
"’Initially it was entirely the Muslim audiences,’ notes Ali. ‘As you know, we don't really have that many stages that are happening in our community. As time has gone on, it has definitely become more diverse...’”
A lot of times (I know I have done this), a production about a particular minority group mostly garners the attention of that minority group who is craving some representation, but to hear that the audiences are slowly becoming more diverse and including groups other than American Muslims means there are more and more people hearing the true voice and the real narrative of the people. I am hopeful that a continued and growing representation of western Muslims will shift the negative view of them this century has established.
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