Tenth Annual Milwaukee Film Festival Explores Arab Community and Culture Through Film
The Tenth Annual Milwaukee Film Festival hosted a range of motion pictures that celebrated the diversity of the Arab-Muslim community, from October 18 to November 1. Films were selected across a range of topics and groups from Palestinians to...
New report details a century of Hollywood’s Islamophobia and its cultural impact
A new report from the Pop Culture Collaborative details depictions of Muslims on screen—what the entertainment industry must do to uplift Muslim narratives that do not damage the community. Artist and scholar Dr. Maytha Alhassen chronicles the past century...
Khashoggi case prompts mass withdrawals from Saudi summit
CNN and Financial Times join growing list of organizations to pull out of kingdom’s showpiece investment event. A high-profile investment summit in Riyadh later this month is rapidly becoming a fiasco as prominent businesses and media groups have pulled...
David Najib Kasir: Painting a Syrian identity with art to build cultural understanding
David Najib Kasir, a Syrian-American artist based in Milwaukee is best known for his contemporary oil paintings. Featuring common themes of family, love, life, and loss, he offers a look into his own life through his artwork. Kasir sat with the Wisconsin...
IRC Book Review: The Politics of the Veil
Elise Bellin, MLIS is the IRC Librarian and this book review is part of an ongoing series that focuses on a range of books within the IRC collection as a service to the community. The Politics of the Veil: Understanding France’s Headscarf Debates by Joan...
Program teaches McFarland students the skills for making positive social change
What started as an effort to bring in a guest author to look at diversity, empathy and marginalization evolved into something bigger that will continue throughout the year at McFarland High School. The Spartan Peace Project kicked off last Thursday with a...
Hanadi Bu-Ali: Surgery as a form of art employed to help cure people
Growing up as a sickly child in Bahrain, Hanadi Bu-Ali M.D. made it her mission to become a doctor and try to cure all the sick children she knew. That life journey led to Milwaukee becoming her home, and specializing in Oncoplastic surgery for breast...
“Presenting Islam” workshop helps students articulate their faith
Referencing Muslim wrestler Khabib Nurmagomedov’s performance in an Ultimate Fighting Championship match on October 6, Dawud Walid asked Sakinah Rahman, a Muslim college student wearing a long, loose black dress paired with a colorful headscarf, why she...
Khallid Shabazz: On becoming the highest ranking Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military
Shortly after converting to Islam, then-Sgt. Khallid Shabazz struggled to find his way while his devout Lutheran family and fellow Soldiers questioned his move. And with a few Article 15s for insubordination on his record, Shabazz, a field artilleryman at...
Owa’Ais Azeem: An actor and storyteller on setting the stage for positive representation
Set in 1648 India, “Guards at the Taj” explores the friendship of two imperial guards, Babur and Humayun, who are put in charge of watching over the newly completed construction of the legendary Taj Mahal. Directed by Brent Hazelton, based on the play...
