IMAN
Like so many other creatives, the work I do can’t easily be categorized by roles, time or space. IMAN (Inner-city Muslim Action Network) is a Chicago-based organization I worked closely with from 2003 - 2016, including launching, developing and directing the Arts and Culture Department from 2007 - 2012. Besides creating a vast network of artists, hosted regularly at an artist retreat, I produced the Community Cafe Series and Takin’ It to the Streets Festival.
Community Cafe
Community Cafe started at a small cafe with 50 people at best. Over six years, we continued to grow this series with poetry, music, dance, theatre and live visual art. Eventually, we were selling out venues and expanded beyond cafes with space for 300 people into theaters with space for over 1,000.
The demand for Community Cafe continued to grow and we expanded to producing editions in New York and Washington DC. Those sold out too and the demand kept growing.
In jest, someone said that we needed to produce Community Cafe on a much larger scale, such as at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Soon enough, the joke became a reality and a year later, not only were we producing Community Cafe at the Apollo, we sold out to the point that tickets were being scalped!
Takin’ It to the Streets
While Community Cafe happened on a regular basis, Takin’ It to the Streets was biennial festival. Initially, it was an imagining of everything we could be for one day… and eventually for one week. Over the years, I helped expand the festival, playing a role from 2003 - 2016. In 2010, we tested our limits by producing Takin’ It to the Streets as an Urban International Festival which had over 100 artists across multiple sites and even included the Salam Mini-Film Festival and a concert in Chicago’s Millennium Park. With over 20,000 attendees, we realized we changed what a Muslim-led festival on the Southside of Chicago could mean.
