Sister Laila Moderates Panel Discussion at Muslim Voices of Newark: Film Symposium & Community History Project Launch

Film screenings, panel discussions, and performances highlighting and celebrating histories, art, culture and social perspectives. Newark Art Museum

Express Newark’s Community Media Center and Scribe Video Center, in partnership with The Newark Museum of Art presents this day-long event featuring film screenings, panel discussions, and performances highlighting and celebrating histories, art, culture and social perspectives from our Muslim communities. The program includes a catered reception and will end with a special presentation of the award-winning feature length documentary, TWO GODS, by Zeshawn and Aman Ali. Set in Newark, TWO GODS tells the story of Muslim casket maker and ritual body washer, HANIF, as he takes two young men under his wing to teach them how to live better lives. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

This event marks the launch of Muslim Voices of Newark, a community history project hosted by Express Newark’s Community Media Center, in partnership with Scribe Video Center.

Enter the event through the South Wing, located near the Museum parking lot. Doors open 30 minutes before the event’s start time.

Schedule

• 10am – Welcome
• 10:20am: Muslim Voices of Philadelphia Films (43 mins 42 sec)
• Lost No More, 2014 (17 mins) by the New Africa Center (Islamic Cultural Preservation and Information Council, ICPIC)
• Get to Know Us: Keeping Islam Simple & Serving the Common People, 2014 (11:42 mins) by Masjid Muhammad
• Journey to Fulfillment, 2014 (15 mins) by QAAMS (Qa’id Ameer Abdul Majeed Staten Hajj Foundation)
• 11:05am – Muslim Voices of Philadelphia Filmmakers Panel (30 mins)
• 11:45am – Performance
• 11:55am – “Not Haram”: Nurturing Art and Storytelling in Our Community
• Panelists Include: Shaheed Shaheed (filmmaker), Abdullah Muhammad (musician), Hafiz Farid (filmmaker), Yasmeen Muhammad (filmmaker); Moderator: Sister Laila Muhammad, Poet, Educator, Community Advocate
• 1pm – Halal Lunch/Reception
• 2pm – Muslim Voices Program/Application Process, Discussion and Q&A
• Two Gods (86 mins)
• 4pm – Two Gods Filmmakers Panel and Q&A
• Panelists: Hanif Muhammad, Zeshawn and Aman Ali
• 4:30pm – Closing Remarks

---

About Muslim Voices
​
Muslim Voices is a national community history project, founded by Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, where individuals and communities learn media making and explore the use of video as both an artistic medium and as a tool for progressive social change. Muslim Voices was designed to highlight and celebrate the presence, history, contributions and challenges of African American Muslims in America. In this initiative, members of mosques, masjids, schools, cultural centers, and other Muslim groups combine archival research, ethnography, oral history, and digital media to create short documentary films exploring and amplifying the rich stories, histories, and perspectives of their communities.

This year, Scribe will partner with Express Newark's Community Media Center (CMC) to launch the initiative here in Newark, New Jersey, providing instruction and media tools to traditionally underrepresented Muslim groups in the Greater Newark Area so that they can research and share the stories, significant events, achievements, and issues that are part of both the history of Islam in the Newark area and the city itself.