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takin' it to the streets
One of IMAN's most popular and signature events is a biennial city-wide festival entitled "Takin' it to the Streets," that started in 1997. Today it has grown to have recognition throughout the city and country as one of the more unique outdoor gatherings of Muslims pro-actively engaging their society through a natural and inspiring format that includes artistic performance, community forums, a bizarre, and sports tournaments.
In 2007 over 10,000 people attended this event throughout the course of the day, making it one of the largest festivals of its kind on the Southwest Side of Chicago. Takin' it to the Streets also features community work days and a series of other events that take months to plan and coordinate.
IMAN places tremendous importance on locating its programming in spaces of great symbolic and social significance or in spaces with immediate accessibility to the people it serves. Takin it to the Streets has been held in Marquette Park for over the last ten years because of its direct accessibility to a tremendously diverse community and because of the great symbolism that the park once held as a space of great racial and ethnic tension. It was in the same park that Martin Luther King Jr. was stoned in 1966 when the community fiercely resisted any sign of integration. The community is now compromised of African American, Latino, Arab, and ethnic whites, making it one of the most diverse working class neighborhoods in the city. |
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