Asalamu Alaykum, Greetings of Peace!
This year the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 and Eid al-Adha may fall on the same day. Given the trend of anti-Muslim rhetoric in campaign and media discourse, Muslim Community Network is launching a powerful media campaign to counter the wave of hate and fear by telling our own stories. For more information about the campaign, please see our crowdfunding page “A New story of a Post- 9/11 New York“.
MCN is casting Muslim youth under the age of 15 and Muslim adults who were living and/ or working in NYC before 9/11 to be a part of the storytelling pieces and we are seeking a diverse group of individuals for this project. Youth will receive media training and will have the opportunity to share their stories with prominent media outlets.
If you or someone you know are interested in participating, please email us at info@mcnny.calliope.consulting by Wednesday
For youth
Name, Gender, Background, Age, a brief reflection (no more than one paragraph) of your experience growing up Muslim in NYC.
For adults
Name, Gender, Background, Age (or approximate, e.g. “60s”), profession (if applicable) or work in the community, and a brief reflection (no more than one paragraph) of your experience of life as a Muslim in NYC before 9/11.
**Only individuals selected for further interview will be contacted.**
In Solidarity,
Christina Tasca
Executive Director
Important Info for Parents from Balestra Media
Elevating Muslim Youth Voices
We would love to include your child’s experiences in our video to lift up the voices of Muslim youth against Islamophobia, in their own words. The communications team working with Muslim Community Network will listen to the stories of young Muslims, prepare them for the camera and encourage them to share their feelings, experiences and observations, from their perspective as someone who was born after 9/11 and only knows this post-9/11 world as a young Muslim.
In addition to expressing themselves, your child will have the opportunity to ask questions of elders in our community— to learn how New York, and the nation has changed how their lives changed since the attacks of September, 2001.. Those who watch this video will be able to see and hear, via young Muslims’ perspective, the real human impacts of xenophobia and hate speech.
Before the filming for this video, we will bring all interested participants to a media training to meet communications experts and the filmmakers. They will listen to everyone’s experience and help them tell their story in a way that the public can understand and in a setting that is most comfortable for them. The team will also give everyone tips about talking to journalists, tape mock interviews and give feedback on the practice. If you’d like to meet one of the filmmakers in person before the media training, please let us know.
In addition to using the video to spread awareness, there will also be the opportunity for your child to participate inmedia interviews. We will only seek interviews at friendly outlets that want to lift up these stories in a positive way. Those outlets include: Vice, Mic.com, Democracy Now!, NPR, MSNBC, the New York Times and Good Morning America. Please let us know if you have any questions about media outreach after the video.