Summary
A Chicago social service organization that replaced the Arab Community Center (Chicago) as an anchor of the Southwest Side Palestinian enclave, and an exception to the closure of the secular centers in that it survived into the suburban period by accommodating the Religious turn (Palestinian Chicago — Identity in Exile, PDF p.27-28).
Details
- At its 1998 fundraising dinner, keynote speaker Edward Said had to wait at the podium while tens of university students formed ranks to perform the maghrib (dusk) prayer, unprogrammed, transforming the mood of a secular, nonsectarian event (PDF p.27-28).
- The AAAN established itself in the old markaz premises in the Chicago Lawn area; it nevertheless accommodated the religious shift in various ways, explored in the book’s Chapters 2 and 5 (PDF p.28).
- Its executive director is Hatem Abudayyeh (PDF p.24).
- Young Palestinian activists working principally through the AAAN have collaborated with Black Lives Matter chapters in Chicago on police violence and surveillance of black and Arab communities (PDF p.41).
Related pages
Palestinian Chicago · Arab Community Center (Chicago) · Secularism