Interview: Mamfatou Baldeh (Bronx, NY)
Mamfatou T. Baldeh is a New York native and first-generation American with Senegalese and Gambian roots. She is passionate about the mental health and wellness of populations of color and hopes to pursue a higher degree in clinical psychology. Mamfatou is currently a 4th year student at Columbia University in New York studying psychology.
Mohamed Tall (Windsor, MD)
Today I interviewed Mohamed Tall, a spoken word artist from Maryland.
Mohamed Tall is Baltimore City's current Youth Poet Laureate and the 2016 Grand Slam champion. He is a former Baltimore City Poet Ambassador, as well as the 2 time Muslim Interscholastic Tournament spoken word champion. Mohamed has opened up for various entertainers such as Native Deen, the former National Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway and Congressman Elijah Cummings. Traveling around the country on a Social Justice Poetry tour is one of the many feats he has achieved, as well as performing at various venues throughout the country such as the John's Hopkins Health Symposium on the Prison Industrial Complex, and the annual ICNA convention that takes place at the Baltimore City Convention Center. In the fall of 2015 Mohamed began working for a nonprofit organization known as "Dewmore Baltimore" which aims to tackle social justice issues as well as civic engagement through poetry. In the fall he acts as a teaching artist in Baltimore city middle schools. A current Political Science major at Morgan State University, Mohamed now plans to utilize the abilities he's mastered along with the education he is receiving to help establish poetry workshops in different masajid across the country to help further the level of consciousness in his community. Mohamed believes that art is at the forefront of every revolution.
Interview: Nuriddeen Knight (Brooklyn, NY)
Today I met Nuriddeen in Brooklyn. Nuriddeen is a writer whose parents immigrated to America from the Caribbean.
We spoke about the how mosques are segregated by ethnicities, about her upbringing, and about how being a child of Black immigrants influenced her.
Interview: Gareth Bryant (New York City, NY)
A few days ago I met Gareth at Union Square in New York city. He talked about his conversion to Islam through the Qur'an, his rocky relationship with his mother, and how he overcame the hurdles presented to him with his conversion.
We also spoke about what it means to be a Black Muslim in America, and some the unique challenges he faced because of being Black in the Muslim community.
Beginning: Conversations with Black Muslims in America
While filming UnMosqued, we met many Black Muslims who have build institutions and led communities. But their stories were very different from the stories of Muslims of Arab and South Asian descent. Their history was different, their attitudes towards life was different, and even their approach to very simple things, such as the barrier in the mosque, was different.
Conversations with Black Muslims in America is a series of video interviews with Black Muslims in America from different backgrounds about various issues. The point of the series will be to show some of the stories / challenges that black Muslims face, as well as show some of their accomplishments.
This is Who We Are BTS
The tricky part today is in the editing room, where we now have to cut videos for Youtube (1920x1080), Facebook (Square, or sometimes a little taller), and Instagram TV (1080x1920, a vertical video). There is no easy way of creating one edit then exporting once for each platform, each platform requires it's own specific edit. This isn't an issue for me because I love video editing so much, but for others it can be a hassle.
Here is how each timeline looked like for each edit:
UnMosqued (2013)
In 2013, with the help of my good friend Atif Mahmud, we produced UnMosqued, a documentary film about the relevance of mosques in America. The film was fully funded on Kickstarter in 10 days, was covered by multiple news outlets, and had 50+ screenings all over America. The film was thought of, planned, filmed, edited, and distributed in 2013.