In a dimly lit room, students gather around a SMART board watching a Youtube video from February of 2016 about culture and heritage.
These students are part of the Muslim Fellowship club, and they are preparing for the upcoming Heritage Fair in February.
“We are preparing for heritage fair by looking at our previous videos and trying to come up with a common theme that we can apply to our performance this year,” said junior Zaina Abdelrahman, the president of Muslim Fellowship Club.
Two years ago, the club awed the crowd with a technological masterpiece. Boxes and screens set up in the middle of the gym showed a pre-recorded video of Naser Abdelrahman, now a student at UC Berkeley, speaking about the benefits of celebrating our individual cultures together. Called “The Realization,” the video encouraged the uniting of all heritages and cultures based on their similarities.
Heritage is important because it is what defines each and every one of us. It is unique to every culture, and it forms the foundation for who we each are. — Zaina Abdelrahman
Now, Zaina Abdelrahman, Naser Abdelrahman’s sister, hopes to follow in her brother’s footsteps and create a presentation of the same caliber.
“We would like to create a live production that embodies a strong theme within a short five-minute period to leave an impact on the students,” said Zaina Abdelrahman. “We hope that our presentation will show our unique differences and demonstrate how we can use these differences to come together as a community and create a tight community that can understand and help each other.”
Heritage Fair is an event put on by ASB once a year to celebrate the cultures of all students. Each day for a week in February, students can participate in empowering events such as writing about their heritages on whiteboards and carrying flags from their heritage or the nations they hail from. The Friday of the week has an assembly where all of the different heritages, Black Student Union, Muslim Fellowship Club, and Christian Club to name a few, present something about their heritage. This is oftentimes a dance, song, or another celebratory cultural aspect.
So far, the Muslim Heritage club only has a rough idea of what they want to do for the 2018 fair.
“We are still discussing what to do for the fair in our meetings,” said Yousef Gharib, a freshman. “We hope to make it fun and interesting for everyone watching.”
The goal of Muslim Fellowship Club is to make others aware of the club and what it stands for, all while entertaining the audience with its originality and creativity.
“Heritage can bring us together because each heritage embodies a quality that will help empower and bring together people,” said Zaina Abdelrahman. “It helps us better understand people and their beliefs and educates us on potential heritages that are beneficial to the growth of our society.”
Muslim Fellowship Club’s next meeting is on Thursday, Nov. 30 in D7. All are welcome.
