Preserving black Muslim stories in a pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic takes a disproportionately deadly toll on seniors and African Americans, a new oral history initiative aims to train black Muslim youth to document their elderly community members’ stories.
The Wisdom of the Elders Project is a “long-overdue” effort to capture the “past, present and uncertain future” of black Muslim seniors before it is too late, said project coordinator Asha Noor. “Our mission is to disrupt the narratives which say our elders are disposable or a burden, rather than what they are, which is carriers of our truth and protectors of our legacy.”
Under the auspices of the National Black Muslim COVID Coalition, organizers will train black Muslim youth to conduct interviews with elders in their communities about “how they have had to be resilient in the past, how they overcame certain challenges, and what we can learn from them in this moment,” Noor said.
