The second-annual Day of Palestinian Culture took place Saturday, Jan. 18. at the Oak Park Public Library’s main branch.
“You really feel a presence of community when you enter a room like this,” said Wafaa Alwawi, a teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School and a co-sponsor of the school’s Middle Eastern North African Student Alliance (MENA), along with teacher Daniel Cohen.
The event was organized and sponsored by the Oak Park Neighbors group, MENA, the UIC Arab-American Cultural Center, and the Committee for Just Peace in Palestine/Israel (CJPIP).
The event was well attended by the community, with Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman in attendance as well as Illinois State Senator Abdelnasser Rashid, who is the first Palestinian-American to be elected to the Illinois General Assembly.
The event sought to celebrate various aspects of Palestinian culture through performances, activities and food. The Ramallah Club of Chicago, a group located in Bensenville that seeks to educate the public about the culture of the Christian Ramallah people from Palestine, performed dabke dancing, which is a traditional Levantine folk dance that is typically performed at celebratory occasions.
Additionally, there was traditional Palestinian bagpiping and drumming performed by Sweis Entertainment, which is a group of men located in the Chicagoland area who play traditional Palestinian music to help celebrate the culture.
Other activities included having your name written in Arabic, receiving henna tattoos and learning Tatreez embroidery. Through the Revolutionary Youth Action League (ROYAL) organization, event attendees could converse with Palestinians in Gaza that were zooming in to the event.
Also, traditional Palestinian goods such as olive oil, keffiyehs and za’atar were sold. All money collected from the purchase of those items is being sent to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), which is an organization that seeks to provide free medical care to Palestinian youth.
The event held deep significance to members of MENA, who played prominent roles throughout the event by helping make sure food was served, performing original spoken word poetry and conversing with guests.
“This is our community. To bring everyone together means everything, to not just me, but to the rest of the community,” said OPRF junior Tariq Mohammed, who is the co-president of MENA alongside OPRF sophomore Nevene Elsharief. “It’s one of the few times that we can celebrate together.”
“I’m glad that I’m able to show up and that other people are able to also show up and help me with celebrating [Palestinian culture],” said OPRF junior Arwa Abouelfotouh, a member of MENA.
MENA plans to continue to hold events celebrating Palestinian culture throughout the year by holding a dinner for students to break their fast during Ramadan, which starts at the end of February, and planning awareness activities for Arab-American Heritage Month, which starts in April.
The event also addressed the situation in Gaza resulting from the Israel-Hamas war. OPRF students shared original spoken word poetry in which they critiqued Israeli attacks in Gaza, U.S. support of Israel and media coverage of Palestinian deaths.
“As Palestinians, our existence is our resistance,” said Faisal Alabasy, the emcee of the event, to roaring applause.
The event ended on a celebratory note as community members gathered to dance one last time together as the Sweis Entertainment drummers and bagpipers played the event off with traditional Palestinian music.
