EPJ Project Proposal

For my final project, I plan to do a multimedia story on how Eids (Muslim celebrations following Ramadan and Hajj) are celebrated among the Muslim community in St. Louis and Columbia. Both cities have huge Muslim immigrant populations where members are highly involved in religious activities. This keeps them attached to their culture, origin and religion. To strengthen ties with their home countries among their children, Muslim immigrant parents go to great lengths to incorporate a feeling of community. This includes holding of colorful events, participation in cultural and religious activities, cooking authentic meals, wearing traditional clothes, going to the Islamic centers and arranging home open houses for the community.

For an outsider, all this would be alien and at times, baffling. Despite living side by side, people of other faiths and ethnic groups and the white American population does not know much what goes on in the Muslim community of these two cities. My objective is to bridge these gaps and create a better understanding of Muslim culture among the American people. This is a small step towards a greater long time project in the future.

The slideshow will consist of stills, both colored and black and white aided by audio. The audio will include short interviews of people at the Eid festivals, music, and commentary and background noise to provide an overall ambiance of these religious celebrations. The slideshow will last 2-4 minutes, have an introduction and an end note and will be sewn together by the images. The images will follow a chronological order of events. A total of 20-30 images will be used. Few more will be added depending on the need.