2025 Arab American Heritage Month

Leigh Hellman | Posted on April 23, 2025
The photo features dozens of elementary school students sitting on a school gymnasium floor watching three university student presenters in traditional clothing from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. There are colorful tables set up behind the presenters with MENA regional artifacts and additional regional clothing hung up on the gymnasium wall. Above the presenters on the gymnasium wall is a projector screen with a PowerPoint slide showing the MENA region highlighted in purple.

The UIC Arab American Cultural Center (ArabAmCC) has been working over the past 3 years to expand education of campus and local communities about Arab and Arab American history, culture, traditions, music, challenges and more. These are just some of the engagements that ArabAmCC is undertaking and that their student interns are actively participating in this April for Arab American Heritage Month (AAHM).

ArabAmCC elementary school program: All-day visits that include programs, presentations and crafts at:

  • Irving Elementary in Oak Park
  • Peck STEM Elementary in Chicago
  • Inter-American Magnet School

Other educational partnerships include:

  • AAHM celebration event at Joliet Junior College (April 9)
  • Chicago Public School Social Science Professional Learning program (April 18)
  • Field trip visit to UIC campus and ArabAmCC by MENA student clubs from Madison, WI high schools (April 21)

Engagement with non-profits, museums, public libraries and local communities:

  • Collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (May 24; project work to take place in April): Developing youth-led programming and art project reflecting on Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal’s exhibition at the museum
  • Partnership with Forest Preserve for AAHM celebration event (April 6): Organizing educational craft activities for kids about native animals and plants from the Arab region and leading a guided forest hike that highlights native plants and environmental commonalities between the Midwest and Arab regions
  • Oak Park Public Library AAHM celebration event (April 12): Creating an educational display of ArabAmCC’s historic and contemporary cultural items and artifacts from the Arab region (the Arab American Treasure Chest) and organizing educational games about the region
  • Field Museum Play Lab (April 17): Partnering on storytime at the Play Lab by reading stories in Arabic and English and engaging with kids and families in educational crafts
  • Oak Park Village AAHM celebration event (April 27): Creating an educational display of ArabAmCC’s historic and contemporary cultural items and artifacts from the Arab region (the Arab American Treasure Chest), organizing educational games about the region and providing expertise and networking to connect the village to artists and cultural producers from the Arab community (ArabAmCC’s cultural worker partners) to perform at the event

Media coverage:

These programs showcase UIC and ArabAmCC’s expertise in Arab and Arab American Studies and situate ArabAmCC staff and students as producers of knowledge and creative activities impacting the lives of Chicagoland communities and beyond. Additionally, they provide important opportunities for student interns to develop skills in important areas of career preparedness and future success such as communication and public speaking, teamwork, program development and implementation, research methodologies and educational pedagogies. These partnerships strengthen ArabAmCC’s relationships and connections to community organizations and cultural center workers in the metropolitan area and address inequities and gaps of knowledge about Arabs and Arab Americans in society at large.