It is easy to find Rana M. Ahktar, the father-in-law of Tahawwur Hussain Rana — a Chicago-based Pakistani American awaiting trial in connection to an attack plot on Danish cartoonist in October 2009.
Ahktar sits at the cash register of Rana’s grocery store in West Rogers Park. He wears a long beard and is garbed in traditional Pakistani clothing.
“What do you want to know?” Ahktar asked. “The lawyers have told me not to speak. But I don’t feel like being silent.”
He had just visited Rana at a federal facility in Chicago the night before. The two men discussed life in general, Ahktar said. According to Ahktar, Rana believes God is testing him with a trial.
“This is a trial for my son-in-law, and for our whole community,” Ahktar said, nodding his head, as in acceptance.
By Leah Hendrickson, Jeremy Mikula and Katie Schweiker
In a world of iPods, Zunes, .mp3s, .wavs, .flacs, .aifs, .rms, .snds and other digital audio formats, 33 1/3 revolutions per minute still counts to some. Despite Apple’s announcement that the 10 billionth song was downloaded from iTunes in February, many Chicagoans still listen to vinyl Long Play (LP) records from both new and old artists.
“.mp3s were really cool, and they still are,” said Dave Hofer, a new products buyer at Reckless Records’ Wicker Park location. “You could fit so many of them into a little thing, you know. You don’t have to carry a book of CDs in your car anymore, for example. But there’s just something about vinyl that draws people in.”
Reckless is a music store with three Chicago locations that sells new and used vinyl – LPs, 45s, and 78s – and used DVDs and CDs. In spite of the era of readily available digital media and an economic downturn, they still do a pretty good business, Hofer said.
There is no word for “good-bye” in her language, said Catheryn St. Germaine, who affiliates herself with the Ojibwe and Odawa tribes. As the desk receptionist for the American Indian Center of Chicago, St. Germaine helps to promote the mission of the center, which is to keep the presence of Native Americans alive in Chicago.
The American Indian Center (AIC) of Chicago, located at 1630 W. Wilson Ave., was created in 1953 as a result of Native Americans being forced off of their reservations to go live in cities and assimilate to what is known as the white man’s culture.
The coordinator of professional development at the American Indian Center, Adam Kessel, who affiliates himself with the Lakota tribe, and the special events coordinator Cyndee Fox-Starr, who refers to himself as Omaha-Odawa or Bear clan, talked about experiences his parents had at a boarding school that tried to rid them of their cultural beliefs.
Podcast: Kessel and Fox-Starr share their stories about how the U.S. government tried to take away Native American culture from their families, and how those events impact Native Americans today:
In February 2011, DePaul students will launch The Red Line Project, a hyperlocal news and community website.
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ChicagoStorytelling, produced by graduate and undergraduate students at DePaul University's College of Communication, focuses on urban issues, features and trends. It combines cross-platform storytelling with old-school, shoe-leather reporting. Also find us on:
