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PAUL:

Mississippi, and Jackson specifically, is home to America's first Muslim museum. And today, the experience has come full circle for its new director.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front-row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the city with soul shine. My colleague Yolanda Clay-Moore is in conversation with Aseelah Rashid, the daughter of museum founders Okolo and Sababu Rashid. The new role for Aseelah brings her back home to Jackson to share the meaningful work of her family and to expose the world to the diverse and beautiful culture she's grown up in.

YOLANDA:

So how new are you?

ASEELAH:

I'm like brand spanking new, hot off the presses. But no, really not new at all to the organization as a whole or the institution. Actually, my mother and father, Okolo and Sababu Rashid, are co-founders of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures. So really, this has been something that's been a part of my life since really 2001, as I was actually in grade school then. And so I've really just grown up through the organization and seeing their work. So I'm really just stepping into the legacy and keeping the mission moving forward.

YOLANDA:

Now, as America's first Islamic history and culture museum, tell me about the significance of it being the first of its kind and it being in Jackson, Mississippi.


ASEELAH:

Yes, I would say, you know, really the significance was definitely really found for me very early on. And it still remains because actually, right around the time of its founding, shortly thereafter, 9 -11 happened. And it was really just a time in which, one, you know, people were just trying to even come to learn about and understand, well, who are the Muslims? What is this Islam thing? Then for me, being a young Muslim in Mississippi, in public school, having the museum there as a educational institution as well, it really was a space, I would say, that really helped to protect me and also provide that knowledge and information that I think helped to make for just a better and safer space as I was coming along through grade school at the time.

YOLANDA:

Now, Aseelah, what do you think the museum could teach us today?

ASEELAH:

I still find that today as an adult, there's still so much more that we just don't know about just each other, whether it's various religions, cultures, you know, all the various identities that we all, you know, hold and hold near. I see the museum as still being something that really is a catalyst for being able to be a place and a space for people to be able to learn and truly form a real, true education around what Islam is and also what the various cultures within Islam has brought and contributed to America as well as across the globe. So I'm finding it's still just so important, the work that we're doing today as this educational journey, I think in this journey to seek and find knowledge is an ongoing journey for us throughout our lives in adulthood.

YOLANDA:

If you had to give the listeners kind of a visual of the museum, what would they expect to see?

ASEELAH:

That's a good question. One, I would just say that a lot of times people are just surprised by really how well designed and well done our museum space is. And that's for those who, even, you know, individuals who come who are Muslim and are coming for the first… they're just really like, wow, this is not what I expected because one, it was a lot of hard work and sweat and tears and really bringing in some of the best designers and architects in Mississippi, as well as around the country. You really get to just dive into, and it really takes you like across the globe.

So when we have our legacies of Timbuktu and that exhibit, you really are stepping into and feel like that you are in a village in Mali, West Africa. When we had our Islamic more Spain exhibit, you know, you are feeling like you are in Spain. That would be one of the things to expect is to go on a journey and to really feel like for a moment you're in Mississippi, you're in Jackson, but also you're like stepping through a vortex that's taking you to spaces and places across the world that you may or may not have been able to see or may never get to see.

YOLANDA:

That's pretty incredible to experience those kind of different cultures and experience what the faith is all about right here in Jackson. And I think it is very well done. I have visited the museum. Now you all just had a pretty big celebration. You had the eighth annual Islamic Heritage Month Festival: give us a recap of what that was, what it meant. And also, was it just for those in the Muslim faith?

ASSELAH:

Well, yes, we did just celebrate our eighth annual Islamic Heritage Month festival, which starting at the beginning of these eight years through the museum in the City of Jackson, you know, we deemed the month of April to be our Islamic Heritage Month. And it is done right behind the Arts Center, which is where we're located. It's for, you know, those individuals who live here in Mississippi and they're able to once showcase their culture. Because, you know, I don't know if folks know, like we have just within the Muslim community that's in Jackson and surrounding areas. So at the festival we have a parade of cultures, so folks are able to come in their traditional garb. And it is, to your other question, no, it's not just for Muslims at all. It's really for everyone to be able to come out and have the taste and sounds of various countries that are represented at the festival. So we also offer and have food. And this year, we did our first, we'll say, inaugural bean pie tasting contest.

YOLANDA:

Okay.

ASEELAH:

Which bean pie is something that is truly unique to specifically the African American Muslim community. That was the contribution of the African American Muslim community in the United States.

YOLANDA:

All of that sounds so amazing for people to be able to be right here in the city of Jackson, the City With Soul, and experience those different countries all in one spot. Lastly, let me just ask you, you know, what is it about Jackson that you love?

ASEELAH:

Of course, we call it, you know, the city with soul. But I also would say it's a city with spirit. And I think it's something I've actually spent several years, you know, grew up in Jackson, that's home. I'm a Jacksonian at heart. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia for college for undergrad, spent 20 years there in Atlanta and have since returned back to Jackson. And I could say just from my personal experience, what I love about Jackson is when coming home, that it's something about that Southern hospitality, that spirit of being very familiar and feeling very familiar with people that I don't feel like I meet a stranger really once they're that I think we have an openness about us that is truly something beautiful to have. So even though I spent time in Georgia, which is also a Southern state, in Atlanta in particular, you know, it kind of has that, it's that big little city feel. And so you may not always get to experience, it's not the same type of, I would say, Southern hospitality and warmness and openness that you feel when coming to Jackson, at least for me.

PAUL:

That's Aseelah Rashid, the new director of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures, talking with Yolanda Clay-Moore. If you want to explore more of the museum, they're open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a .m. to 5 p .m. and they're at the Arts Center of Mississippi downtown. We'll put a link in our show notes.

Soul Sessions is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thiigpen and I'm our managing editor. You want to know more about the great work we're doing in Jackson and all of the great things going on in the city? Well, you can find that at visitjackson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf, and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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