“1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim,” a video adapted by Anida Yoeu Ali from her own performance and poem, not only won the $20,000 grand prize but also the $5,000 music video/animation/spoken word prize in the “One Chicago, One Nation!” competition.
“Winning the grand prize is a chance to get the work seen by millions of people,” says Ali, whose husband, Masahiro Sugano, shot and edited the video.
The winners were announced at Millennium Park on June 17, the same day Link TV began broadcasting them in regular rotation through July 2011.
A project of the Inner City Muslim Action Network and other sponsors, “One Chicago, One Nation!” is dedicated to fostering dialog across cultural and religious divides.
The “1700%” video is part of Ali’s exploration of its subject across multiple disciplines. “1700%” refers to the rate of increase in hate crimes committed against people perceived as Muslim or Arab after 9/11.
“Our hope is to facilitate conversations around the issue of hate crimes against Muslims and those perceived as Muslims and the effects of racially-motivated scapegoating and fear mongering,” Ali says.
Ali constructed a 100-line poem, or cento, assembled entirely from the text of hate crime reports, which she first performed in 2003.
