The festival, Takin' It to the Streets, attracts well-known musicians, like hip-hop artist Mos Def in 2010 and Chicago native Lupe Fiasco. The goal of the festival's organizers is to promote cooperation between the city's residents, regardless of their backgrounds.
IMAN's leader, Rami Nashashibi, originally came to Islam as a convert. Born in Jordan, he says he had a largely secular upbringing as the child of a diplomat father and a Palestinian mother who grew up in Chicago.
Then in 1990, he moved to Chicago as a student at a time when the city was changing. Ethnic white neighborhoods were absorbing Latinos, African-Americans and, after the First Gulf War, a new wave of Arab immigrants. Nashashibi found himself drawn to social activism in those communities.
