Description:

This is Where I Need to Be: Oral Histories of Muslim Youth in NYC is a groundbreaking collection of oral history narratives from the lives of ordinary Muslim youth as told by Muslim youth. Trained in the methods of oral history at Teachers College, Columbia University, a dozen Muslim teenagers set out to document stories from the real-life experiences and feelings of their Muslim peers in public high schools. The result is an amazing collection of twenty-three oral histories. These are voices of teenagers living ordinary lives at a time when being Muslim in America can provoke "extraordinary" reactions from classmates and teachers, from friends and strangers, or even from one's own family and kin. Whatever you think you know about Muslims in America, these stories rise above news-cycle stereotypes and open a personal window onto what it means to be young and Muslim.