The Community Folk Art Center (CFAC), 805 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, has opened a
new exhibition in its Corridor Gallery. "Selections From the Dar-ul-Islam Historical
Photographic Collection by Khalil Abdulkhabir" features photographs documenting
the Dar-ul-Islam movement in Brooklyn in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The exhibition will be on view through March 7. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday-
Friday from 10-5 p.m. and Saturday from 11-5 p.m. Abdulkhabir will give a gallery
talk on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 2 p.m. at the CFAC.
The Dar-ul-Islam movement (1962-83) was a grassroots movement that began in
Brooklyn and eventually grew to more than 40 branches in the United States,
Canada and Trinidad. Its purpose was to empower indigenous American Muslims.
The goal of the Dar was to establish a fully functioning community, complete with
schools, places of worship and a governing body.
Syracuse photographer Abdulkhabir was born in Brooklyn. He credits
photographers from the Kamoinge workshop, created by Roy DeCarava, as being
particularly important in his artistic development. Recently, Abdulkhabir has begun
archiving images of the Dar that he took from 1970-83, as well as those taken by
other photographers during the same time period.
For the initial phase of this project, Abdulkhabir has chosen to exhibit his own works.
"My work is a collection of photos that depict a facet of my life as a Muslim in the
1970s in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn," Abdulkhabir says of
the project. "It presents the viewer an inside-out view of the people, activities and
experiences of the Dar-ul-Islam Movement. This allows the viewer who is not familiar
with the Islamic experience to expand his knowledge of this group and Muslims, and
for the Muslim, too, who hopefully will positively identify with the subject matter."
The Community Folk Art Center is a branch of the Department of African American
Studies in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. CFAC is
sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Cultural
Resources Council, the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers at SU and the Office of
the Chancellor.
Media sponsors are WAER 88.3 and Urban CNY. The Genesee Grande and Park
View Hotels are the official accommodations for guests of the CFAC.
For more information about the exhibition and gallery talk, contact the CFAC at 442-
2230 or cfac@syr.edu.
