An then when Hasnul introduced us he gave me the same bear hug and I felt the feeling that i had long since forgotten, being an American! That bear hug squeezed out memories of my Amrican buddies when we met eachother it felt genuine something I never realized that I have been missing.
Najjar arrived from Senegal after his trip to Morocco and he will be here for three weeks where he will work on having an exhbition at the MGTF organized by his close friend Hasnul.
It has been a week now since his arrival and he has been whipping left and right getting his show ready which includes the display of headlines from a Newsletter circulation by the Black Muslim Movement of American under the auspicious of the founder Elijjah Mohammad and Malcolm X. He is here to share the thoughts and ideas developed over the years of the African American Muslim movement which to my knowledge is very little understood by the majority of the Muslims in Malaysia.
Najjar Abdul-Musawir is an internatinally acclaimed artist who has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe. He currently works as a tenured Associate Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Studies in the School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
When he is not creating impressive works of art, or teaching college students; he can be found working with "disengaged youth" and their families helping them to discover their creative voices.
Najjar's work for the community is two- fold, it is an important aspect of his faith as a Muslim but also because it allows him to foster in others, what has helped him survive and surpass "assumed" limitations in his own life.
To any and all who will listen, Najjar will say, "Art saved my life." This come from a manwho at nineteen years of age was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and sent to prison for almost a decade of his life. It was while in prison that his heart was turned to Allah and his salvation was having met a Muslim brother who was wrongly accused and had to spend a short time in prison.
Listening to his life story I felt like it had all the ingridients of a movie in the making with Ice Cube playing Najjar.
I have been assigned to be Najjar's local tour guide and baby sitter, not he need any of it as he does perfectly fine on his own drawing people to him with his typical African American jives and moves making everyone he met here feel totally at ease in his prescence.
Najjar is no doubt an inspiration for me, a breath of fresh air which blew just at the moment when I was about to throw in the towel ofr myself being an artist.
No doubt he has the energy of one ten years my junior but it is not just the age, it is the genuine energy that only those who have been given a second chance in life has that affects me when am with him as I am sure it has the same effect on others too.
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