On September 8, 2015, a hate crime occurred in Darien, a suburb just outside of Chicago, when Inderjit Mukker, a Sikh man, was assaulted on the road by a local teenager. NIOT covered the local community response [1] and their efforts to work with law enforcement to have the attack investigated and charged as a hate crime. In the wake of this horrific incident, Not In Our Town will be traveling to Chicago this month to hold various screenings of Waking In Oak Creek [2], a film that relays the events of the Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting in 2012 and the inspiring resilience and optimism that the Sikh community displayed in the aftermath of this tragic event. Below is a summary of events in Chicago that Not In Our Town will be participating in, as well as the responses to the September 8th hate crime.

Sikh Community In Chicago Unites

The Sikh Coalition organized a rally on September 15th with interfaith leaders, public officials, and hundreds of community members. Photos and videos from the press conference and rally can be seen here [3].

More than 50 Jewish community leaders attended a screening on September 3rd of Waking in Oak Creek, hosted by the Chicago office of the American Jewish Committee [4]. Chicago Human Relations Commissioner Mona Noriega and founder of the Chicago Sikh Religious Society Dr. Balwant Hansra led a discussion following the screening on preventing and reporting hate crimes.

Upcoming Screenings and Events in Chicago

[5]

Not In Our Town will be traveling to Chicago this month for screenings of Waking In Oak Creek on October 21st and 24th. The first screening will be at the University of Illinois on October 21st, for a double feature of Waking in Oak Creek [2] and A Prosecutor's Stand [6]. Space is limited, so please RSVP [7]. For more details, click here [8].

[9] Muslim Education Center in Morton Grove, Illinois will be hosting a screening on Saturday, October 24, from 3-5:30 pm. There will be a panel discussion immediately following the film with the film's Director, Patrice O'Neill, as well as members from the Sikh community in Oak Creek who lost loved ones from the attack. For details, please click here [10].

[11]

Waking In Oak Creek will be screened at Benedictine University for the FBI Hate Crime Awareness Symposium on Wednesday, October 28. The event will be from 8:30 AM-12:30 PM. For more infomation, click on the event program to the left or click here [12].

Save the Date: On Thursday, December 10th at 6pm, the Chicago Public Library, in partnership with the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, will be hosting a free screening of Waking in Oak Creek. More information about the screening can be found here [13]. This screening is part of Chicago Public Library's One, Book, One Chicago [14] community reading program.