[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> with the one and welcome.

my name is dave cereal and the curator of education here at the air of american national museum, which is the first and only museum of its kind in the entire country that's dedicated to telling the history.

culture and contributions of air of american museum itself was open may fifth, two thousand five, we are a smithsonian affiliated institution, were also accredited by the american alliance of museums.

and lastly, we're an institution of access that's been around for fifty plus years, providing social services to the community to be able to take a look at our two that living in america that talks about the various air of american culture and traditions.

so here we are in our living in america exhibit specifically in our kitchen part of this exhibit.

and this exhibit at large really talks about this idea of air of american culture.

i'm sure we've all said that word before.

we've all talked about that word culture.

what does what does it mean?

what is culture?

what is culture to you?

[MUSIC] everybody has their own definition of culture.

for many americans.

food is one of the staples, one of the major pieces of the american culture.

it's a way that we bring family and friends together.

it's a way that the identify view our food through our cuisine.

so food in general is a really important part of various cultures.

food is, of course, important to us and our family.

but it's also an extension of who we are, what we have just the right.

so if you've ever been to an ever american house or going over to a friend's house, oftentimes you're fed very generously with food.

it's one of the best ways that we can do to make sure our guests feel welcome and happy.

but b, also again, to display who we are our culture and do it in the most inviting and delicious way.

>> the air making committees extremely diverse.

so there's never going to be a statement that's like all americans eat.

this are all of americans do this with their culture.

there's a lot of differences and a lot of times as a weaving in various cultures, whether it's multiple air cultures or air of an american cultures, as an example with my family, when we have holiday dinners together, what we do is we have traditional like american type things that we also add like an arabic flair to it.

so, for example, with when we make turkey, we have turkey, which is very traditional for a lot of folks for for different holidays, but instead of like traditional american stuffing.

>> we'll use shirley, which is like a blend of lamb and rice that season really well and will stuff the turkey with that versus like traditional american stuff and some other aspect of the american culture that's really important is this idea of coffee and tea coffee and tea is very traditional.

it's often given to guess what we've got the covid or a house or if the family just kind of hanging out community storytelling kind of tells us one idea why our coffee and teas with the comment is it's a sign that we want you to stay longer, right, because it's a very hot drink.

you can't just down and take off, but you need to set up on it and wait for it to cool.

and it creates a very relaxed atmosphere.

it creates the opportunity to have more food.

it creates the opportunity to just kind of be in the moment.

and so that's where the culture for a lot of americans, this tradition of food continues kind of beyond the typical american kitchen and populates within grocery store.

so if you come to dearborn, which with museum is located, or if you go to the immediate community, you'll see a lot of restaurants and grocery stores that contain air of an air of american products.

you'll also find things that are non air, right?

so then you kind of have that lending of arabic things, right, like groceries that you can't find anywhere else that you might find in an area has a large population americans.

the also find typical things you'll find in that early, every single grocery store.

and so again, it's kind of just blending of the two.

there's a rich history of entrepreneurship in the arab american community, again, with grocery stores, bakeries, spice shops.

and that has continued up until present day.

>> you also see a blending of cultures when it comes to the arab american youth to see a blending of cultures.

one of our exhibit specifically that highlight sports in high school, sports in high school has been around for a very, very long time.

historically has had various ethnic and racial communities at fort sam today.

it's primarily air of american.

many of those every american's are muslim.

and so there's a really great story in our exhibit that highlights this blending of air of an american culture.

so this exhibit talks about the forts and high school football team and specifically when they were playing football during the month of ramadan.

so ramadan is the holy month of fasting for many muslims who are practicing.

the idea is that.

>> don't have food or water among other things from sunup to sundown and these football players, specifically many of them who were muslim.

we're not eating or drinking while either playing football games or during practice.

so for these american football players, their dedication to the sport of football, but also observing their culture and their traditions, allow them to navigate the care of american and playing football.

at the same time for more information on these stories and much more, please visit the american national museum's web site at the american museum dot org or come visit us in person.

this program was made possible by a grant from ct in the community telecommunications network.