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Hana Baba

Hana Baba is a reporter and Co-Host of Crosscurrents, a daily radio newsmagazine that broadcasts on KALW Public Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hana Baba is a reporter and Co-Host of Crosscurrents, a daily radio newsmagazine that broadcasts on KALW Public Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Screenshot of a video of Sudanese male singers.

Sudan Tapes Archive preserves music across decades and continents

Music

Sudanese American Haneen Sidahmed is digitizing cassettes tapes of classic Sudanese songs dating back to the 1960s. In the process, she’s created a music archive called Sudan Tapes Archive. Reporter Hana Baba, of station KALW and the podcast, “The Stoop,” talked to Sidahmed about how her work has taken on new urgency amid war in Sudan.

Two young women hold Sudanese flag posters.

How Sudan’s uprising is inspiring a generation of Sudanese American teens

Global Politics
SalmaAndSamar

Trump’s immigration order forces complicated calculations for some Sudanese immigrants

Global Politics
square dance 1

Honor your partner: The world record this school in California hopes to break

Education
A group of women on a bus, with drums, singing

A field trip in California takes kids and parents all the way back to Sudan — on a bus

Culture
turkey

How one shop in California puts an Afghan twist on Thanksgiving

Food

You’ll know you’re in the right spot when the gravy smells of cumin and ginger, and when the stuffing foregoes bread in favor of basmati rice.

Mohamed Awad Elhassan hopes to introduce his daughter, Sameira, to STEM fields when she's older, but wonders what kind of stereotypes she'll face because of her name and appearance.

Sudanese American parents look at Ahmed Mohamed and think of their own kids

Technology

After a Sudanese American teenager was arrested and detained in Texas for bringing a homemade digital clock to school, Sudanese American parents wonder what Ahmed Mohamed’s story means for their kids growing up in the US.

Mortada Mansour in 2012 after he announced his candidacy for Egyptian president.

In Egypt, a soccer team owner’s racist comment leads to online protests

Media

An Egyptian soccer team owner who called a darker-skinned player a “doorman,” among other things, in a live TV call-in show, has sparked protests among Egyptian Nubians and a Facebook campaign.

During Sunday worship at St. Antonius Coptic Church in Hayward, California, women sit on one side of the church, and men on the other.

In California, praying in a language rooted in ancient Egypt

Belief

Coptic Christians are a minority in their ancient home of Egypt — and they’re an even bigger minority when they come to the US. So a church in Hayward, California has become a haven for preserving their culture, and ancient language, in a new home.

Not all Muslims agree on Ramadan’s start and end date

Lifestyle & Belief

Some Muslims look to the night sky for signs indicating the start and end of Ramadan. Others look to astronomical calculations for an answer. Reporter Hana Baba says the two methods peaceably coexist.