Aligning with educational goals of the North American Tatar Summit, the Salakhutdinovs family along with a team of Alima Academy offered (a second year in a row) unforgettable experiential and immersive educational program for the North American Tatar children, youth and parents. The 2025 Tatar Alan that took place on July 14-23, 2025, in the picturesque countryside of Pennsylvania, USA, brought together 50 participants for 10 days. An incredibly rich and robust educational program were designed to fit all ages and the Tatar language proficiency levels.
Captured at the end of the Tatar Alan, this short film “Altyn Tarak” directed by talented Yusuf Salakhutdinov featuring the camp’s participants in their best artistic capacity serves as an excellent testament to all the efforts, time, “sweat”, künel (full-heartedness) it takes to create engaging, enriching and uplifting mөhit (environment) for personal growth and Tatar rukh (spirit).
An integral part of the Tatar Alan experience this year was a Tatar Open House with academic presentations, theatrical musical performance, film screening, Tatar festivities and, of course, delicious Tatar food. On July 19-20th, over 80 registered guests immersed in engaging programming.
The Tatar Open House featured
- an original theatrical musical production “Sharyk Kichәse” by Gөlnaz Deniz and Alima Salakhutdinova (following the successful debut of historical narrative “Tatar Hatyny: Tarikh Avazy” at 2023 Tatar Summit) with exceptional play of amateur talented volunteer actors (view their names in the below flyer) under musical guidance of Shirin Al-Ansi, piano accompaniment of Dr. Ramilya Saubanova, and sound engineer, educator Niaz Murtazin. Amateur singers Zuhra and Arslan, musical instruments players Airat (bayan), Umit (violin), Nailya (flute), young poet Dilyara shared their talents with the guests.
- a scholarly conference hosted by Tatar youth Zifa and Dilyara. Presentations of professors Gani Nurmukhametov, Nail Kashaev, Danielle Ross, Ramilya Saubanova, Chulpan Khismatova covered various topics and were followed by Q&A (view topics here).
- a documentary “Kazan Zhoyu” produced by Kazan-based Mira Rahmant and Bai Khairutdinov about legendary Arsk fabrikasy that in 1965-2006 mass-hand-produced shchiteqler – traditional Tatar leather soft boots crafted with unique Kaiyly Kun technology (view discussion points here). Guests had an opportunity to feel soft leather shchiteqler and connect to the rich history, culture and art of the Tatars.
- delicious Tatar traditional food cooked by MilliFoods and procured by Marat Salakhutdinov.
- an information table about Tatar diasporas of Montreal, Canada, and San Francisco, USA.
- a small market of Tatar books, Tatar hand-made goods, and fliers of the Tatar businesses.
- many learning opportunities for all Tatar senses (music, fine-motor, movement, performing, visual, literary, intellectual & emotional engagements) in eco-friendly manner.
The breaking news during the Tatar Open House were introduction of highly anticipated
- Tatar-English Bi-Literacy certification that finally allows the Tatar language to be assessed on a global level and be recognised by the major players in college education and employment. Read more here. Follow this steps to apply for the Global Seal of Biliteracy. Consult with Alima Academy’s faculty on the test prep. Practice Tatar language! Take the Tatar-English Biliteracy test! Flex about being bi-literate, bi-lingual, multi-lingual: it sharpens divergent and critical thinking, and empowers humility!
and
- Tatar Classical Literature Repository – an online hub for freely accessible Tatar literary works in original and their English interpretations. This is a work in progress that is being lead by the efforts of hard-working Tatar youth Katya, Rashid and Rafik.
There are several educational and research projects under constructions. If you want to be involved and share your goodwill, skills and efforts to build the Tatar-English knowledge base, please reach out to tatarsummit@gmail.com or info@alima.academy. Everyone who is willing to contribute efforts and compassion for a “bigger good” is needed and welcomed! Involvement with these projects can be a great experience and resume-builder for high-schoolers!
Stay Inspired by Tatar literary geniuses: Find Tatar language and literature resources here.
Feel the spirit of the Tatar Alan in this awe-evoking photo by Nadia Nurmukhametova
featuring batyrbike Alima and batyr Ildus
Check out the video summery from Inaugural 2024 Tatar Alan here. It hosted 30 participants in Quebec, Canada.
