Tom Tingle/Arizona Republic

Zana Alattar, founder of Save Our Syrian Freedom, speaks during a forum about the crisis in Syria held at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication on March 4, 2015.

KJZZ partners with the Arizona Republic to bring you the Arizona Storytellers series. We record the live events and share them with you on the radio. In Phoenix, the storytellers sometimes share stories about our community or the life events that have shaped them in general. Megan Finnerty is the creator of the series. 

Zana Alattar was born and raised in Chicago. Every summer until she was 16, Alattar and her family would visit her grandmother in Syria. The summer of 2010 was the last time they made the trip. In 2011 protests led to a year of riots, violence and ultimately civil war. Alattar’s grandmother moved to the U.S. a few months after the conflict started.

Zana Alattar is the Student Director of Students Organized for Syria.

The next storytelling event is March 31, 2016, at the South Mountain Community College's Performing Arts Center.

→ Hear More Arizona Storytellers