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Iman Drammeh Nur works and lives by a mantra that has taken her halfway around the world and back to the Bronx again.

"If history happens and no one is there to tell it, it never happened," says Nur, 52, who was born in the Bronx, just a few miles from her current home in Co-op City.

Nur is an artist by trade and passion and works in all manner of medium, from sculpture to Arabic calligraphy. She honed her skills at the High School of Music & Art, and went on to attend Pratt Institute and Empire State College, where she received her bachelor's degree in Cultural Studies.

"I have always embraced culture in a way that I was always curious about learning more," said Nur.

She continued her cultural investigation with a project that documented the Colored Troops of the Civil War. Her experiences with this project inspired her to create the Drammeh Institute in 1993 to work with documentary filmmakers to ensure they get the support they need.

Her work with the institute has taken her all over Africa, to countries including Chad, Morocco, Egypt, Senegal and South Africa. She has traveled to Geneva to address the UN Human Rights Council about contemporary slavery.

Nur is not the type that one would expect to go after hot button issues like racism and modern slavery. "She's not the kind of person that is always visible and on the scene," said her collaborator, Al Santana. "She's very quiet in her work but her work is very powerful."

Her latest project was an international forum last Saturday that ran parallel with United Nations 56th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, that examined the correlation between gender and environmental issues in Africa.

Community leaders, grassroots organizations, business leaders and citizens came together for the forum, “Women Water and Migration in Africa: The case of Nigeria, Ghana, Guinee and Chad,” at the United Nations Community Church to bring visibility to the water crisis and its impact on rural women and girls.

The event was sponsored by Nur’s institute in partnership with Tchad Agir pour I'nvironnement.

She is also still working on the Civil War documentary, revamping a four part series on the black church, and heading up a youth filmmakers program in Co-op City.

"I'm not a TV watcher," she says, "This really is it. It's a 24 hour gig."

When she isn't jetting off to Africa, putting together youth programs, or juggling documentary films she is the mother to a 21-year-old daughter and enjoys working on her artwork.

"I want to embrace everything that moves," she said. “Everything has a story to tell."

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