ArabishWay

P&P Live! Jim Al-Khalili | The Joy of Science (virtual)
2022-04-06 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Click Here to register for this virtual event.
Today’s world is unpredictable and full of contradictions, and navigating its complexities while trying to make the best decisions is far from easy. The Joy of Science presents 8 short lessons on how to unlock the clarity, empowerment, and joy of thinking and living a little more scientifically.
Jim Al-Khalili is Distinguished Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Surrey and one of Britain’s best-known science communicators. He has written numerous books, including The World According to Physics; Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed; and Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and lives in Southsea, England.

2022 Online Film and Discussion MidEast Series: Sumud
2022-04-08 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
THE SPRING 2022 ONLINE FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES

The theme for this year’s Film Series is Sumud. This is a Palestinian word that means “Steadfastness” or “Steadfast Perseverance.” It is a cultural value in Palestine. There is no possible way Palestinians can defend themselves in the face of one of the most well-equipped military powers in the world. They practice “sumud” which sometimes is an act of making breakfast, sometimes walking the children to the checkpoint on the way to school, sometimes, joining a peaceful protest at a blocked crossroad, just to say “We are here!”

In this series we will meet a young Israeli woman who also practices her own sumud as she resists joining the Israeli military. We will discover what sumud looks like in the devastation we call “Gaza”, and in the tragedy we call “Hebron.”

To receive links to the film (watch on your own time within 48 hours of the discussion) and the Zoom discussion, send a message to seattlemideastfocus@gmail.com

APRIL 8, 8 P.M. (discussion)
GAZA
Gaza brings us into a unique place beyond the reach of television news reports to reveal a world rich with eloquent and resilient characters, offering us a cinematic and enriching portrait of a people attempting to lead meaningful lives against the rubble of perennial conflict.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

APRIL 22, 8 p.m. (discussion)
MISSION: HEBRON
and SKIES ABOVE HEBRON
In Mission: Hebron six young Israeli men who served in the army from the age of 18 give an account of their mission in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage documenting numerous appalling situations corroborates their compelling stories, from soldiers taking pot shots with rubber bullets and conducting humiliating searches of passersby to arresting ten-year-olds and turning entire households upside down. What effect did these military duties have on their moral compass? Looking back and growing older, how do they feel about this mission now?
Learn more here.
Skies above Hebron is a coming of age story depicting three boys coping, each in his own way, with physical and mental obstacles enclosing life in their Palestinian hometown of Hebron.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

MAY 6, 8 P.M. (discussion)
LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SEIGE
During the Syrian civil war, the district of Yarmouk, home to thousands of Palestinians, became the scene of dramatic and ferocious fighting. Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege is a film that follows the destiny of civilians during the brutal sieges, imposed by the Syrian regime, that took place in the wake of the battles. With his camera, Abdallah Al-Khatib composes a love song to a place that proudly resists the atrocities of war
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

MAY 20, 8 P.M. (discussion)
200 METERS
Mustafa lives on the Palestinian-controlled side of the wall, and Salwa and their children on the Israeli side. One day he gets the call every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident and is in the hospital. He will do anything to reach his son, and after being denied access through the checkpoint on a technicality, Mustafa embarks upon a journey to cross the border illegally.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

P&P Live! Luma Mufleh — Learning America (virtual)
2022-04-12 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Click Here to register for this virtual event.
Learning America traces the story of how Mufleh grew a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children. The journey is inspiring and hard-won: Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to heal trauma, create belonging, and accelerate learning. Finally, this gifted storyteller delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren’t supposed to be possible for children born into trauma–stories that shine powerful light on the path to educational justice for all of America’s most left-behind.
Luma Mufleh is the founder of Fugees Family, with schools now in Georgia and Ohio and an expanding footprint bringing educational equity to refugee resettlement communities across America. Her TED Talk on educational justice for refugee families was viewed more than 1.7 million times.

2022 Online Film and Discussion MidEast Series: Sumud
2022-04-22 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
THE SPRING 2022 ONLINE FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES

The theme for this year’s Film Series is Sumud. This is a Palestinian word that means “Steadfastness” or “Steadfast Perseverance.” It is a cultural value in Palestine. There is no possible way Palestinians can defend themselves in the face of one of the most well-equipped military powers in the world. They practice “sumud” which sometimes is an act of making breakfast, sometimes walking the children to the checkpoint on the way to school, sometimes, joining a peaceful protest at a blocked crossroad, just to say “We are here!”

In this series we will meet a young Israeli woman who also practices her own sumud as she resists joining the Israeli military. We will discover what sumud looks like in the devastation we call “Gaza”, and in the tragedy we call “Hebron.”

To receive links to the film (watch on your own time within 48 hours of the discussion) and the Zoom discussion, send a message to seattlemideastfocus@gmail.com

APRIL 22, 8 p.m. (discussion)
MISSION: HEBRON
and SKIES ABOVE HEBRON
In Mission: Hebron six young Israeli men who served in the army from the age of 18 give an account of their mission in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Footage documenting numerous appalling situations corroborates their compelling stories, from soldiers taking pot shots with rubber bullets and conducting humiliating searches of passersby to arresting ten-year-olds and turning entire households upside down. What effect did these military duties have on their moral compass? Looking back and growing older, how do they feel about this mission now?
Learn more here.
Skies above Hebron is a coming of age story depicting three boys coping, each in his own way, with physical and mental obstacles enclosing life in their Palestinian hometown of Hebron.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

MAY 6, 8 P.M. (discussion)
LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SEIGE
During the Syrian civil war, the district of Yarmouk, home to thousands of Palestinians, became the scene of dramatic and ferocious fighting. Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege is a film that follows the destiny of civilians during the brutal sieges, imposed by the Syrian regime, that took place in the wake of the battles. With his camera, Abdallah Al-Khatib composes a love song to a place that proudly resists the atrocities of war
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

MAY 20, 8 P.M. (discussion)
200 METERS
Mustafa lives on the Palestinian-controlled side of the wall, and Salwa and their children on the Israeli side. One day he gets the call every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident and is in the hospital. He will do anything to reach his son, and after being denied access through the checkpoint on a technicality, Mustafa embarks upon a journey to cross the border illegally.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

Sisters in the Mirror: A History of Muslim Women and the Global Politics of Feminism
2022-04-25 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Hiwar Maftuh (Public Conversation)

April 25, 2022
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Location
Virtual via Zoom

Calendar
Download iCal File

Join the Arab American Cultural Center, the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center, and Prof. Nadine Naber for a conversation with Elora Shehabuddin, Professor of Transnational Asian Studies and Core Faculty, at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University, about her new book Sisters in the Mirror: A History of Muslim Women and the Global Politics of Feminism.
About the Book: Stretching from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment era to the War on Terror present, Sisters in the Mirror shows how changes in women’s lives and feminist strategies have consistently reflected wider changes in national and global politics and economics. Elora Shehabuddin presents a unique and engaging history of feminism as a story of colonial and postcolonial interactions between Western and Muslim societies. Muslim women have found themselves having to negotiate their demands for rights within other forms of struggle—for national independence or against occupation, racism, and economic inequality. Through stories of both well-known and relatively unknown figures, Shehabuddin recounts instances of conflict alongside those of empathy, collaboration, and solidarity across this extended period. Sisters in the Mirror is organized around stories of encounters between women and men from South Asia, Britain, and the United States that led them, as if they were looking in a mirror, to pause and reconsider norms in their own society, including cherished ideas about women’s roles and rights. These intertwined stories confirm that nowhere, in either Western or Muslim societies, has material change in girls’ and women’s lives come easily or without protracted struggle.
About Author: Elora Shehabuddin is Professor of Transnational Asian Studies and Core Faculty, Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, at Rice University. She is author of Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh, coeditor of Gender and Economics in Muslim Communities, and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures.
Event is co-sponsored by Global Asian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies
Zoom auto-captioning will be available. For questions or accessibility, contact us at arabamcc@uic.edu or 312-413-3253

Bakar: live at the Neptune
2022-04-27 19:00 - 22:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Neptune, 1303 Northeast 45th Street, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
Musical influences cited by Bakar include Madlib and Foals.[19][11] He has described his music as “schizophrenic”, and said that he attempts to “bridge the gap” between different music genres.[19] Ones to Watch described his style as a “melting pot of indie, rap, rock, and punk”.[44]
https://www.facebook.com/yeaabk
EVENT NOTES

Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Doors at 7:00 pm
Show at 8:00 pm
General Admission
All Ages / Bar w/ Valid ID
$23.00 in advance
$28.00 day of show
(not including fees)
Proof of COVID vaccination required for entry. Patrons unable to be vaccinated can show proof of negative COVID PCR test. Click here for details.

Bakar is of Yemeni and Tanzanian descent

Arab American Heritage Month Celebration
2022-04-28 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
April is Arab American Heritage Month! The Association of Lutheran of Arab and Middle Eastern Heritage (ALAMEH) is hosting an online celebration on Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m. Eastern time. The event will feature speakers Samer Khalaf, national president of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee and Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America. Join us to discuss of Arab American heritage in the United States, advocacy, justice, combating discrimination and more.
Please register ahead of time at bit.ly/ALAMEHCelebration

The Art of the Short Story: Small Odysseys (Zoom)
2022-05-03 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Small Odysseys celebrates the latest gems of contemporary short fiction–striking and joyful, the collection elucidates the character of the current literary landscape. Join Small Odysseys’ editor and contributors as they discuss this thrilling and impactful collection of works.

Authors participating include:
Edwidge Danticat, Omar El Akkad, Hannah Tinti, and J. Robert Lennon

2022 Online Film and Discussion MidEast Series: Sumud
2022-05-06 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
THE SPRING 2022 ONLINE FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES

The theme for this year’s Film Series is Sumud. This is a Palestinian word that means “Steadfastness” or “Steadfast Perseverance.” It is a cultural value in Palestine. There is no possible way Palestinians can defend themselves in the face of one of the most well-equipped military powers in the world. They practice “sumud” which sometimes is an act of making breakfast, sometimes walking the children to the checkpoint on the way to school, sometimes, joining a peaceful protest at a blocked crossroad, just to say “We are here!”

In this series we will meet a young Israeli woman who also practices her own sumud as she resists joining the Israeli military. We will discover what sumud looks like in the devastation we call “Gaza”, and in the tragedy we call “Hebron.”

To receive links to the film (watch on your own time within 48 hours of the discussion) and the Zoom discussion, send a message to seattlemideastfocus@gmail.com

MAY 6, 8 P.M. (discussion)
LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SEIGE
During the Syrian civil war, the district of Yarmouk, home to thousands of Palestinians, became the scene of dramatic and ferocious fighting. Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege is a film that follows the destiny of civilians during the brutal sieges, imposed by the Syrian regime, that took place in the wake of the battles. With his camera, Abdallah Al-Khatib composes a love song to a place that proudly resists the atrocities of war
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

MAY 20, 8 P.M. (discussion)
200 METERS
Mustafa lives on the Palestinian-controlled side of the wall, and Salwa and their children on the Israeli side. One day he gets the call every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident and is in the hospital. He will do anything to reach his son, and after being denied access through the checkpoint on a technicality, Mustafa embarks upon a journey to cross the border illegally.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

2022 Online Film and Discussion MidEast Series: Sumud
2022-05-20 20:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
THE SPRING 2022 ONLINE FILM AND DISCUSSION SERIES

The theme for this year’s Film Series is Sumud. This is a Palestinian word that means “Steadfastness” or “Steadfast Perseverance.” It is a cultural value in Palestine. There is no possible way Palestinians can defend themselves in the face of one of the most well-equipped military powers in the world. They practice “sumud” which sometimes is an act of making breakfast, sometimes walking the children to the checkpoint on the way to school, sometimes, joining a peaceful protest at a blocked crossroad, just to say “We are here!”

In this series we will meet a young Israeli woman who also practices her own sumud as she resists joining the Israeli military. We will discover what sumud looks like in the devastation we call “Gaza”, and in the tragedy we call “Hebron.”

To receive links to the film (watch on your own time within 48 hours of the discussion) and the Zoom discussion, send a message to seattlemideastfocus@gmail.com

MAY 20, 8 P.M. (discussion)
200 METERS
Mustafa lives on the Palestinian-controlled side of the wall, and Salwa and their children on the Israeli side. One day he gets the call every parent dreads: his son has been in an accident and is in the hospital. He will do anything to reach his son, and after being denied access through the checkpoint on a technicality, Mustafa embarks upon a journey to cross the border illegally.
Learn more here.
with host:
special guest:

The Farhat J. Ziadeh Distinguished Lecture in Arab and Islamic Studies
2022-06-05 | WA
2022: 5 June; “The Emerging New Regional Order in the Middle East” presented by Vali Nasr, Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.

ARCE DC: King Taharqa: The Man and the Myth
2022-06-11 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Presented by: Dr. Rita Freed

1:00 PM EDTWashington, DC
Zoom

Register via this email

11.3 Dialogues on the Art of Arab Fashion: Alternative Museum of Sudan
2022-06-14 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Event Description: Dr. Reem El Mutwalli with Amado AlFadni- Sudanese Egyptian Visual Artist & Najlaa El- Ageli- Founder of Noon Art discuss the exhibition.
Najlaa El-Ageli is an architect with over twenty years of experience in the profession. Passionate about the arts, she founded Noon Arts Projects in 2012, a small private art foundation, to promote contemporary Libyan art and expose it to the world stage. Collaborating with cultural foundations and galleries, she has curated over 16 projects and successfully shed light on the current Libyan artistic scene.
Amado AlFadni is an artist who was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1976 to Sudanese parents. His childhood environment was composed of both the Cairene street and the traditions of a Sudanese household. The relationship and the tension between these two different cultures strongly influenced his views, making him question the subject of identity with its related rhetoric, as well as the variables of nation and ethnicity in his work. The ‘Alternative Museum of Sudan’ is Amado’s first solo exhibition in London, that traces the findings of his five-year journey and research into the buried histories of the people of the Sudan who were badly affected by colonialism and other interruptive external forces.
Date: 14th June 2022
Time: 12 pm (NYC), 5 pm (London), 8 pm (Dubai)
Tickets: Donation

Dreams Rising Artist Talk: Gaza Artists Malak Al-Absy and Mohammed Qraiqe
2022-06-18 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip as young as 14 years old have endured four major Israeli military offensives. They live under an Israeli military blockade which controls who goes where and when, which goods can enter and exit Gaza, and which patients can seek specialized health care abroad. And yet, they are dreaming of a better future.
The Museum of the Palestinian People is pleased to introduce a new exhibition that invites visitors to imagine a better future for Palestinian children in Gaza. Working with a team of youth specialists, curator Ahmed Mansour asked children to paint a vision of their future.
The exhibition was envisioned and created in memory of the 67 Palestinian children killed in the May 2021 Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip. The exhibition features artwork created by 11 child and youth artists in Gaza in collaboration with Sama Center for Art and Culture.
This event is a conversation with two of the young artists featured in the exhibition: 16-year-old Malak Al-Absy and 21-year-old Mohammed Qraiqe. The event will be moderated by Ahmed Mansour, the curator of Dreams Rising and the director of programs at the Museum of the Palestinian people.
Malak Al-Absy, 16, is a Palestinian artist from Gaza who was born in 2006, the year before the Israeli blockade closed the Gaza Strip to the rest of the world. Malak has lived through four major Israeli military offensives in the 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. She started to paint from a young age and has participated in several local art exhibits in Gaza City. Through art, Malak tries to explore the idea of love in the war-torn Gaza.
Mohammed Qraiqe, 21, is from the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. His talent as an artist emerged when he was five years old. He was adopted by several art institutes in Gaza before he started making his way to international exhibits. Mohammed has toured Dubai, Tunis, Lebanon, and Chicago with his art. He’s currently finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at a university in Norway.

11.4 Dialogues on the Art of Arab Fashion: Tatreez & Tea
2022-06-28 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Event Description: Dr. Reem El Mutwalli and Wafa Ghnaim, Founder of Tatreez & Tea discuss her upcoming book to be published.
Wafa Ghnaim is a Palestinian-American artist, researcher, writer, educator, and businesswoman who began learning Palestinian embroidery from her mother, award-winning artist Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, when she was two years old. This legacy has deeply influenced her career, becoming a leading educator in the field, the first-ever Palestinian embroidery instructor at the Smithsonian Museum, and collections specialist at the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, D.C. Wafa continues her mother’s educational legacy through Tatreez & Tea, a global arts education initiative that she established in 2016. Tatreez & Tea’s mission is to educate and empower exiled Palestinians of their heritage as well as to cultivate and strengthen allyship with non-Palestinians around the world.
Embroidery, or tatreez, is a centuries-old practice preserved through intergenerational exchange over a cup of tea, or shay. Inspired by generations of fibre artists, The Tatreez Institute continues the rich traditions of embroidery, textile, and storytelling of Palestine, the Palestinian diaspora, and Greater Syria from the United States.Wafa coined the title “Tatreez & Tea” in 2015 when she set out to write a book that preserved the meanings, stories, and patterns of Palestinian embroidery designs that she and her sisters had learned throughout their lives.
Date: 28th June 2022
Time: 12 pm (NYC), 5 pm (London), 8 pm (Dubai)
Tickets: Donation
Students: If you are a student or member of academia please register here to receive your complimentary registration links.
Registering will not only give you access to the live session but also a recorded version to catch up on in your own time.
Buy Tickets

ARCE DC: Excavating a Frontier Fortress: Uronarti, Sudan
2022-07-16 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
The fortifications at Uronarti in Lower Nubia were among a string of massive monuments built by the kings of Egypt’s 12th dynasty when they established control over this gold-bearing region.

While the fortresses were imposing military monuments, they were also locations of interaction between the Egyptian garrison and local Nubian populations, as well as places of domestic and production activities. Since 2012, a joint mission of Brown University and Swansea University has been conducting an excavation and survey at Uronarti and the surrounding area to address questions of both colonialism and daily life at this outpost.

This talk will present recent finds from that project, including one of the best-preserved ancient Egyptian pottery kilns yet known, a settlement of stone huts outside the fortress, and construction layers from the earliest phase of the site that highlight the impressive engineering necessary to conquer this forbidding landscape.

Email us at arce.dc.news at gmail dot com for a link to register for
this event.

Registration is required
Presented by: Dr. Laurel Bestock

1:00 PM EDTWashington, DC

Arab Film Series Online: Bloody Beans + Talkback
2022-07-28 - 2022-07-31 | WA
Arab Film Series Online: Bloody Beans + Talkback
Free Online Stream | Suggested $5 Donation – Register
This July, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Algerian Independence from France, Arab Film Series presents Bloody Beans, an experimental take on the Algerian War by Narimane Mari. This program is accompanied with a recorded discussion with the filmmaker.
Shot on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence, (the film) is based on a loose, improvisational script about a group of children who, fed up with their monotonous diet of beans, decide to steal food from the French military barracks and end up capturing a young French soldier as well. This allegory of the Algerian War of Independence is enacted on the beach and within the populous neighborhoods of today’s Algiers, where almost half the population is under twenty-five years of age and largely unemployed. In a powerful mix of past (the struggle against French occupation) and present (the struggle of young people to survive), the film addresses the emotional realities of colonialism and contemporary forms of disenfranchisement., which sees the conflict played out by a group of vibrant children. Incorporating unique lighting and sound, the film is a complex exploration of colonial powers and the fight for freedom.
77 Minutes / 2013 / Algeria / Experimental / French and Arabic with English subtitles
For questions, e-mail Dave Serio at dserio@accesscommunity.org.

The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I : Online Lecture
2022-07-28 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
This presentation will outline and discuss how World War I affected the Balkans and the Middle East, in such long-standing campaigns as the Serbian Campaign, the Dardanelles Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Palestine Campaign, the Arab Revolt, and the Mesopotamian Campaign. We will investigate how the Ottoman Empire entered the war, how Middle Eastern soldiers participated in the conflict, and how those experiences would affect the aftermath of the war.

Note: This episode will not discuss the Ottoman internal situation during the war (including the situation in eastern Anatolia) which will be discussed in the next week and will not discuss the more famous Western and Eastern Fronts in Europe as those are outside of the Middle East focus of this series.

The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I saw action between 29 October 1914 and 30 October 1918. The combatants were, on one side, the Ottoman Empire (including Kurds and some Arab tribes), with some assistance from the other Central Powers; and on the other side, the British (with the help of Jews, Greeks, Assyrians and the majority of the Arabs, along with Indians under its empire), the Russians (with the help of Armenians and Assyrians) and the French from among the Allied Powers. There were five main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign, and the Gallipoli Campaign. There were also several minor campaigns: Arab Campaign, and South Arabia Campaign.
Both sides used local asymmetrical forces in the region. On the Allied side were Arabs who participated in the Arab Revolt and the Armenian militia who participated in the Armenian Resistance during the Armenian genocide; along with Armenian volunteer units, the Armenian militia formed the Armenian Corps of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. In addition, the Assyrians joined the Allies following the Assyrian genocide, known as the Assyrian volunteers and Our Smallest Ally. The theatre covered the largest territory of all theatres in the war.
Russian participation in the theatre ended as a result of the Armistice of Erzincan (5 December 1917), after which the revolutionary Russian government withdrew from the war under the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918). The Armenians attended the Trabzon Peace Conference (14 March 1918) which resulted in the Treaty of Batum on 4 June 1918. The Ottomans accepted the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies on 30 October 1918, and signed the Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920 and later the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923.

Free virtual screening of the documentary film "Aida Returns," directed by Carol Mansour
2022-07-30 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
We will be screening a 20 minute-condensed pre-release version of the film. The film screening will be followed by Q&A discussion with Carol Mansour, film director, and Muna Khalidi, producer. Click the title above for more information.

AIDA RETURNS – أمي العائدة إلى يافا

This film is a poignant, sometimes sad, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, often absurd story of a multiple journey: the journey of loss as the director’s mother Aida struggled with losing herself to Alzheimer’s disease, but finding solace in her repeated “returning” to the Yafa and Palestine of her youth; the journey of the loss of a parent; and the ultimate return journey back to Yafa where Aida would finally find rest and be herself once more.
Close to four years after Aida’s passing away, the director’s friend and colleague Tanya who lives in Ramallah came to visit Beirut. When she heard about Aida’s wishes and yearning for Yafa, Tanya suggested that she herself carries the ashes back. The film accompanies director Carol Mansour as she engineers a way to return her mother to Yafa in search of eternal rest and peace for her. A return that is aided by an unlikely set of friends and strangers all coming together to facilitate what should have been a simple journey. This journey is at the same time very private and personal, while resonating with hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers and their families as well as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees awaiting their return home.
This film is a tribute to the lost past of the director’s family, an attempt to restore part of both an individual and a collective memory, and a poetic nod and affirmation to all those exiled Palestinians forbidden from returning to their hometowns, even after death.

Click here to watch the film trailer.
Click here to register for this event.
We will be screening a 20 minute-condensed pre-release version of the film. The film screening will be followed by Q&A discussion with Carol Mansour, film director, and Muna Khalidi, producer

ARCE DC: Moon Knight’s Egyptian Deities: Ammit and Taweret in Hollywood (online)
2022-08-06 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moon-knights-egyptian-deities-ammit-and-taweret-in-hollywood-tickets-386146804487

Dr Stuart T. Smith, UCSB, consultant to STARGATE, presents a fun discussion on Ammit & Taweret and their role in Ancient Egypt’s religion

About this event

Marvel’s Moon Knight drew in many fans, and introduced viewers to two Goddesses of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. The Hippo Goddess, Taweret, in her role of protectress of women, birthing mothers, and infants, was universally revered for several thousand years. Pregnant women wore amulets of her, the meme of both having big bellies lasted thousands of years. Her image was carved on protective and household items. Images of her were also placed in tombs, to help the deceased to live again in the afterlife. This interaction with dead souls in highlighted in Moon Knight.
Ammit, another Goddess who was part hippo, was also part lion and part crocodile. She interacted with the dead in a different way. At the time of final judgement, she crouched by the balance scales where the heart of the deceased was weighed for goodness against a feather, while the spirit of the deceased changed a list of good things done in life, and bad things avoided. If the heart outweighed the feather, the soul was forbidden to enter the afterlife. Their unworthy heart was tossed to Ammit, who devoured it. The soul died. Clearly, as “Devourer of the Dead”, and “Eater of Hearts”she was not a Goddess to mess with. In Moon Knight, Ammit is elegantly costumed, with a fabulous braid and – never shown dining.
Since his 1994 consultancy with the Stargate film, Dr. Stuart Smith of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has given many entertaining talks on the incorporation of Ancient Egyptian themes in Hollywood movies.

"Madafeh" - Open Discussion About Palestine
2022-08-28 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Event: “Madafeh” – Open Discussion About Palestine
Sunday August 28, 2022 – 12:00 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine Time.
Please click here to register for this event.
Our guest for this episode is Peabody Award-winning journalist Jamal Dajani, co-host of the syndicated radio show Arab Talk. He will share the documentary film “Occupied Minds.” The film is the story of two journalists, Jamal Dajani, a Palestinian-American, and David Michaelis, an Israeli citizen, who journey to Jerusalem, their mutual birthplace, to explore new solutions and offer unique insights into the divisive Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The film takes viewers on an emotional and intensely personal odyssey through the streets of one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Gaza: Beautiful Resistance - Virtual Delegation to Palestine
2022-08-28 10:00 - 11:30, 2022-08-30 09:00 - 10:30, 2022-09-02 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Gaza is often portrayed as a place of desperation and violence, due to decades of occupation, siege and ongoing brutal assaults. What is far less often portrayed is Gaza as a place of life, laughter, joy, and creativity. On this Virtual Delegation of the Gaza Strip, we will introduce you to beautiful resistance in the Gaza Strip. Through music, art, dancing and more, Palestinians in Gaza resist the dehumanization inherent in colonization.
Join us to meet Palestinians in Gaza who insist on expressing their full humanity and on waging life!
This Virtual Delegation is co-sponsored by Donkeysaddle Projects and Just Vision.
Tour Date Options:
August 28: 1:00-2:30pm ET
August 30: 12:00-1:30pm ET
September 2: 12:00-1:30pm ET
(All tour times are listed in Eastern Time – USA)

REGISTER TODAY!

Director of the movie 1982, Oualid Mouaness on ZOOM
2022-08-28 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Lebanese Americans and Lebanese American Society of Seattle will host the Director 1982 Oualid Mouaness on August 28, 2022, at 11 AM Pacific Time on Zoom.
Mr. Mouaness will be happy to answer your questions live.
https://bit.ly/3Rg69Gl

SIFF

Webinar: Empowering The Palestinian Community Through Culture
2022-08-31 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | WA
Join us Wednesday, August 31st at 11 A.M. CDT to hear from internationally renowned Palestinian abstract painter Samia Halaby, Palestinian artist, Dar al-Kalima University Professor Faten Nastas Mitwasi, and Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb. Our live event, “Empowering The Palestinian Community Through Culture” will also feature three DAK University graduate recipients of the Samia Halaby Foundation. We will hear about their amazing projects that drew the attention of Samia Halaby herself.

Rajiv Mohabir and Mortada Gzar - Live at Elliott Bay
2022-09-07 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Noted poet and translator Rajiv Mohabir, along with Seattle-based Iraqi writer Mortada Gzar (more on him below) make this welcome September visit for the paperback of Roajiv Mohabir’s much-acclaimed prose debut, Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir. Recipient of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing (which has helped launch several excellent books), this was also a Lambda and PEN Book Book Award finalist, and received a 2021 Indies FOREWORD Award for LGBTQ+ non-fiction.

Venice LIVE [Virtual] Walking Tour: Old Jewish District and Old Arab District
2022-09-13 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Join our live stream walk to enjoy one of the oldest jewish districts around Europe.
We will go behind the scenes of fascinating stories and amazing colors, the tour will hit the Cannareggio district, including the ancient arab district.
Join our walk to discover the lovely venice atmosphere.

Authors SUSAN MUADDI DARRAJ, MARCUS BURKE and JUDY BOLTON-FASMAN discuss identity and race
2022-09-13 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Pen Parentis Literary Salons invites you to an exciting LIVECAST featuring literary readings and intimate discussion with 3 amazing authors about themes of IDENTITY AND RACE in their writing and life.

12.1 Meet The Postcard Women! by the Zay Initiative
2022-09-20 20:00 - 21:30 (Asia/Dubai) | WA
Sit down and make yourself uncomfortable: Meet the postcard women in conversation with Dr Reem El Mutwalli in this special 90 min webinar.

About this event

Meet founder of the Imaginarium postcard project, artist and art historian Salma Ahmad Caller, and the artists, experts and researchers – Afsoon, Alia Derouiche Cherif, Hamida Zourgui, Hala Ghellali, and CritTeam’s Eugenia López Reus & Miguel Jaime, who all have been involved in the Making The Postcard Women’s Imaginarium project since 2018.
These artists each have personal histories entangled with the narratives of the Postcard Women. They have been making work in response to colonial postcards of women from the late 1800s and early 1900s that were posted from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.
Their work challenges and questions the racial stereotypes that these postcards create, decolonises the lens, and takes a deep dive into the MENA region and cross-cultural legacies of heritage and adornment that make this archive so fascinating, important and problematic.
In reclaiming the Postcard Women these artists ask us to sit down and make ourselves uncomfortable by looking closely at how women from these regions have been constructed as marginalised, exoticised primitive ‘others’ and to now take the women out of the one-dimensional colonial space-time and re-contextualise them. And in so doing to interrogate not only the orientalist and colonial frames surrounding each woman but our own complicity in maintaining the hierarchical typology that these cards were part of instilling.
REGISTERING WILL GIVE YOU ACCESS TO THE 90 MINUTE LIVE SESSION, A RECORDED VERSION TO CATCH UP IN YOUR OWN TIME WHICH WILL BE SENT TO YOU WITHIN 24 HOURS AFTER THE WEBINAR
OUR GUEST SPEAKERS:
Salma Ahmad Caller was born in Iraq to an Egyptian father and a British mother and grew up in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. She now lives in the UK. An artist, art historian and writer, Salma considers herself a disruptive body, a hybrid of cultures and faiths. Her work explores her mixed- race identity, cross-cultural experiences, text/image relationships and forms of embodiment, materiality and memory, drawing on personal intimate family histories and vulnerability as a way to destabilise larger narratives. Uncanny juxtapositions and hybrid forms are used to investigate how the private and political collide and intertwine, using techniques of collage, assemblage, drawing, watercolour, photography, projection, installation/sound and more recently film. Salma also writes art theory, poetry and creative non-fiction. Her theoretical background in research on the meanings of ornament in non-Western cultures through frameworks of anthropology of art and cognitive science/physiology, are used to decolonise and break down boundaries, categories, typologies and terminology that characterise hegemonic colonial and patriarchal formations. With a Masters in art history and art theory, and a background in medicine and pharmacology, and several years teaching cross-cultural ways of seeing via non-Western artefacts at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, she now works as an independent artist and teacher.
https://www.salmaahmadcaller.com
Afsoon is an Iranian born, London based artist. She works predominantly in collage but has used various media such as linocut, watercolour, photography, ceramic, pastel and etching. She usually spends long periods researching her chosen subject to make pieces that often combine text with images while merging Occident and Orient ideas. Her work is humorous, playful and sophisticated and feels simultaneously familiar and foreign.
Afsoon has taken part in numerous solo and group shows, biennales and museum exhibitions. Her pieces can be found in prominent collections such as the British Museum, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum), and the Berger/YSL Collection.
www.afsoon.co.uk
Alia Derouiche Cherif is a visual artist born in 1969, who grew up in Tunis. In 1991, Alia obtained her MA in interior design, and in 1997 a doctorate in science techniques in arts at the University ITAAUT. She has been teaching fashion design for over 20 years and has participated in various key group exhibitions in Tunisia – Bardo museum, Alain Nadaud gallery, Musk & Amber gallery, Elbirou gallery, Effesto gallery, Le Cap gallery, City of Culture of Tunisia.
Alia’s outstanding solo exhibitions took place at the Musk & Amber Gallery Tunisia, in September 2018 and 2019, and again in October 2021. Her rich work collages together many layers of Tunisian cultural heritage both past and contemporary. Her painting fiercely reclaims ornamental techniques from Orientalist painting by asserting the complex meanings and cultural contexts of Islamic and multi ethnic Tunisian patterns and calligraphic forms.
CritTeam (Eugenia López Reus and Miguel Jaime) is an art-research duo that emerged in the UAE in 2013. Their work explores intersections of art, architecture and culture, questioning common notions of tradition, ornament, and identity. CritTeam’s work is rooted in both digital and traditional media such as photography, photo collage and drawing, which they expand to include theoretical writings, video, installations, and design proposals. Their practice explores post avant-garde discourses of colonialism, orientalism, modernism, and non-western ornamental art. They both hold PhDs in architectural design and have been educators and researchers at universities of Europe, America and the Middle East. Their work has been published and exhibited at various institutions in Europe and the Middle East such as the Sharjah Art Foundation (2016 & 2017), the University of Edinburgh (2017), The XIV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (Santander 2018), The 8th Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art WTA at Museum of Garment and Ethnologic Heritage Research Center (Madrid 2019), “The best design of the year” at Barcelona Design Museum DHUB (2021), among others. CritTeam has been nominated for the Art FAD Awards 2021 for best Artistic Creation by FAD’s Artists and Artisans’ Association. Since 2018 CritTeam is based in Barcelona.
Hamida Zourgui is a French-Algerian mixed media artist based in London. After completing her MA in art history and sociology she worked in museums and art spaces as a mediator and free lance art journalist. Growing up in France with an Algerian background has always played a major role in the construction of her identity, which then became the core and heart of her artistic expression. Hamida’s mixed media artwork focuses on the creation of bridges between her two cultures. Dual citizenship is echoed in the duality of references, and in the inspiration behind her themes and preoccupations. For Hamida her work is crucially an homage to colonised women and colonised bodies. Orientalism is a word anchored in her research, as it is often the only lens employed to represent/misrepresent Algerian women in art and imagery.
Hamida’s digital and analogue photographs are incorporated and transformed within collage works. These Arabic pop-art inspired transformations aim to narrate a new Algerian woman, giving her a renewed potent visual presence. Nostalgia, womanhood, and colonisation are three themes to constantly grapple with and reconcile with present realities of Algerian women.
As part of the Muslim female artists collective VariantSpace Hamida has had her work shown in London and New York. Her talks were an important part of the Pop Art from North Africa Collective exhibition at the P21 Gallery in London.
Hala Ghellali was born and grew up in Tripoli, Libya. She lived in France where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in comparative literature. After several years of teaching at the University of Tripoli, she lived in Italy, Egypt and Syria before settling in the USA. She is particularly interested in Libyan history, cultural heritage, vernacular poetry and the current art scene. Hala’s family ancestral connection to the art of weaving and traditional clothes has been a source of inspiration for her own research and work. Passionate about Libyan adornment and jewelry making, she has extensively researched its history, meanings and ties to neighboring countries. Her research and writing also embrace photography with a focus on orientalist photos and postcards made in local studios during the italian colonization. She has also co-curated an exhibit on jewelry and orientalist photos and postcards.
Her book on Libyan adornment and jewelry, the outcome of years of intensive research will soon be published.
FOUNDER OF THE ZAY INITIATIVE
Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli, is a published author, lead curator and public speaker. With over 30 years of experience, she is an expert consultant in Islamic art and architecture, interior design, historic dress and UAE heritage.
She is also the founder of the Zay Initiative. A non-profit UK registered initiative advancing the preservation of cultural heritage, through the collection, documentation and digital archiving of Arab historical attire and their stories. Our goal is to empower and sustain global cross-cultural dialogue to inspire creative minds.
