ArabishWay

Arabs Iftar at Shawarma Time
2022-04-02 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Shawarma Time, 4701 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
Let’s celebrate the soft opening of Shawarma time and have our iftar together. The restaurant will offer dates and soup to break fasting, and we might be up to a surprise after iftar 🤗
(Optional) after iftar we will go to have hookah at Seattle hookah lounge.

Comedian: Ismael Loutfi (two shows)
2022-04-02 21:30 - 23:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Laughs Comedy Club, 5220 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
Ismael Loutfi is a comedian, writer, and actor who developed his deeply acerbic sense of humor growing up a Muslim in rural North Florida. Ismael wrote for the critically acclaimed Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix for the entirety of its run.
Ismael’s Comedy Central Half Hour special debuts in March of 2022. His stand up has been featured on This Week at the Cellar, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and he was selected by Bill Burr for his personally curated stand up series Bill Burr Presents: The Ringers. He has performed on the FOX Night of Comedy showcase and has been named a New Face of Comedy by the prestigious Just for Laughs comedy festival.Ismael can be seen in HBO’s High Maintenance, the Sarah Silverman-produced Please Understand Me, and multiple episodes of Comedy Central’s Ahamed’s Ramadan Diary.

Fri, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM PDT and
Fri, 9:30 PM – 11:00 PM PDT

Laughs Comedy Club, Seattle, WA

Tickets
Starting at$15.00

Restaurant Week: Arab Restaurants
2022-04-03 - 2022-04-16 | WA
Anar

South Lake Union
Health
Lebanese
Plant Based
Lunch ($20)
Give a Meal
On-Site
On-Site Outdoor
Take Out
Eat Local First
Vegetarian

Damoori Kitchen
Magnolia
Lebanese
Dinner ($35)
Take Out

Mama Sambusa Kitchen
Rainier Beach
African
Somali Street Food
Dinner ($50)
Lunch ($20)
Delivery
On-Site Outdoor
Take Out
Eat Local First

Mamnoon
Capitol Hill
Lebanese
Dinner ($65)
Give a Meal
Ready-to-Heat
Take Out
Eat Local First

Mamnoon Street
South Lake Union
Lebanese
Dinner ($35)
Delivery
Give a Meal
On-Site Outdoor
Take Out
Eat Local First

Reflections on Jerusalem: A century of lost opportunities (via Zoom)
2022-04-03 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Dr. Rothchild will provide a personal exploration of the ancient city of Jerusalem, with a special focus on East Jerusalem and the surrounding areas of greater Jerusalem, which have experienced decades of “Judaization” and erasure of the Palestinian presence. What are the costs of these policies, not only to Palestinians, but also to Jewish Israelis? How is this a mirror of the ongoing occupation of Palestine? What can we learn and what can we do?
Alice Rothchild is a physician, author, and filmmaker who has focused her interest on human rights and social justice on the Israel/Palestine conflict since 1997. She practiced Obstetrics & Gynecology for almost 40 years. Until her retirement she served as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School. She writes and lectures widely, is the author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience (translated into Hebrew and German); On the Brink: Israel and Palestine on the Eve of the 2014 Gaza Invasion; and Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine.
Dr. Rothchild directed the documentary film, Voices Across the Divide. She is also on the board of the We Are Not Numbers program in Gaza and the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, and on the steering committee of the Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council.

The Other End of the Sea w/ author Alison Glick
2022-04-03 16:30 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Summer, 1981—Following the death of her father, Becky Klein, an adventurous, naïve young woman from the Midwest, sets out for the Middle East, in search of her Jewish roots. She discovers something more, in a Gaza garden near a refugee camp by the sea. There she befriends the garden’s owner, a Palestinian activist who has served time in Israeli jails. As their relationship grows, Rebecca finds herself drawn into a story of roots unlike the one she had imagined.
The West Bank, Cairo, Yarmouk, Benghazi, Beirut—before long, their romance careens across a region in flames, child in tow, wrestling with conflicting maps of love, family and home. Moving, yet brimming with flashes of humor, Alison Glick’s tangle with the search for purpose and commitment yields a bracing, radiant story for these times.
Join Friends of Sabeel North America in what promises to be a stirring conversation with author Alison Glick.

ONLINE CLASS: Voices of Arab American Authors: Discovery and Beyond
2022-04-04 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Four Mondays and one Tuesday Bi-Weekly: April 4 and 18; May 2 and 16; and Tuesday, May 31 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Online

Price:

$170.00 per person (10% off for members)

Here is another series of classes under the main heading of attempting to understand the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through literature and prose written by its authors, advocates, observers, and supporters. This series of classes will be the second time that we examine literature by Arab American authors who delve into the lives and challenges of new immigrants learning to assimilate and live as Americans while keeping an homage to their roots from Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. However, this series will venture out beyond their “comfort zone” and tackle journeys of discovery – the fascination of travel to explore and better understand home, not relocate; Shakespearean theatre to cope with chronic pain; rediscovering the Syrian and Iraqi homeland; and discovering the future in Qatar.
Four Mondays and one Tuesday Bi-Weekly: April 4 and 18; May 2 and 16; and Tuesday, May 31 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Online

List of readings & dates:
1) Hisham Matar (Libyan) – Month in Siena (April 4) (9780593129135)
2) Mona Awad (Egyptian) – All’s Well (April 18) (9781982169664)
and/or Egyptian-American Journeys: An Anthology (9781623718985)
3) Sinan Antoon (Iraqi) – The Book of Collateral Damage (May 2nd) (9780300251753)
4) Zeyn Joukhadar (Syrian) – Map of Salt and Stars (May 16th) 9781501169052
and/or Zaina Arafat (Palestinian) You Exist Too Much 9781948226509
5) Sophia Al-Maria (Qatar) – The Girl Who Fell to Earth (Tuesday, 31st May) 9780061999758

Heba F. El-Shazli is an Egyptian-American and an avid lover and reader of literature from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is an assistant professor of political science at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Master’s Degree Program at the Center for Democracy and Civil Society. Heba teaches courses on governments and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, international relations, and the role of civil society and social movements in democratization. She has a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization (PGG) with a specialization in Governance and International Affairs from Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs and a Master’s degree from Georgetown University. She was the Director of MENA programs at the Solidarity Center (2004-2011) and the Deputy MENA Regional Director at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 2001 until 2004. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (www.cfr.org)
Karen Leggett Abouraya is a journalist and children’s author, winning the 2013 Arab American Book Award and other honors for Hands Around the Library: Protecting Egypt’s Treasured Books. She is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Egypt, and with her Egyptian-born husband, chairs the Baltimore Luxor Alexandria Sister City Committee and the Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) Maryland, Virginia, DC. Together they also produce the podcast American Egyptian Women of Influence. Karen facilitates online conversations between Egyptian and American children and co-hosted a conference on informal education at the BA in 2015. She reviewed children’s books for the New York Times, is a past president of the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, D.C. and has served as a judge for children’s writing contests in Egypt and Montgomery County. She earned her B.A. in international relations from Brown University.

SPECIAL PRE-RECORDED WEBINAR: HERITAGE TO ENRICH LIVES
2022-04-05 | WA
Event Description: Dr. Reem El Mutwalli and Heike Weber, Embroiderer & Author had a very special conversation earlier in March. To be released on Tuesday, 5th April.
Heike recently exhibited at Dubai Expo 2020, and launched her book documenting the history of embroidery in the Levant region titled “Anat and her hero Baal – The embroidery language of The Levant”.
When Heike Weber arrived in Syria in 1982, seeking refuge from the Lebanese civil war, she fell in love with the country’s capital Damascus.During the years of war, she braved the mortars and shelling that left their marks on the walls of her home located in a narrow alleyway in the heart of Damascus old city.Now 70, the German woman vowed to not leave the country and she said she feels a sense of duty to the country she has called home for decades.Married to a Palestinian, Weber started her life in the Yarmouk camp, near Damascus, where she followed her passion for embroidery. She started to learn about diverse Syrian designs and teach women in the camp.In 2003, Weber moved with her family to a house in the old city where she opened her atelier.Two of Weber’s children left before the war and the third left after a mortar hit the house.Weber now lives on her own, spending most of her time with her embroidery students, and sells her hand-knitted embroidered designs to tourists.She wrote a book documenting the history of embroidery in the region titled “Anat and her hero Baal – The embroidery language of The Levant”.
Please register to receive an email with a link to the recording on Tuesday, 5th April which you can then view in your own time.
Release Date: 5th April 2022
Time: 4 am (NYC), 9 am (London), 12 noon (Dubai)
Tickets: Donation
Students: If you are a student or member of academia please register here to receive your complimentary registration links.
Buy Tickets

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.

Cooking Class: Street Foods of the World
2022-04-06 17:00 - 19:30, 2022-04-10 18:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whisk, 10385 Main St, Bellevue, WA, 98004, United States
Want to expand your culinary passport? Are you looking for a new dish to spice up your repertoire? Do you dream of tasty treats on foreign streets, but haven’t been able to get away? If the answer is yes, this class is for you! Join Chef Drew Flanders in this hands-on class where you will prepare simple but flavor-packed dishes inspired by foods sold in the markets, festivals, and by street vendors from around the world. From Morocco to Japan, Mexico to Senegal, in this class you will prepare and enjoy a variety of flavors and textures from the simple perfection of the taco, the warm comfort of “Japanese pizza”, to the glory of two different types of grilled-meat-on-a-stick!

Make, eat and enjoy street foods from

Morocco – Chermoula Chicken
Mexico – Alambres- Steak and Bacon Tacos with Salsa Verde
West Africa – Spicy Peanut-Dusted Beef Skewers
Japan – Okanomiyaki – Seafood Pancakes

Participants will have the option of enjoying wine or beer as street food is always best with a beverage!

Spring in Palestine
2022-04-06 18:00 - 21:00, 2022-04-27 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117
Spring in Palestine is a time when simple, seasonal ingredients are transformed into a delicious family meal. In this class NADIA TOMMALIEH will introduce you to Palestinian home cooking via classic dishes remembered from her childhood, with stories of spring foraging traditions. You’ll make sorar freekeh bil lahmeh (baked freekeh and beef pastries); salatet betinjan bil laban (fried eggplant salad); hindbeh bil zeit (sautéed dandelion greens with pomegranate molasses and lemon); and, for dessert, mhalabiyeh bi ma’ elzaher (milk pudding infused with orange blossom water, topped with crushed pistachios and dried rose petals).

Arab Film Fest Collab (AFFC)
2022-04-07 - 2022-04-17 | WA
The Arab American National Museum (AANM), the Arab Film and Media Institute (AFMI), ArteEast, and Mizna proudly present the Arab Film Fest Collab (AFFC) from April 7-17, 2022. The AFFC is a collectively produced virtual film festival, screening independent Arab cinema for audiences across the United States.
With programs featuring films, panel discussions, and performances from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), the AFFC aims to capture the diverse narratives and complexity of the Arab world. Genres include drama, science-fiction, comedy and documentary, in both short-form and feature lengths. Screening the work of filmmakers from countries like Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco, the AFFC exhibits all films in their original languages with English subtitles.

Spring in Palestine
2022-04-07 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA

Arabic Chat Hour
2022-04-07 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-14 19:00 - 20:00, 2022-04-21 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | WA
Whether you’re a native speaker or learner, this is a great chance to practice listening and speaking in Arabic!
Zoom room number: 8116-385-7344

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:

Poetry Across Languages with Fady Joudah, Tomás Q. Morín, and Niina Pollari
2022-04-11 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
The New York Public Library’s World Literature Festival celebrates books and writers from around the world and reflects the languages spoken in our communities. Discover free author talks, resources, book recommendations, and more for all ages in world languages.
Join the Library as we welcome Fady Joudah, Tomás Q. Morín, and Niina Pollari in conversation in English in the panel “Poetry Across Languages”.
This event is ONLINE ONLY.
Register Here!

Fady Joudah has published five collections of poems: The Earth in the Attic; Alight; Textu; a book-long sequence of short poems whose meter is based on cellphone character count; Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance; and, most recently, Tethered to Stars. He has translated several collections of poetry from the Arabic and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. He was a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 2007 and has received a PEN award, a Banipal/Times Literary Supplement prize from the UK, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is an Editor-at-Large for Milkweed Editions. He lives in Houston, with his wife and kids, where he practices internal medicine. Photo credit © Cybele Knowles.
Tomás Q. Morín is the author of the collection of poems Machete and the forthcoming memoir Let Me Count the Ways, as well as the poetry collections Patient Zero and A Larger Country. He is co-editor with Mari L’Esperance of the anthology, Coming Close: Forty Essays on Philip Levine, and translator of The Heights of Macchu Picchu by Pablo Neruda. He teaches at Rice University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Photo credit © Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon.
Niina Pollari is a poet and Finnish translator. She is the author of the poetry collections Path of Totality (Soft Skull 2022) and Dead Horse (Birds, LLC 2015), and the translator of Tytti Heikkinen’s The Warmth of the Taxidermied Animal (Action Books 2012).
Join the staff of the Yorkville, Belmont and Bronx Library Center libraries for this exciting literary conversation.
Note: Program will be recorded.

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.

Cooking Class: The Moroccan Kitchen
2022-04-12 18:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whisk, 10385 Main St, Bellevue, WA, 98004, United States
In this hands-on class you’ll be swept off to another continent to experience the exotic spices and fresh herbs of classic North African cuisine. This authentic Moroccan menu highlights traditional ingredients that are easy to find here. You’ll learn about using preserved lemons, couscous, saffron and fenugreek in the savory dishes and ground almonds, honey and orange blossom water in dessert. Make a fork-tender chicken dish baked in a traditional, earthenware dish called a tagine. Chef Barbara Sowatsky will show you that “spiced” doesn’t have to mean “spicy” as she takes you step-by-step through this flavor-layered menu.
You will make:
Tagine-Baked Chicken with Meyer Lemons and Olives
Couscous with Saffron, Mint and Basil
Cucumber and Tomato Chopped Salad
Sweet, Almond-Stuffed Dates

SIFF - Arab movies and movies involving Arabs
2022-04-14 - 2022-04-24 | WA
SIFF was quite disappointing this year when it comes to Arab films. Here are the three Arab films I found:
A Tale of Love and Desire (Tunesia)
Where: In person only: Tuesday, April 19, 6:30pm at AMC Pacific Place and Wednesday, April 20th at 3:30pm at Majestic Bay.
Sparks fly between literature students Ahmed and Farah in Leyla Bouzid’s seductive sophomore feature, when their study of erotic Arabic poetry moves beyond the classroom.
https://www.siff.net/festival/a-tale-of-love-and-desire
Costa Brava, Lebanon
Where: In person only: Friday, April 15, 1:30pm at AMC Pacific Place and Saturday, April 16th at 8:00pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown
A family moves from the squalor of Beirut to a green oasis: an off-the-grid chicken farm miles away. Then one day the squalor comes looking for them as plans are announced for a landfill right next door.
https://www.siff.net/festival/costa-brava-lebanon

Feathers
Where: In person only: Saturday, April 16, 9:00pm at AMC Pacific Place and Monday, April 18th at 3:30pm at Ark Lodge Cinemas
Egyptian patriarchy and misogyny are the targets and absurdism is the weapon as a man, via a birthday-party magician, is transformed into a chicken and his downtrodden wife realizes this may be a change for the better.
https://www.siff.net/festival/feathers-x27287
——————————————————————————————–
And I hesitate to list these because they do not center Arab voices but they involve Arabs. Please watch trailers and read before deciding to watch these movies. They seem to be sympathetic to the Arab world but still come from the colonizer’s point of view.

Ahed’s Knee
Where: Virtual and Sunday, April 17, 8:30pm at AMC Pacific Place and Tuesday, April 19th at 3:00pm at Ark Lodge Cinemas
In this emotionally charged semi-autobiographical movie, Israeli writer/director Nadav Lapid’s alter ego fights against state pressure and for artistic freedom as he is working on a film about a Palestinian activist.
https://www.siff.net/festival/aheds-knee

The Olive Trees of Justice
Where: Virtual and Saturday, April 16, 2022 at 2:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown

The only French film shot on location during the Algerian War, The Olive Trees of Justice also won the inaugural Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962. American-born director James Blue (from Portland, OR), working with a mainly non-professional cast, clandestinely filmed in Algiers and the surrounding countryside under the pretext that he was making a documentary about the wine industry. Jean (Pierre Prothon), Algerian-born but long a resident of Paris, returns home to visit his dying father (Jean Pélégri, author of the autobiographical novel on which the film is based). His father, a pioneering colonist, once owned a prosperous vineyard, long since lost to creditors. In frequent flashbacks, Jean nostalgically remembers his idyllic childhood on the farm with Arab friends but realizes those days are gone. Amid tanks and bomb-disposal units prowling the city streets, Jean looks up old friends, encountering colonial oppression and racial inequity that he barely notices. Little seen at the time of its release just after Algeria achieved independence, this neorealist gem deserves rediscovery.

https://www.siff.net/festival/the-olive-trees-of-justice
The First 54 Years, an Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation
Where: In person only: Where: Virtual and Monday, April 18, 6:00pm at at Ark Lodge Cinemas and Thursday, April 21st at 1:00pm at AMC Pacific Place
Testimony from Israeli soldiers, speaking out for the first time as part of the “Breaking the Silence” project, is pieced together to reveal how their nation’s occupation of Palestinian territory has lasted so long.
https://www.siff.net/festival/the-first-54-years-an-abbreviated-manual-for-military-occupation

Play: Selling Kabul
2022-04-22 - 2022-05-22 | Seattle Rep – LEO K. THEATER, 155 Mercer St, Seattle, WA, 98109, United States
Taroon once served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. After the Americans have withdrawn, their promises of protection and safety are no longer there. He now spends his days in hiding from growing presence of the Taliban as he anxiously awaits news from the hospital on the eve of his first child’s birth. What are the consequences of taking sides during wartime?

Written by: Sylvia Khoury (of French and Lebanese descent)

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

Author Visit: Hudda Ibrahim: What Color is My Hijab?
2022-04-27 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Join Somali American author Hudda Ibrahim as she shares her picture book, What Color is My Hijab?
Please register.
You will be emailed a link no later than one hour before the program start time. If you do not see an email, check your Junk or Spam folder.
Reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities is available by request. Email access@kcls.org at least seven days before the event. Automated closed captioning is always available for online events.

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

Mizna Film Series: RESTORED/RECOVERED: ALGERIAN FILMMAKING IN DIASPORA: NAHLA
2022-04-28 - 2022-05-01 | WA
The spring 2022 season of the Mizna Film Series highlights recently restored works by Algerian filmmakers in diaspora. Curated by Mizna’s Film Programming Coordinator Ahmed Abdulmageed, the two-month segment presents films produced during the global leftist movements in the 1970s. This selection celebrates Algerian filmmakers and their collaborators, Farouk Beloufa, Djouhra Abouda, and Alain Bonnamy, who captured the political complexities of the moment, as well as the rhythmic and aesthetic make-up of their diasporas, by breaking away from traditional filmic forms.
APRIL 27–MAY 1 2022: NAHLA (dir. 1979, Farouk Beloufa)
In April, Mizna presents Nahla, Farouk Beloufa’s only feature film, which follows a group of leftist friends in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. An exploration of war through journalism, photography, and cinematography, Nahla is a political film and a love story. The film stars the Lebanese actor Yasmine Khlat and features a soundtrack composed by the renowned Lebanese musician Ziad Rahbani.
Available virtually April 28–May 1, 2022 in the US ONLY. TICKETS

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

Spring in Palestine: Cooking Class
2022-04-28 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117
