Festival of Forbidden Life
2021-10-30 03:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
On October 30th, 2021 we begin the Festival of Forbidden Life, an ongoing celebration of life, dreams, and Al-Risan’s beauty. The festival will include works by artists who too often work under the reality that “in Palestine you make art to be demolished.” Through their art and a film that documents the project, the artists seek to answer the question: “Why do we create art that we know will be stolen, vandalized, demolished, or burned to the ground?”
About Al-Risan

Located in the heart of Palestine, Al Risan is an ancient mountain approximately 10 km northwest of Ramallah and 5 km east of Israel’s separation barrier. It is located in “Area C,” the land making up 60% of the West Bank that has been under exclusive Israeli military control since 1995. Buried within it are traces of previous cultures, and ancient Roman artifacts have been found there. For centuries, Al-Risan’s land has been privately owned by Palestinians.
Palestinian and international artists have been inspired by Al-Risan’s creative power, and in 2016 a Palestinian storyteller and a Canadian actress, photographer, and writer developed an artspace on the mountain. Together, they established trails with the intention of marking out an official hike that would integrate collaborative art pieces, audio clips, a play, and poetry.
Register here for this event

Lebanese-American Actress Kathy Najimy in Hocus Pocus at Central Cinema
2021-10-30 16:00 - 18:00, 2021-10-30 19:00 - 21:00, 2021-10-31 16:00 - 18:00 UTC | Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave (at 21st & Union ), Seattle, WA, 98122, United States
After three centuries, three witch sisters are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches’ reign of terror once and for all.
Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the actress of Lebanese descent Kathy Najimy!

Film : Genre: Action,Comedy,Sci-Fi, 1993

Virtual Conversation & Ud Playing with Palestinian Musician Nizar Rohana
2021-10-31 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sunday October 31,12:00 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine time
Virtual Conversation & Ud Playing with Palestinian Musician Nizar Rohana
Please click here for more information and to register for this event.
Nizar Rohana is a Palestinian ud player based in the Netherlands, distinguished for combining virtuosity within fresh contemporary compositions while maintaining the ud’s authentic language.

Fall in Palestine: Fatayer
2021-10-31 11:00 - 14:00, 2021-11-06 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117
The universal practicality of packing deliciousness into a portable dough package ranges from Cornish pasties to empanadas to fatayer, a type of savory pie eaten throughout the Middle East. In this class, NADIA TOMMALIEH will teach you how to make Palestinian-style pastries, as you learn how to knead, stuff, and fold fatayer in the traditional way to get perfectly soft and fluffy golden brown pies every time. You’ll make shorabet adas bil hamid (vegetable and lentil soup with lemon and pomegranate molasses); fatayer sabanekh (triangle-shaped spinach-stuffed pies); fatayer jebneh (boat-shaped savory cheese and herb pies); sfeeha (open-faced seasoned beef pies), and dagga gazawyieh (spicy Gaza-style sauce with tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno, dill, and lemon).

Lebanese-American Actress Kathy Najimy in Hocus Pocus at Central Cinema Co
2021-10-31 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Central Cinema, 1411 21st Ave (at 21st & Union ), Seattle, WA, 98122, United States
After three centuries, three witch sisters are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches’ reign of terror once and for all.
Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the actress of Lebanese descent Kathy Najimy!

Film : Genre: Action,Comedy,Sci-Fi, 1993

Friday October 29th – Wednesday November 3rd
Evenings – 7:00pm
Matinees – 4:00pm
Thursday November 4th
Matinee – 5:00pm

AANM Arab Film Festival
2021-11-01 - 2021-11-07
The Arab American National Museum proudly hosts its annual Arab Film Festival (AFF), featuring fascinating new titles from one of the most prolific and creative set of filmmakers on the planet. AFF is one of the Museum’s longest-running programs, dating back to its inception in 2005.
AFF showcases Arab and Arab American films for fans of Arabic-language movies and adventurous art-film lovers seeking new perspectives and outside-the-box thinking. Many of these films by both Arab world and Arab American artists are, with few exceptions, unlikely to reach traditional American commercial theaters. Genres include drama, comedy and documentary, in both short-form and feature lengths. Every festival film is subtitled in English, making them accessible to all.
The Arab Film Festival strives to bring you the absolute best films from the Arab world and Arab American community to your doorstep with many films making their Michigan and/or U.S. debut.
We pride ourselves on creating a safe space, a platform for Arab and Arab American films and filmmakers and to give a voice to Arab and Arab American artists and their stories.
This year’s Arab Film Festival will be taking place both online and in-person from November 1-7, 2021.

Tatreez Workshops and Lectures by Tatreez and Tea - Ongoing
2021-11-01 - 2021-12-31
Your instructor is author and scholar Wafa Ghnaim, founder of Tatreez & Tea!
Tatreez & Tea’s mission is to preserve Palestinian embroidery and storytelling traditions in the diaspora. Tatreez & Tea is the first of it’s kind. When Wafa first founded Tatreez & Tea in 2016, she was the only educator solely focused on Palestinian embroidery, traveling the US and the world. Now, new local initiatives, culture bearers, “tatreez circles”, and mentors are emerging from communities around the world like never before. The tatreez revolution has gained a beautiful momentum and now is the time to join.
Wafa’s goal in her educational classes are three-fold: educate students from art history and oral history perspectives that preserve the meanings, stories and symbolism of traditional Palestinian embroidery motifs; teach versatile skills that allow students to eventually produce large independent projects; encourage students to become creative and grow beyond simply abiding by traditional embroidery principles.
Click here for upcoming events!
https://www.tatreezandtea.com/events

7.4 Dialogues on the Art of Arab Fashion: Architecture & Clothing (Case study Damascus)
2021-11-02 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Event Description: Dr. Reem El Mutwalli in conversation with Dr. Salam Fakih, a Lebanese Professor, Researcher, and Interior Architect.
In addition to her 20 years’ experience in the field of design, and 14 years in educational teaching, Dr. Fakih is also a member and Head of specialized Technical Committee at General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education in Lebanon, where she constructs and periodically updates the curriculum of the fashion design. They will be discussing Dr. Salam’s research on the correlation between Architecture & Clothing in Damascus.
Date: 2nd November 2021
Time: 12 pm (NYC), 4 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.
Eventbrite link: (for info only – this is now live):

IN MEDIAS RES: A CELEBRATION OF THE ODYSSEY PROJECT'S STUDENT JOURNAL
2021-11-03 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Join us virtually on Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 7:00 p.m (Chicago Time). for the launch of the 2021 In Medias Res, a journal of The Odyssey Project
Illinois Humanities is thrilled to celebrate the launch of the latest issue of In Medias Res, a journal of creative written and visual work by Odyssey Project students and alumni.
Contributors will read from their published work alongside celebrated Chicago author, Sahar Mustafah, whose recent novel The Beauty of Your Face (Norton, 2020) was listed as one of the New York Times Most Notable Books of 2020.

University Book Store Presents: Laila Lalami in conversation with Dr. Anu Taranath
2021-11-03 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Conditional Citizens: On Belonging In America (Pantheon Books)
November 03, 2021, 6:00 PM (Pacific Time) Virtual
Free

University Book Store is proud to present author and Pulitzer Prize-finalist Laila Lalami for a discussion about her new book Conditional Citizens. Laila will be joined in conversation with Dr. Anu Taranath, Teaching Professor in the English and Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) departments at the University of Washington.
This is a free Zoom event but registration, through the link provided, is required to receive a Zoom code to join the Webinar. If you have any questions, please email events@ubookstore.com. See you there!
ABOUT THE BOOK
A New York Times Editors’ Choice • Finalist for the California Book Award • Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction • Best Book of the Year: Time, NPR, Bookpage, Los Angeles Times
In this brilliantly argued and deeply personal work, Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S.citizen, using her own story as a starting point for an exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth—such as national origin, race, and gender—that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today, poignantly illustrating how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation. Weaving together her experiences with an examination of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture, Lalami illuminates how conditional citizens are all those whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.

Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of four novels, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent work, The Other Americans, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s Magazine, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Lalami is a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles. www.lailalalami.com

Museum of Palestinian People's 4th Annual Gala & Auction
2021-11-04 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
After a successful virtual gala in 2020, we are excited to have a hybrid event this year, where we can safely gather with people in-person at the Tabard Inn and connect virtually with MPP supporters from around the country and world. Special guests include stand up comedian & Netflix show host Sammy Obeid, Emmy-nominated reporter and producer Rhana Natour, MPP Artist in Residence Wafa Ghnaim, musician Fuad Foty, and poet Zeina Azzam. Help us reach our 2021 fundraising goal of $100,000. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

Community Write-In with Zain Shamoon
2021-11-04 17:30 - 18:30, 2021-11-11 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Join writers from across the country and around the world every Thursday evening and get your words flowing in community! Our best teachers rotate on a monthly basis to bring you a range of writing prompts and ideas. After a healthy dose of inspiration, you’ll get time to write and the opportunity to connect with other writers. Whether you want to journal, blog, start something new or get some fresh ideas for a work-in-progress, this hour will jumpstart your creativity.
RSVP at the “Tickets” link for as many sessions as you’d like to attend. You can sign up for them one by one each week, or all at once.

Dr. Zain Shamoon completed his PhD in human development and family studies in fall 2017 at Michigan State University. He also completed a master’s degree in couple and family therapy in 2011. He is dedicated to the creation of spaces where people can tell their personal stories on route to their own wellness. In his clinical work, he has served a range of clients, including those wrestling with high anxiety, relational conflict, and severe depression.

Arabic Chat Hour
2021-11-04 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-11-11 19:00 - 20:00 UTC
Whether you’re a native speaker or learner, this is a great chance to practice listening and speaking in Arabic!

Arabic Monthly Coffee Meetup
2021-11-07 14:00 - 15:00 UTC | WA, United States
Hi guys, hope all is well!
On the first (or second) Sunday of every month we will have a coffee meeting to discover different coffee shops and bakeries around us. This time, let’s meet at “TBD” – suggest a coffee shop if you know any :).
———————-
When: Sunday, November 7th @ 2:00 pm
Where: TBD
Located in:TBD
Looking forward to see you there!

Rabih Alameddine with Michael David Lukas and R.O. Kwon
2021-11-08 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
One of our favorite, and one of our most necessary literary writers at work today, Rabih Alameddine, makes this welcome Elliott Bay return in virtual form to read from and discuss his brilliant new novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope (Grove Press). Here the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for An Unnecessary Woman, as well The Hakawati, I, the Divine, and others, again tells the story of a singular woman.

Fall in Palestine: Fatayer - online
2021-11-08 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | the Pantry, 1417 NW 70th Street, Seattle, WA, 98117

Music Madness: Arabic Music Through Generations
2021-11-09 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Join us to listen to music from different generations and genres across the Arab region and engage with our guests about their playlists.
Featuring, Prof. Atef Said, Sara Hattab, and Fathi Mahmoud, who will share stories, memories, and melodies.
RSVP for the zoom link
For questions or accessibility, email us at arabamcc@uic.edu

Damascus Dreams at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival
2021-11-10 - 2021-11-19
Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival and AANM co-present Damascus Dreams as part of #reelasian25. Directed by Émilie Serri, Damascus Dreams explores and interrogates the fraught notions of dreams, and memories of “home,” moving loosely through old video footage and conversations, and dreamlike sequences. Serri gathers these stories and memories to hold against her own questions about a homeland she does not have access to. This film is available online starting November 10th at 10 AM till November 19th at 7 PM.

Queer Cinema for Palestine
2021-11-11 - 2021-11-20
TPFF is one of the coordinators of the inaugural Queer Cinema for Palestine! The festival will run from 11-20 November and host more than a dozen events across five continents, both online and in person. QCP is a first-time global queer solidarity initiative that offers a vibrant space using art and culture to oppose the ongoing violence of Israeli apartheid.
The online program will be hosted on the Toronto Queer Film Festival’s state-of-the-art platform designed with accessibility in mind. Films will be available on demand for the duration of the festival.
QCP encourages local queer, Palestine solidarity and anti-racist groups around the world to organize watch parties during the festival.
The full QCP program will be announced in early November.

Donkeysaddle Projects Presents: The Vignette Collective's Workshop Reading
2021-11-12 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
As we continue to bear witness to the attacks on Palestinian lives, we understand how present the voices of our artists are and need to be. During these times we look to artists within impacted communities as beacons for cultural transformation. Donkeysaddle Projects’ Vignette Collective strives to connect the decolonial struggles of Black, Palestinian, Chicanx, and Turtle Island’s Indigenous communities. Through poetry, personal essays, and performance, we look at the impacts of settler-colonization and celebrate the resilience of those who have been in struggle. And we want to share it with you.

That’s why we’re inviting you to join us on November 12th at 8pm ET for our 2nd virtual fundraiser featuring the work-in-progress from the Vignettes Collective. Get another sneak peek of our creative, collaborative process with our collective of artists, activists, and organizers, while raising funds to support Palestinians in urgent need in Gaza. We hope to see you there!

Streetfoods of the World: Whisk Cooking Class
2021-11-12 17:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
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 amd enjoy from
Morocco – Chermoula Chicken
Mexico – Alambres- Steak and Bacon Tacos with Salsa Verde
West Africa – Spicey Peanut-Dusted Beef Skewers
Japan – Okanomiyaki – Seafood Pancakes

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

Online Art Exhibition: Site Insight
2021-11-13 - 2022-01-08
November 13, 2021—January 8, 2022 | Online Exhibition
James Harris Gallery is pleased to present “Site Insight” an exhibition that explores how artists use and interpret site as a position or location especially as to its environment. This show considers how some artists interpret site in a more literal term while others use it allegorically. The disparate works act like instruments in an orchestra pit. Individually, they are decisive works but taken in unison they reveal the emotional power works of art can have on a broad range of subjects and human character. Beauty is seen through ugliness and vice versa. All the works enlighten the viewer to the complexity of the world in which we live. The artists included in the show are: Squeak Carnwath, Claire Cowie, Fay Jones, Julie Mehretu, Jeffry Mitchell, Mary Ann Peters, Luke Kempton Williams, Bing Wright, and Amir Zaki.

2021 Arab American Book Awards: A Ceremony of Live Readings
2021-11-13 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Join the 2021 Arab American Book Award winners and honorable mentions, featuring awardees Susan Abulhawa, Sarah M.A. Gualtieri, Helen Zughaib, George Abraham, Noor Naga, Aya Khalil, Anait Semirdzhyan, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Dima Alzayat and Sirène Harb for a celebratory live reading, hosted by artist-in-residence Fargo Tbakhi!

Arab Costume Collections: Sustaining Legacies Symposium
2021-11-14 05:00 - 07:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
SYMPOSIUM – SAVE THE DATE
Arab Costume Collections: Sustaining Legacies Symposium
The Past, Present & Future
Date: Sunday 14th November 2021
Timings: 1 pm – 3 pm (London) / 5 pm – 7 pm (Dubai) / 8 am – 10 am (NYC)
Description: With the world beginning to open up we are delighted to announce that our online forthcoming ‘Arab Costume Collections: Sustaining Legacies Symposium – The Past, Present & Future ‘will be taking place on Sunday, 14th November. This will be a 2-hour online session with 2 panel sessions, the first focusing on the importance of Arab dress & culture with key collectors and speakers from around the globe and the second on the role and relevance of heritage contemporary brands.
Further details and registration coming soon!

The Ground and the Sky: Creative Writing Workshops for Youth with Ibtisam Barakat & Naomi Shihab Nye
2021-11-14 11:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
THIS is a TWO PART SERIES
2 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021
AND
2 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021
Online via Zoom
FREE with RSVP
What are we rooted in? What can we imagine? Come ready to open the doors of your imagination for your dreams to touch where no one has yet reached. Renowned writers Naomi Shihab Nye and Ibtisam Barakat will lead this two-part writing workshop for high school students – no experience necessary!
This online workshop series, taking place via Zoom, will help to envision, create and accomplish new greatness. The past is mapped out, but that map contains many mysteries, worth exploring, and the future needs a blueprint. Bring a blue-ink pen with you if you wish, for navigation of the great sea of ideas and possibilities. We are appreciating the past and going to the future, together!
Students who attend will receive a gifted copy of Naomi Shihab Nye’s 19 Varieties of Gazelle by mail (within the U.S.) after the workshop!
For questions, e-mail Kathryn Grabowski at KGrabowski@accesscommunity.org.
Naomi Shihab Nye, Palestinian American, is the Young People’s Poet Laureate of the United States, through the Poetry Foundation. She has worked all her life as a visiting writer in hundreds of schools and communities. Her most recent books are Everything Comes Next, Cast Away, The Tiny Journalist, which won both Texas poetry awards (Texas Institute of Letters and Writers League) and Voices in the Air – Poems for Listeners.
Ibtisam Barakat is a Palestinian American bilingual poet and author, and the 2020 Sheihk Zayed Book Award laureate of young people’s literature. SZBA, for the Arabic language, is comparable to the Nobel Prize, for the English language. Ibtisam is the founder of Write Your Life seminars that she has led for audiences of all ages around the world, in both English and Arabic. Her vision is a more representative human history that includes everyone’s stories in their own voices. Ibtisam’s memoirs about growing up in Palestine, Tasting the Sky, a Palestinian Childhood, and Balcony on the Moon, Coming of Age in Palestine, won multiple honors, including the International Reading Association’s Best Book Award, the Middle East Book Award, and the Arab American Book Award. Her most recent books include The Lilac Girl, SZBA 2020 winner, and The Jar that Became a Galaxy, title book for the National Reading Campaign of Palestine 2019. She has two new books forthcoming in 2021. www.ibtisambarakat.com
