ArabishWay

Free virtual screening of the documentary film "Zahra" directed by Mohammad Bakri
2021-07-31 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
About the film
Zahra is a Palestinian woman, from the village of al-Bane in the Galilee. Beginning with her childhood before the 1948 war, this compelling documentary takes us through the country’s turbulent history, as seen through the eponymous heroine’s eyes, and the perspectives of those around her. As Zahra grows, we experience the violent establishment of Israel, subsequent life under martial law (1948-1966), and the radical transformation of Palestinian society from a majority to a disenfranchised minority in their own homeland.

Click here to register for this event.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with the film director Mohammad Bakri. Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine Time. Duration: 1:03;00. Arabic with English subtitles.

Arabic Chat Hour
2021-07-29 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-07-22 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-07-15 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-07-08 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-07-01 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-06-24 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Whether you’re a native speaker or learner, this is a great chance practice listening and speaking in Arabic!
Repeats every Thursday!

Omar El Akkad with Jeff VanderMeer (Virtual)
2021-07-28 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Novelist Omar El Akkad, now living south of here in Portland, but for many years an award-winning international journalist living and working out of Toronto, blew readers away a few years ago with his eerily prescient first novel, American War. He gave a moving reading from that at Elliott Bay. We anticipate similar engagement for readers attending this – and reading – his haunting, beautifully written new novel, What Strange Paradise (Knopf). There is an overwhelmed boat filled with refugees fleeing homelands such as Syria, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Palestine, a boat which, in time, capsizes. There is a survivor, a young boy, and his attempts to elude would-be captors, aided by a young girl living on the island he has washed ashore upon. These are the bare bones of what Omar El Akkad does with extraordinary skill, empathy, compassion.
“What Strange Paradise is by turns tender and brutal in its truths. It is tremendously written, propulsive as it is expansive as it is granular in its specificities. Omar El Akkad writes with such emotional precision, power, and grace. Here we get the wondrousness of children set in sharp relief against a backdrop of the all too common dehumanization then dismissal of refugees everywhere. The book devastates and uplifts, somehow, and we are not left with hope—that isn’t the point—but asked to witness, to see what is here, with clarity, and with fullness of heart.” —Tommy Orange.
“What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad just resuscitated my heart. This novel—following a boy who survives a refugee passage, and a girl whose homeland feels fractured—dares to unite us on the shore of shared human experience, and redefines hope in the face of despair. I want to read this book every single day. I want to live in a world where the beauty of strangers is a heartsong.” —Lidia Yuknavitch.
With Omar El Akkad in conversation this evening will be the wonderful writer Jeff VanDerMeer, who recently did an evening such as this for Elliott Bay readers with his own newest novel, Hummingbird Salamander. A generous supporter of other writers and many good causes, he and Omar El Akkad have some interesting shared literary ‘history’ of a good sort, which will no doubt come out this evening.

Mona Hajjar Halaby Book Launch!
2021-07-26 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Date: Thursday, August 26
Time: 5 – 6:30pm PT/ 8 – 9:30pm ET
Cost: FREE –register now!

Join Middle East Children’s Alliance to celebrate the release of Mona Hajjar Halaby’s new book! Mona is a long-time friend and supporter of MECA.

MONA HAJJAR HALABY is a Palestinian-American educator, writer and social history buff, residing in California, USA. She is the author of In My Mother’s Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home, which interweaves the story of her mother’s life and her own sabbatical year teaching conflict resolution in Ramallah. She has created a Facebook page focused on photographs of Jerusalem during the first half of the twentieth century, entitled “British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library,” and has also collaborated on the interactive documentary www.jerusalemwearehere.com

FREE, Register Now! www.mecaforpeace.org/MonaHalaby

Say Something & Peg + Cat: The Eid Al-Adha Adventure - English-Arabic Storytime
2021-07-26 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
1 p.m. EDT Monday, July 26, 2021
Say Something & Peg + Cat: The Eid Al-Adha Adventure

Join us for an English-Arabic Storytime in celebration of Eid Al-Adha, from the comfort of your home! Children ages 2-6 and their parents are invited to tune in as resident storyteller Sari Mira reads the books Say Something & Peg + Cat: The Eid Al-Adha Adventure in both English and Arabic.
Say Something by Peter H. Reynolds explores the many ways that a single voice can make a difference. Each of us, each and every day, have the chance to say something: with our actions, our words, and our voices. Perfect for kid activists everywhere, this timely story reminds readers of the undeniable importance and power of their voice.
Peg + Cat: The Eid Al-Adha by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson follows Peg and Cat as they learn all about the concept of taking from where there’s more and giving to where there’s less. While visiting friends Yasmina and Amir for Eid Al-Adha, Peg and Cat learn some surprising things about a holiday tradition.

The Storytime will go up at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday, July 26 on our Storytime page, where you can also check out previous Online Storytimes.

Disrupted Pasts, Displaced Futures: Arte Archive
2021-07-24 - 2021-07-27 | WA
Disrupted Pasts, Displaced Futures is a selection of moving image works by contemporary artists from the Middle East and North Africa, blending science fiction, arabfuturism, and magic realism to tackle themes of displacement, migration, and climate crisis. Responding to an unstable present through the lens of the future, these alternate realities open a space where new possibilities emerge.
Featured Artists: Meriem Bennani, Mariam Mekiwi, Larissa Sansour
RSVP HERE
The 4 Movies Featured Are:
Party on the CAPS synopsis: In a world where teleportation has replaced planes, a wacky crocodile named Fiona tells of life on the CAPS: an island-turned-refugee-camp for illegal immigrants caught mid-teleportation. Themes of displacement, biotechnology and privacy are evoked through the augmented reality of a raucous birthday party in the Moroccan quarter of the CAPS. Mixing the languages of reality TV, advertising, documentary and high-end commercial aesthetics, Bennani explores the potential of storytelling through magical realism and humour.

Before I Forget Synopsis: El Captain disappears, one of his disciples takes a journey in the ocean to cut off the internet cable, the water level is rising, an amphibian woman appears at the shore looking for her mother, and the memories of two women in a ward intertwine. Scientist Dr. Sharaf is trying to congregate all of them – the members of the secret society of amphibians – in an attempt to save the world.

Nation Estate synopsis: With its glossy mixture of computer-generated imagery, live actors, and an arabesque electronica soundtrack, the Nation Estate film explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population – now finally living the high life.

In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain synopsis: Combining live-action and computer-generated imagery, In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain explores the role of myth in history, fact, and national identity. A narrative resistance group makes underground deposits of elaborate porcelain, which they suggest belonged to an entirely fictional civilization. Their aim is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands.

plus a recorded discussion with the directors!

Virtual Event: Emilly Prado with Ifrah F. Ahmed — Funeral for Flaca: Essays
2021-07-21 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Third Place Books is thrilled to welcome Emilly Prado for a discussion of her debut essay collection, Funeral for Flaca. She will be joined in conversation by writer, creative director, and cook Ifrah F. Ahmed.
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Ifrah F. Ahmed is a writer, creative director, and cook. She co-founded and edits the pioneering Somali arts and culture publication ARAWEELO. Ifrah is also the founder of Milk & Myrrh, a Somali culinary pop-up experience. She has been featured in the New York Times, Teen Vogue, and NYLON. Her writing and recipes have most recently appeared in the LA Times and Whetstone Magazine. Originally born in the beautiful coastal city of Mogadishu, Somalia she now splits her time between Brooklyn and Seattle.

Omar El Akkad in Conversation With Roy Scranton
2021-07-20 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
From Omar El Akkad, the widely acclaimed author of American War, comes What Strange Paradise (Knopf), a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving new novel that brings the global refugee crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes. More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives in their homelands. And only one has made the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials but of Vänna: a teenage girl, native to the island, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though she and the boy are complete strangers, though they don’t speak a common language, she determines to do whatever it takes to save him. In alternating chapters, we learn the story of the boy’s life and of how he came to be on the boat; and we follow the girl and boy as they make their way toward a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world, it is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair — and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality, or guide us to a better one. El Akkad will be joined in conversation by Roy Scranton, author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene and We’re Doomed. Now What?.
Register for the Zoom event / Buy the Book

PCC: Culinary World Tour: 5-Day Kids' Camp
2021-07-19 09:30 - 2021-07-23 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Instructors: Lisa Crawford, Ami Karnosh, M.S., C.N.
Price: $150
AGES 8 TO 15
COOK-ALONG

DESCRIPTION
Embark on a virtual world tour! Junior chefs will cook along as we explore the cuisines of many lands while learning classic techniques and kitchen skills. They’ll learn to create different flavor profiles that define these diverse cuisines and try their hand at the unique preparations found around the world.

Day 1: Pakistan: Biryani; Apple Mint Chutney; Raita
Day 2: Morocco: Tagine with Yellow Rice
Day 3: France: Croque Monsieur
Day 4: Lebanon: Lebanese Lentils; Zaatar Spiced Flatbread; Hummus
Day 5: Thailand: Fresh Rolls with Soy Dipping Sauce; Coconut-Mango Pudding

CLASS NOTES
This is a kids hands-on cook-along camp offered live via Zoom. One spot in camp is good for one kitchen. A recording will be sent after class to all registered students. Class link, recipes and preparation instructions will be sent at least one week before camp starts. This camp is geared toward a wide age range, and parental assistance or supervision may be needed for younger students. Our emails can get caught in spam filters or blocked entirely, please contact us if you don’t receive the class information. Cancellation Policy: Online classes are nonrefundable. You can request a class credit or transfer if you cancel your spot at least a week prior to the camp start date.
COOKING CLASSES FAQ

Day 1: Monday, July 19, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Day 2: Tuesday, July 20, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Day 3: Wednesday, July 21, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Day 4: Thursday, July 22, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Day 5: Friday, July 23, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Virtual Delegations to Om Sleiman Farm: Eyewitness Palestine
2021-07-18 11:00 - 12:30, 2021-07-14 09:00 - 10:30, 2021-07-10 09:00 - 10:30, 2021-07-06 11:00 - 12:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Eyewiness Palestine, PO Box 73798, Washington, DC, 20056-3798, United States
Join us for a virtual tour of Om Sleiman Farm, where farming is a powerful form of resistance! As Yara states in a Vice article (2018), “we’re so dependent on the occupier—for the electricity, water, housing, food, movement, with the air almost. If we as Palestinians cannot produce our own food, build our own shelter, have our own energy—how can we get rid of this occupation?”
Your Guide, Yara!
Yara Dowani, from Jerusalem, is the co-founder and a farmer at Om Sleiman Farm-Bi’lin. Her journey started after joining a permaculture course in Palestine for two weeks. Afterwards, she took a trip to Spain for a year to volunteer and learn from different farms and projects and then came back to Palestine to join a research group to study wild perennial plants. In 2018, Yara became part of the Om Sleiman team and has been a part of it ever since. She is now on a journey to learn new topics, such as natural building and syntropic farming, to be able to implement new innovative projects at the farm.
(All tour times are listed in Eastern Time – USA)

REGISTER

Tuesday July 6 2:00pm – 3:3opm ET
Saturday, July 10, 12pm – 1:30pm ET
Wednesday, July 14, 12pm -1:30pm ET
Sunday, July 18, 2pm – 3:30pm ET

Palestinian Virtual Pop-up Book Club: MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli
2021-07-18 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Please click here to register for this event.
Join writers Susan Muaddi Darraj and Sahar Mustafah in conversation about Minor Detail, the critically acclaimed novel by Palestinian author Adania Shibli. Her book was a 2020 finalist for the National Book Translation Award and longlisted for The International Booker Prize. Minor Detail is this year’s One Book, Many Communities selection by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine. Celebrate by reading the book and joining the discussion.
Book Synopsis
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba–the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people–and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims they capture a Palestinian teenager and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand. Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past. (Bookshop)
Links to purchase Minor Detail:
New Directions Publishing
Bookshop

ARCE Chicago: A Nubia-Centric View of Egypt's Twenty-fifth Dynasty
2021-07-10 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis) | WA
Lecture Information:
The Twenty-fifth Dynasty, the time of Kushite hegemony, was one of the most creative and prolific periods for sculpture and architecture in Egypt—certainly an anomaly for a country under foreign rule. This talk will examine the country the Kushites entered, look at some of the royal and private works created under their aegis, and attempt to solve the mystery of how and why this happened.

Meet Graphic Novelist Deena Mohamed: Interview + Q&A (online)
2021-07-08 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
6 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 8, 2021
Online Livestream
FREE with RSVP
Join us for a live-streamed interview with AANM artist-in-residence, Egyptian illustrator and graphic designer Deena Mohamed, moderated by ACCESS and AANM Communications Specialist, Lujine Nasralla. Deena will discuss her graphic novel trilogy شبيك لبيك Shubeik Lubeik, the process of translating it to English, as well as her overall career as a graphic novelist.
Deena Mohamed is an Egyptian illustrator and graphic designer who first started creating comics at 18 with the viral satirical webcomic starring a Muslim superheroine, Qahera. Her graphic novel trilogy, Shubeik Lubeik, is an urban fantasy set in Cairo about a world where you can buy and sell wishes. The first volume of the trilogy was awarded Best Graphic Novel and the Grand Prize of the Cairo Comix Festival (2017). All three volumes are published by Dar el Mahrousa in Arabic, and the English translation of all three volumes combined has been acquired by Pantheon (U.S.) and Granta (U.K.), due to be released in 2022. She lives and works in Cairo, Egypt. www.deenadraws.art

"The Price of Oslo", directed by Rawan Damen
2021-07-03 09:00 - 10:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Please join us for the screening of the film “The Price of Oslo”, directed by Rawan Damen. The film is about 100 minutes.
The film screening will be followed by a discussion with the film director Rawan Damen. Screening will begin at 12 Noon US EDT; 7:00 PM Palestine time
About the Film
For most people, the Oslo Accords will forever be symbolised by the grand public signing ceremony that took place on the lawn of the White House on September 13, 1993. Far fewer people, however, are aware of the fact that the Accords were actually signed several weeks earlier, on August 20, in a guest house in Oslo, or of the seven-hour long telephone conversation, on August 18, that was instrumental in bringing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel to the point where they could be signed.
Rawan Damen: “After six months of research and numerous interviews, I was certain that light needed to be shed on the aspects of this story that had been intentionally left unlit.”

Hangout/Swimming in the Madison Park Beach
2021-07-01 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Madison Beach Park, 1900 43rd Ave E, Seattle, WA, 98112, United States
We are going to hangout in Madison park beach this Thursday July 1st @6:30 PM. If you like to swim or just play with the water, bring you swimming suit and a towel! Otherwise, you can just sit and chill. There will be coffee shops within walking distance where you can get your ice tea/coffee as well.
Don’t forget to bring your chair/blanket! Looking forward to see you all this Thursday 🙂

P&P Live! Yasmeen Abutaleb & Damian Paletta — NIGHTMARE SCENARIO - with Ashley Parker
2021-07-01 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
CLICK HERE to register for this virtual event!
Since the day Donald Trump was elected, his critics warned that an unexpected crisis would test the former reality-television host—and they predicted that the president would prove unable to meet the moment. In 2020, that crisis came to pass, with the outcomes more devastating and consequential than anyone dared to imagine. Nightmare Scenario is the complete story of Donald Trump’s handling—and mishandling—of the COVID-19 catastrophe, during the period of January 2020 up to Election Day that year. Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta take us deep inside the White House, from the Situation Room to the Oval Office, to show how the members of the administration launched an all-out war against the health agencies, doctors, and scientific communities, all in their futile attempts to wish away the worst global pandemic in a century.
Yasmeen Abutaleb* covers health policy for the Washington Post. She chronicled the Trump administration’s coronavirus response and White House task force in 2020. She previously reported for Reuters.
Damian Paletta is the economics editor at the Washington Post and previously covered the White House for the Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The authors will be in conversation with Ashley Parker, a Pulitzer Prize winning White House reporter for The Washington Post.
*I couldn’t confirm that she was Arab but I went ahead and added this event to the calendar just in case!

June's Freedom Film: Storytelling for collective liberation
2021-06-30 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
In the wake of increased attacks on Palestinians, the interconnected struggles of those fighting against settler-colonialism have never been clearer. 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 June 30th at 8pm ET for our virtual fundraiser featuring the work-in-progress from the Vignettes Collective. Get a 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!

Juneteenth For Mazie & Our Rainbow: English-Arabic Storytime
2021-06-28 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Join us for an English-Arabic Storytime in celebration of Juneteenth and Pride Month, from the comfort of your home! Children ages 2-6 and their parents are invited to tune in as resident storyteller Sari Mira reads the books Juneteenth For Mazie & Our Rainbow in both English and Arabic.
Juneteenth For Mazie written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper follows Mazie, who is ready to celebrate liberty, freedom and a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves. Mazie remembers the struggles and the triumph, as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.
Our Rainbow by Little Bee Books teaches young readers all about the meaning of each color of the pride flag. Told in simple, engaging text and paired with bright illustrations, this board book teaches all about the colors of this rainbow and the simple acts of kindness that can brighten up our world.

The Storytime will go up at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 28 on our Storytime page, where you can also check out previous Online Storytimes.

One World Summer Language Camp: Learn Arabic, Chinese or Korean (2021)
2021-06-28 - 2021-07-16 | WA, United States
This language and culture camp focuses on fostering language acquisition, intercultural understanding, and a desire for international travel. During the camp, students will learn basic communicative writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills in classes taught using immersion methodology. The camp will introduce students to practices and perspectives of the Arabic-, Korean- and Chinese-speaking world, as well as the leadership skills that will enable them to become local youth leaders with a global perspective. Students will learn through classroom activities, guest speakers, music, and field trips. The last day of the camp will feature student performances in a culminating showcase for classmates, family, and community members.

For those entering 8th – 12th grade!

More details and an application can be found here: https://oneworldnow.formstack.com/forms/summerprogram2020
Session One

– Dates: June 28th – July 16th
– Courses offered: Chinese 1A, Arabic 1A, and Korean 1A
– Content: the equivalent of a first semester high school class
– This class is right for: students with no background in the language they are studying.

Session Two

– Dates: July 26th – August 13th
– Courses offered: Chinese 1B, Arabic 1B, and Korean 1B
– Content: the equivalent of a second semester high school class.
–This class is right for: Students who completed Level 1A in their language or have equivalent prior knowledge.

Virtual Pride Concert feat. INDKNA | + talkback
2021-06-26 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
4 p.m. PDT/7 p.m. EDT Saturday, Jun. 26, 2021
Online Livestream
FREE with RSVP
Closing out Pride Month, AANM and YallaPunk are excited to present a debut virtual concert by INDKNA, a Yemeni and Yemeni American band of immigrant and gender nonconforming women. Following the performance, join the band for a talkback moderated by YallaPunk founder Rana Fayez.
INDKNA is a group of Yemeni and Yemeni-American artists and songwriters who offer alternative and empowering narratives for Yemeni women and minorities. As a band of immigrant and gender nonconforming women, INDKNA’s music centers a radical feminist approach in its songwriting practice, as it tackles issues of bodily censorship, political unrest in Yemen and personal struggles. INDKNA uses song to reclaim the Yemeni dialect, and innovates Yemeni music through introducing experimental genres inspired by electronic music, jazz, hip-hop and classical Arabic sounds.

Film Series Online: This Little Father Obsession (2016) dir. Selim Mourad
2021-06-24 - 2021-06-27 | WA
Arab Film Series Online: This Little Father Obsession (2016) dir. Selim Mourad
Free Online Stream – Register
In partnership with ArteEast and AFMI, AANM’s Arab Film Series Online is pleased to present in celebration of Pride Month, This Little Father Obsession, a feature-length hybrid documentary by Lebanese filmmaker Selim Mourad.
A kaleidoscopic family film blending documentary and auto-fiction, This Little Father Obsession sees the complexity of Lebanese society confronted with the personal aspirations of an individual, and the weight of patriarchal tradition with the desire for emancipation. The filmmaker traces the portrait of a family in which he is trying to find his place. The last descendant, losing his fertility, attracted to men, he is wondering about filiation and confronts his father with his obsessions at a time when their family house in Beirut is waiting to be demolished. Truth unveils as they go on a quest together to find a forgotten relative. During this journey, the house seems to persist.
The screening will be accompanied by a live talkback with filmmaker Selim Mourad at 3 p.m. EDT, Sunday, June 27.
Guests can view the film on demand, worldwide, from 6 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 24 to 11:59 p.m. EDT Sunday, June 27, 2021.
2016 / 103 minutes / Lebanon / Arabic and French with English Subtitles

Mortada Gzar Discusses "I'm In Seattle, Where Are You?"
2021-06-22 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Gzar will appear in conversation with the book’s translator, William Hutchins. The conversation will be moderated by Christopher Merrill, Director of University of Iowa’s International Writing Program.
The event is presented in partnership with Seattle City of Literature, Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, University of Iowa International Writing Program, and Elliott Bay Book Company. This event is supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation. Thanks to media sponsor The Seattle Times.
Closed captioning will be available at the event. The program will be recorded and posted on SPL’s YouTube after the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
As the US occupation of Iraq rages, novelist Mortada Gzar, a student at the University of Baghdad, has a chance encounter with Morise, an African American soldier. It’s love at first sight, a threat to them both, and a moment of self-discovery. Challenged by society’s rejection and Morise’s return to the US, Mortada takes to the page to understand himself.
In his deeply affecting memoir, Mortada interweaves tales of his childhood work as a scrap-metal collector in a war zone and the indignities faced by openly gay artists in Iraq with his impossible love story and journey to the US. Marginalized by his own society, he is surprised to discover the racism he finds in a new one.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Iraqi novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and visual artist Mortada Gzar was born in Kuwait in 1982, grew up in Basra, Iraq, and now lives in Seattle, Washington. He earned a degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Baghdad and was later a member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Gzar is the author of four novels, a children’s book, and a short-story collection; he has illustrated two books for children. English translations of his work have appeared in Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, and Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq, and his journalism and political cartoons are featured in Arabic newspapers. Gzar’s animated films have been featured in international film festivals, his film Language was awarded a grant by the Doha Film Institute, and he created the Seattle Arab Film Festival hosted by the Northwest Film Forum.
