Somali Story Times - KCLS
2021-04-24 16:00 - 16:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Family program, all ages welcome with adult.
Enjoy stories, music, movement and rhymes that develop your child’s early literacy skills in Somali.
Please register. You will receive a Zoom link by 10am the day of the event. Be sure to check your spam folder.
Reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities is available by request. Please contact the library at least seven days before the event for ASL interpretation, captioning services and/or other accommodation for online programs. Send your request to access@kcls.org.

MELAW - Legal Clinic
2021-04-25 | WA
MELAW LEGAL CLINIC
The MELAW legal clinic has been running since COVID struck and has successfully held virtual clinics for countless clients. Your expertise is priceless – please sign-up to be a volunteer at an upcoming clinic by emailing: clinic@melaw.org
Next clinic date: April 25th

Storytelling Session: Birds of Palestine
2021-04-25 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Historically, Palestinians spent their Ramadan evenings gathered around the fire and in cafes listening to stories. To honour this long-standing tradition, join us this Sunday at 5PM EST for a special storytelling session with Sarah Abusarar from Toronto and Fidaa Ataya from Palestine.
About the storytellers:

Sarah Abusarar comes from a long line of storytellers. She is an Expressive Art Therapist and a Storyteller who frequently uses storytelling as a tool for social transformation. Sarah belongs to Storytellers of Canada & Storytelling Toronto. Learn more
Fidaa Ataya will be joining us live from Palestine. Fidaa is a traditional storyteller, puppeteer, drama-in-education specialist and actress. She’s also the founder & director of Kan Yama Kan group.

Co-presented with our friends Storytellers of Canada/Conteurs du Canada (SC-CC) and International Fairytale Festival/Bajka
Streaming live on Facebook and YouTube tinyurl.com/TPFFYouTube

English-Arabic Storytime at the Arab American National Museum
2021-04-26 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Ten Ways to Hear Snow & The World Is Not A Rectangle

Join us for an English-Arabic Storytime in celebration of Arab American Heritage Month as well as Earth Day, 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 Ten Ways to Hear Snow and The World Is Not A Rectangle in both English and Arabic.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow written by Cathy Camper and illustrated by Kenard Pak, follows Lina who wakes up on winter morning to silence. It’s the sound of snow; as she walks to her grandmother’s house to help make the family recipe for warak enab, she continues to listen, discovering mindfulness, empathy, and what we realize when the world gets quiet.
The World Is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter, is a nonfiction picture book about the famed Iraqi architect’s life and her triumph over adversity.

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

5.4 Dialogues on the Art of Arab Fashion: Dress & Identity: Cultural, Economic and Political Implications
2021-04-27 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
5.4 Dialogues on the Art of Arab Fashion: Dress & Identity: Cultural, Economic and Political Implications

Event Description: Dr. Reem El Mutwalli in conversation with Shahira Mehrez, Creative Advisor to the Zay Initiative, Researcher, Collector & Promoter of Traditional Arts & Crafts
Date: 27th April 2021
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.

The Environment and Me - Isra Hirsi
2021-04-27 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
17-year old activist Isra Hirsi details what environmental justice means for urban communities.
Isra Hirsi is a 17-year-old organizer from Minneapolis, MN. She co-founded US Youth Climate Strike in 2019 and has been an environmental justice activist for 3 years. She has recently been put on Fortune’s 40 under 40 for her work.

Water and Peacebuilding
2021-04-29 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Event Description

Throughout history, water has been a source of conflict, as nations wrestle for sovereignty over key waterways, groups fight for access to critical water sources, and populations are forced to leave their homes due to water scarcity. Accelerating climate change such as erratic rainfall, severe droughts, and other extreme weather events creates more competition for a diminishing water supply that leads to more water-related conflicts. Increasingly, humanitarian and development organizations are also seeing water emerge as more than just a basic human right – it’s also an instrument of peacebuilding. Not only can water security reduce conflict triggers in water-scarce areas, but water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects present an opportunity for communities to build social cohesion and social capital around a shared resource. Join representatives from World Vision, Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, and EverVillage as they discuss how water has played a key role in the communities in which they work.

Layale Chaker, violin/composer Featuring her quintet and special guest Kinan Azmeh
2021-04-29 16:30 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Online

PRESENTED BY

HANCHER

TICKETS

$5 admission – donations appreciated

Thursday, April 29, 2021, 7:30 pm

BUY TICKETS

Layale Chaker was a winner of the Silkroad Seeds inaugural 2020 award—the latest in an impressive series of honors. She and her husband, Kinan Azmeh, are familiar to Hancher audiences from their participation in the Embracing Complexity programing. In this performance created for Hancher, Chaker and her ensemble will perform music from her critically acclaimed Inner Rhyme album as well as new music from the forthcoming Bards project—a celebration of musicianship and musicians beyond the borders of confinement and geography—performed here for the first time.

Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics: Naomi Shihab Nye and Lena Tuffaha - 2021
2021-04-29 17:00 - 18:00 UTC | UW – Intellectual House, 4249 Whitman Ct NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
Last year saw the cancellation of the 3rd Annual Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics due to the ongoing pandemic. While we’re still unable to gather in person, this year the University of Washington English Department and the Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry and Poetics are thrilled to host Naomi Shihab Nye on Thursday, April 29, 2021, 5:00-6:30 PM (PT). We are also excited to welcome Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award, who will be in conversation with Naomi following her reading. We’re grateful to graduating senior Owen Oliver who will be offering a welcome/land acknowledgment prior to the reading. Please join us for an evening of poetry and conversation with these wonderful writers.
The University of Washington is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation in its services, programs, and activities. If any accommodations are needed in the completion and submission of this form please contact UW English Department; 206-543-9552; Karla Tofte, ktofte@uw.edu.
All registrants will be entered into a drawing to win one copy of Naomi’s and Lena’s most recent books.
Many thanks to Suhad Khatib for granting permission to use her beautiful work, “The Return” in the poster. And many thanks to Dilara Elbir for her design.
Artist Bios:
Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent 40 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity. Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her most recent book is Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners. Her new book of poems is entitled The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions Ltd., April 2019).
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. She earned a BA in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington and an MFA in Poetry at the Rainier Writing Workshop of Pacific Lutheran University She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Water & Salt, winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award for Poetry, and the chapbooks Arab in Newsland (2016) and Letters from the Interior (2019). Her work has been published in journals including Blackbird, Kenyon Review Online, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Poetry Northwest, TriQuarterly, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day feature. Her poems have been widely anthologized and have received the Robert Watson Literary Prize and multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. She is the recipient of a 2019 Artist Trust Fellowship, and has served as the inaugural Poet-In-Residence at Open Books: A Poem Emporium in Seattle. You can learn more about her work at www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com.
Suhad Khatib (b. 1979) is a multimedia artist who was born in Oman, raised in Jordan and been living in the US for the past 14 years. Her work was shown in Montreal, Connecticut, Berkeley, New York, San Francisco and Amman. She describes her work as “an intentional study on healing and identity.” Suhad is also a public speaker on the subject of Palestine, theology, feminism and community organizing. Her practice extends to design and filmmaking. Notably, she is the designer behind prominent social justice campaigns that have shaped our understanding of recent history like: #Ferguson2Palestine, #ISupportRasmea and #ShowMe15. In film, she was one of the founders of the film industry in Jordan, wrote and directed multiple short films, finished residency programs by Sundance Film Institute, Dubai Film Connection, and Euromed Audiovisual Program. Most notably, she was the co-writer of the most watched Jordanian comedy series! Suhad currently resides in San Francisco, CA. https://suhadkhatib.com/

ONLINE ONLY: A Novel Idea Author Laila Lalami
2021-05-02 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Description
A link to the live presentation will be available beginning Sunday, May 2 at 3:30 p.m.
A recording of this presentation will be available beginning May 6.
Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans discusses her work with local creative Jason Graham.
About the Book: The Other Americans
Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters to tell their stories and the invisible connections that tie them togethereven while they remain deeply divided by race, religion or class.
About the Author: Laila Lalami
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, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. She has received fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program and the Guggenheim Foundation and is currently a full professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. Her new book, a work of nonfiction called Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in American, was published in September 2020.

Arabic Chat Hour
2021-05-06 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-05-27 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!

Movie: Mayor via Mideast Focus Ministry
2021-05-07 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
MAYOR
MAYOR follows Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah, during his second term in office. His immediate goals: repave the sidewalks, attract more tourism, and plan the city’s Christmas celebrations. His ultimate mission: to end the occupation of Palestine. Rich with detailed observation and humor, MAYOR offers a portrait of dignity amidst the madness and absurdity of endless occupation while posing a question: how do you run a city when you don’t have a country?
Learn more here.
with guest speaker: TBA
Contact info@saintmarks.org to be added to the Mideast Focus Ministry mailing list, or use this form. (Check the box marked “Mideast Focus.”)

Anas Atassi: Virtual Author Talk: Sumac
2021-05-10 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
The Book Larder is thrilled to host Anas Atassi to discuss his new cookbook, Sumac. He will be joined in conversation by Wassef & Racha Haroun of Mamnoon.
How this works: This event will be broadcast live on Zoom. Registering will provide you with a unique access link in an email. At the event time, click that link to watch the talk. During the event, feel free to ask questions using the Q/A or chat feature.
This author talk is FREE, but you can support it by purchasing a copy of the book here. Thank you!
About the Author
Anas Atassi was born in Homs in Syria and now lives in Amsterdam. He has a great love for cooking and cherishes the memories of Syria from his childhood. Every summer the whole family went back to Homs to be together and celebrate the season. Good food was an important part of that celebration and Anas has remained a lover of Syrian cuisine which started his great love for cooking. The personal stories in Sumac were the inspiration for the dishes and build a bridge between Syrian culture and the world, with good food as a common denominator. Sumac: Recipes and Stories from Syria is his first cookbook.

Smithsonian: ntroduction to Palestinian Thobe Embroidery: Panel Design
2021-05-11 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
For generations, Palestinian women have gathered with their daughters to work collectively on embroidery projects, bonding with one another over a cup of tea. Guided by Wafa Ghnaim, who began her training in embroidery with her mother at age 2, learn the history of the traditional Palestinian thobe, as well as the basic cross-stitch on waste canvas.
The skirt of a Palestinian thobe typically features heavily embroidered panels that give the skirt a mural-like quality. The panels can be heavily ornamented for special occasions.
Students of all skill levels are introduced to panel patterns and learn how to stitch them onto denim using waste canvas. Waste canvas allows artisans to adorn any piece of cloth or clothing and is an important skill to master in order to create traditional Palestinian embroidered garments.
This class combines detailed instruction on how to complete a small panel segment using the Cleopatra design on waste canvas with discussion of the pattern’s meaning and history.

Eyewitness Palestine: Virtual Delegation to Lifta
2021-05-12 | WA
In commemoration of Nakba Day (May 15th) we hope you will join us for a visit to the Lifta, a Palestinian Village that was attacked by Zionist militias and destroyed during the Nakba, in the lead up to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
More info to come: https://eyewitnesspalestine.org/virtual-del-dates/lifta-lh7pg
Eyewitness Palestine is committed to bringing Palestine to you, both while travel is not permitted and because we understand that not everyone has the ability to travel to Palestine/Israel.
Join us for innovative, small, Virtual Delegations!
You will have the ability to explore different places in Palestine/Israel and speak directly with our partners there.

Eid Potluck at Seward Park
2021-05-13 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Details

Let’s hang out at Seward Park for Eid 1442 😀
Bring a dish or a drink, probably a blanket or chair as well. Don’t forget sunscreen!
Sarah says we should try to avoid the perfect storm of cookies we had last time.
Engy tells us that in Egypt: “Eid is about كعك and petit four” For the record, those will not be counting as cookies!
Alaa promises to make his favorite Syrian pastry.
And Karyn has been dreaming of كباب!
I’m hoping we get some people from Arabs in Seattle to join us too!
——————– Updates ———————-
Here’s the link for the food spreadsheet (thank you Esta!):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zq_0jamvctWdWEJOGbaPh_QgXFdEFUgiHz45H4qGolw/edit?usp=sharing

Nakba Catastrophe Commemoration - on I-5
2021-05-14 16:45 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Please join Friends of Palestine to commemorate the Nakba Catastrophe.
Our banner will say ISRAEL: RACIST STATE FOR 73 YEARS.

We will be on the I-5 overpass at 45th (Exit 169, near UW) on Friday, May 14. Please meet at the southwest side of the overpass at 4:45 pm. We will banner till 6 pm.

Palestine Art Week
2021-05-15 - 2021-05-21 | WA
Join us for a seven-day celebration of Palestinian Arts as we hold over 30 online events this month. Palestine Art Week will run through May 15-21 hosting film screenings, poetry and literature readings, artist conversations and other events featuring Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, Mariam Tamari, and others. Palestine Writes joins this celebratory week in presenting the work of Palestinian poets and writers. Register once, link in bio.
palestinemuseum.us/paw
Click here for the full schedule: https://www.palestinemuseum.us/program
شاركونا الاحتفال بالفنون الفلسطينية هذا الشهر على مدى ٧ أيام متواصلة وأكثر من ٣٠ حدث عبر الانترنت. سيجري أسبوع فن فلسطين من أيار ١٥-٢١ حيث سنقيم عروض أفلام، قراءات شعرية وأدبية، ومحادثات مع فنانين بالإضافة إلى فعاليات أخرى تستضيف بها نبيل عناني، سليمان منصور، مريم تماري، وغيرهم. تشاركنا “فلسطين تكتب” بتقديم أعمال لشعراء وكتّاب فلسطينيون. سجلّوا مرة واحدة واحضروا أي فعالية:
palestinemuseum.us/paw
الرابط في البايو
ترقبوا الجدول كاملًا قريبًا!

Poetry + Environmental Justice Reading featuring Samiya Bashir, Leila Chatti, Amir Rabiya
2021-05-15 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Mizna is proud to present a reading exploring poetry and environmental justice featuring the powerful poets Samiya Bashir, Leila Chatti, and Amir Rabiyah.

This reading’s theme was collectively chosen by members of the Poetry Coalition, of which Mizna is a member, and the is titled after the line “It is burning./ It is dreaming./ It is waking up.” from Linda Hogan’s poem, “Map.” The reading is co-presented with our friends at Moon Palace Books, an indie bookstore in Minneapolis.
>>HOW TO PARTICIPATE<<
The Zoom link will be sent out through Eventbrite the day before + day of the reading. In addition to the Zoom, this event will be livestreamed on Facebook.
>>ACCESSIBILITY<<
This reading will be live-captioned in English. An accessible .pdf of poems will be available to follow during the event, and the full program will be available for viewing post-event.
>>ABOUT POCO<<
This event is part of national Poetry Coalition programming and is supported by the Academy of American Poets with funds from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
More info on the Poetry Coalition and this year’s collaborative programming: https://bit.ly/3sWOjfS
>>ABOUT THE READERS<<
Amir Rabiyah is a trans and two-spirit disabled queer femme poet and writing coach. They were born in London, England to a mixed Cherokee and white mother and a Lebanese and Syrian father. Their work explores living life on the margins and at the intersections of multiple identities. Amir writes about living with chronic pain and illness, war, trauma, spirituality, healing, redemption–and speaks on silenced places. Amir’s first full collection poetry book, Prayers for My 17th Chromosome, available for through Sibling Rivalry Press. This debut collection was a finalist for the Triangle Publishing Award, and an ALA Over the Rainbow pick. Amir is also the co-editor of Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices and has published in numerous anthologies and journals. They currently live in North Carolina and believe domestic work, chanting Sufi prayers over a home cooked meal, and nurturing our community is crucial for revolution.
Leila Chatti was born in 1990 in Oakland, California. A Tunisian-American dual citizen, she has lived in the United States, Tunisia, and Southern France. She is the author of the debut full-length collection Deluge (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), on the longlist for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, and the chapbooks Ebb (New-Generation African Poets) and Tunsiya/Amrikiya, the 2017 Editors’ Selection from Bull City Press. She holds a B.A. from the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University and an M.F.A. from North Carolina State University, where she was awarded the Academy of American Poets Prize. She currently serves as the Consulting Poetry Editor at the Raleigh Review and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is the Mendota Lecturer in Poetry.
Samiya Bashir is the author of three books of poetry: Field Theories, and Gospel, and Where the Apple Falls. Sometimes she makes poems of dirt. Sometimes zeros and ones. Sometimes variously rendered text. Sometimes light. Her work has been widely published, performed, installed, printed, screened, and experienced. Bashir holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as Poet Laureate, and an MFA from the University of Michigan, where she received two Hopwood Poetry Awards. Bashir lives in Portland, Oregon where she teaches at Reed College.

Summer 2021: Al-Bustan Arabic Language Course for Adults
2021-05-16 | WA
Location

Al-Bustan Zoom
Philadelphia PA 19104

About

Al-Bustan is pleased to offer online Modern Standard Arabic course for adults in Summer 2021, following our successful pilot program for adult in Spring 2021. Held on ZOOM, the 10-week sessions begin the week of May 16 to week of July 18. Based on overwhelming interest, we are offering two sections, both taught by Instructor Noora Alrawi.
The adult classes will be capped at 10 students. Our Beginner Adult Class will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7-8:30pm and our Intermediate Adult Class will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8:30pm. Our 10-week program is $400 per student

Nesrine Malik (livestream) Six Political Myths Used to Deflect and Discredit Demands for Social Justice
2021-05-16 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump declared: “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.” This led many after his victory to blame “identity politics” for his win. When Trump was banned from Twitter, he claimed it was an assault on free speech. Columnist Nesrine Malik contends that both of these things were myths, and joins us to explain how these arguments over lies impact the struggle for greater equality in society.
In a livestream presentation, she shares from her book We Need New Stories: The Myths That Subvert Freedom, looking at how what she believes to be the lie that American values are under assault creates a solid obfuscation from the real problems. By interweaving reporting with a frank and no-holds-barred analysis of American history and politics, Malik offers a compelling account of how calls to preserve “free speech” are used against the vulnerable; how a fixation with “wokeness,” “political correctness,” and “cancel culture” is in fact an organized and well-funded campaign by elites; and how the fear of racial minorities and their “identity politics” obscures the biggest threat of all–white terrorism. Don’t miss this poignant inspection of the crises roiling American contemporary politics–and the introduction of a radical framework for understanding and identifying it.
Nesrine Malik is an award-winning British-Sudanese columnist and features writer for the Guardian. She lives in London.

Brilliant Mind: A Live & Interactive Digital Experience
2021-05-16 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Brilliant Mind: A Live & Interactive Digital Experience
10 p.m. EDT / 7 p.m. PDT Sunday, May 16
FREE with RSVP; Limited spots available, so act fast and claim your spot!
Join AANM for an exclusive showing of the premiere of Brilliant Mind. Written by AANM artist-in-residence Denmo Ibrahim, Brilliant Mind is an innovative and interactive virtual theatre experience.
When Dina and Yusef learn of their estranged father’s death, they step in and bury a man they never knew. Will brother and sister face their truths once family secrets come to light? Inspired by true stories of first-generation Americans, Brilliant Mind takes a hard look at generational trauma, the struggle between self and family, and the weight of carrying a legacy. It’s an excavation of the politics of gender in immigrant communities and the challenges ever present between tradition and culture. This is a story of hope, of what gets lost in translation, and of what happens when we dare to love unconditionally.
In this extraordinary live and interactive digital experience, explore the family ties that bind and break us, the healing that comes through death, and the acceptance that our parents do the best they can—the rest is up to us.
Co-produced by Marin Theatre Company & Storykrapht

Amir Zaki "Empty Vessel" - Online Exhibition
2021-05-18 - 2021-07-07 | WA
James Harris Gallery is pleased to present our seventh exhibition by California artist Amir Zaki. Comprised of two bodies of work, collectively entitled, “Empty Vessel,” the series features striking colorful photographs of both skateboard parks and broken ceramic vases. Together, these images open a discussion of the history and future of photography and duplicitous version of truth in the modern world. In his work, Zaki strives to disrupt common notions of authenticity, monumentality, and documentation through a hybridization of techniques. The two disparate series are connected through real and fictive space illuminating the truth between the everyday and the ideal. The gallery will mount virtual exhibitions until the next location of our physical space is announced in the fall of 2021.
Download the press release

WORKS IN SHOW
ABOUT THE ARTIST

Amir Zaki
A firm believer in the transformative power of the photographic image, Zaki images are rooted in the history of the medium and uses it to shed light on the means of representation. Over the last 16 years, Zaki has pushed the physicality of the photograph’s two dimensional construct, allowing it to exist on its own and also exploring its own object-ness. In order to capture and record the original site, Zaki’s representations depict the complexity of place in terms of interactive evolving experience, an ongoing ecological intervention. The artist responds to the shifting contemporary landscape where nothing is permanent, constructing his own visual language to illustrate an entire mythology of place.
Amir Zaki lives and works in Southern California. He received his MFA from UCLA in 1999 and has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since graduating. He is a full professor at the University of California at Riverside. His work is included in many museum collections including the Hammer Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

P&P Live! Aminatta Forna — The Window Seat - with Rabih Alameddine
2021-05-18 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Aminatta Forna is one of our most important literary voices. In The Window Seat, an elegantly rendered and wide-ranging collection of new and previously published essays, Forna writes intimately about displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world.

Movement is a constant here. In the title piece, “The Window Seat,” she reveals the unexpected enchantments of commercial air travel. In “Obama and the Renaissance Generation,” she documents how, despite the narrative of Obama’s exceptionalism, his father, like her own, was one of a generation of gifted young Africans who came to the United Kingdom and the United States for education and were expected to build their home countries anew after colonialism. In “The Last Vet,” time spent shadowing Dr. Jalloh, the only veterinarian in Sierra Leone, as he works with the street dogs of Freetown, becomes a meditation on what a society’s treatment of animals tells us about its principles. In “Crossroads,” she examines race in America from an African perspective, and in “Power Walking” she describes what it means to walk in the world in a Black woman’s body and in “The Watch” she explores the raptures of sleep and sleeplessness the world over.
Forna will be in conversation with Rabih Alameddine, author of the novels Koolaids, I, the Divine, The Hakawati, An Unnecessary Woman, the story collection, The Perv, and most recently, The Angel of History. He divides his time between San Francisco and Beirut.

Arab Film Series Online: Elia Suleiman Retrospective + Talkback
2021-05-21 - 2021-05-30 | WA
Arab Film Series Online: Elia Suleiman Retrospective + Talkback
Streaming Friday, May 21 – Sunday, May 30
Free with RSVP
We’re excited to celebrate and showcase work of famed Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman. Throughout his career, Suleiman directed four feature films, all of which are available to audiences in this Video-On-Demand style retrospective. Guests can view the films at their leisure from Friday, May 21 to Sunday, May 30, 2021. MORE INFO

#SAVESHEIKHJARRAH Protest in Downtown Kirkland
2021-05-22 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
In light of recent events in Palestine and the worsening situation, we need to continue raising awareness and putting pressure on the government. This Saturday, May 22nd @3 pm, we’ll be protesting on Central way, in front of Peter Kirk Park!

Please bring your flags, signs and posters!
Link with poster/sign ideas: https://docs.google.com/…/1J1rM0RiuciuBlpAL5JQ8…/edit…

Please don’t forget to wear your face masks and maintain social distancing! Looking forward to seeing you

Poet Zeina Hashem Beck [afikra Conversations]
2021-05-25 09:00 - 10:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Join us as we interview poet Zeina Hashem Beck on our afikra Conversations series on May 25
Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her writing covers a variety of topics: Arab culture, home, exile, family narratives, language, the body, love, and faith. Her poetry often exists at the intersections of the personal & the political, the divine & the profane, the self & the other. She is interested in poetry that creates small bridges and insists on loving the broken world. Her third poetry collection, titled O, will be published by Penguin Books in Summer 2022. Her second full-length collection, Louder than Hearts, won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. She’s also the author of two chapbooks: 3arabi Song, winner of the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was, a smith|doorstop Laureate’s Choice. Her first book, To Live in Autumn, won the 2013 Backwaters Prize. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Poetry, Ploughshares, World Literature Today, The Southeast Review, The Adroit Journal, Triquarterly, the Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. Zeina invented The Duet, a bilingual poetic form where English and Arabic exist separately and in relationship to each other. Her poem “Maqam” won Poetry Magazine’s 2017 Frederick Bock Prize. She lives in Dubai, where she has founded the poetry open mic night PUNCH.

afikra has a series of fabulous interviews that can be found here: https://www.afikra.com/events

Toronto Arab Film Festival
2021-05-27 - 2021-05-30 | WA
TORONTO ARAB FILM FESTIVAL //
​** 2021 May 27-30 **
Please check out their website for more details: https://www.arabfilm.ca/festival160516071585158015751606.html

There Is A Field, a film, by Jen Marlowe
2021-05-27 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
There Is A Field

a film by Jen Marlowe
May 27 from 7–9pm PT (Zoom film screening + panel discussion)
May 28–30 (view the film online, on demand)
Sliding scale admission: $0–25. Suggested contribution: $15
Get your tickets here: https://nwfilmforum.org/films/there-is-a-field-online/
Please pay what you can; 25% of proceeds will go directly to support Washington state families impacted by police violence. Remaining proceeds support co-presenting organizations Donkeysaddle Projects, Dunya Productions, and Northwest Film Forum.
About the opening night event:
Dunya Productions, Seattle Rep, and NWFF are partnering on a virtual event which will include watching the film, followed by a meaningful discussion with Seattle-based Black Lives Matter and Palestinian justice activists, exploring the connections addressed in the film, ways to locally embark on joint organizing and solidarity, and the power of theatre and film in social justice movements.

About the film:
In October 2000, a police officer shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Asel Asleh. His story is tragically familiar for Americans, but Asel was not killed in Ferguson, New York City, Atlanta, or Minneapolis. Asel was a Palestinian teenager who was murdered by Israeli police as he participated in a demonstration, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and settler-colonization.
There Is a Field began as a play about Asel’s life and his death, told from the perspective of his older sister, Nardin. Through Nardin’s struggle to cope with the murder of her brother, the play offers a uniquely personal lens for learning about intersecting systems of oppression, including Zionism and white supremacy—root causes of state-sanctioned violence and structural racism.
Learn more at https://www.thereisafield.movie/
