Third Annual Arab American comedy show ready for breakthrough August performance
The cast members of the five skits that comprise the 3rd Arab American Comedy Show, scheduled to take place August 14 and 15 at the Ford Performing Arts Center (Civic Center), are working hard rehearsing their roles at the Fairlane Club. Director Mike Mosallam rehearses a skit with cast member Amir Makled in preparation for the...First Palestinian animated film
RAMALLAH (Reuters) — The true story of a Gaza woman's lost battle against breast cancer has been commemorated in the first commercial animated film made in the Palestinian territories. Fatma Barghout"Fataneh" was inspired by the plight of 28-year-old Fatma Barghout, who died in 2004, and the humiliation and...DSO hosts 17th annual Concert of Colors
DETROIT — The 2009 17th annual Concert of Colors, metro Detroit's free diversity-themed music festival, will present rising and established acts, bring back past favorites and offer free, outdoor activities while forging ahead in its mission to shed light on and celebrate cultural diversity through music. The festival takes place...Hit Palestinian-Israeli TV comedy series now on DVD
NEW YORK— The first season of the hit television series and international sensation "Arab Labor" will be available on DVD nationwide July 14 through E1 Entertainment Distribution, it was announced by Alive Mind. The series premiered on U.S. television on Link TV this past fall to enormous success and media attention. The uniqueness...
Film fest to screen local Arab American’s upcoming film ‘Street Boss’
June 19th, 20090 DEARBORN — "Street Boss," a film by Dearborn director/screenwriter Lance Khalid Kawas, is scheduled to be screened as the opening feature at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, which opens June 25. The movie is one of two productions Kawas has just completed back-to-back. "Street Boss," based on a true story from the...
Video: Spoken-word artists perform at Amnesty event for human rights
April 25th, 20090 In its early days, hip hop was a way for urban youth to have a voice. When that voice got too loud, large corporations took over and started promoting the hollow, excess-obsessed, over-commercialized music that rules the charts today. The spirit of true hip hop was alive and well at the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Thursday,...
Local imam traces history of Arab immigrants from Tibnin
April 18th, 20090 DEARBORN — A new documentary on the local Arab American community is to be screened at the Islamic House of Wisdom, 2575 Ann Arbor Trail in Dearborn Heights on Saturday. Sheikh Baqir Berry of the Islamic Institute of Knowledge studied film in Lebanon before coming to the U.S. and starting the Michigan Institute of Islamic Studies....UMS presents traditional Moroccan Sufi performers
ANN ARBOR — Traditional Moroccan Sufi performers Mohammed Bennis and the Hmadcha Ensemble are scheduled for two appearances at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 State Street in Ann Arbor on April 18 and 18. The University Musical Society performances are to begin at 8 p.m. on April 18 and 7 p.m. on April 19. The group...Comedians look to laughs as way to ease tensions
It seems as though every culture or ethnicity has a signature comedian or group of comedians to represent them in America. Comedians Sherif Hedayat, R, Joey "The Wacky Iraqi" Nibras, Amer Zahr and Mike Batayeh on stage at All Star Comedy Club in Allen Park on March 29. PHOTOS: Khalil AlHajal/TAAN The Arab community, however,...Michigan professor tours book on U.S.-Muslim relations
WASHINGTON — Perhaps the United States government should do more listening than bombing. A new book by University of Michigan professor Juan Cole, suggests just that. Driven by a deep anxiety about Islam, Americans have not come to really understand Muslim concerns. Taking into account the perspectives of those most affected by the...
Arab playwriting initiative culminates in unique production
March 21st, 20090 LONDON— Al Amwaj (The Waves) is a brand new play, created by a group of Arab writers, to be broadcast on BBC World Service on Saturday, 21 March at 2001 GMT. It stems from a unique Arab playwriting initiative and is the first BBC play to be commissioned from writers in the Gulf region, all working in collaboration. The play,...Video: Creative expression in the Arab World
Arabesque, is a current, very popular Kennedy Center showcase of theater and dance, sounds and tastes from over 20 Arab countries. With events taking place over the course of weeks, it is widely seen as a landmark for the representation of Arab culture in the United States. The festival has spawned a flurry of related events. With so...The golden age of Arab music
The period from the 1920s to the 1950s is considered the "golden age" of Egyptian cinema, but it was also a golden age of song in many parts of the Arab world — in particular, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Simon Shaheen Many of these countries' greatest singers and composers reached...
Palestine film festival comes to Ann Arbor
February 28th, 20090 As the latest site of a film festival entirely dedicated to films made in and about Palestine, the upcoming Palestine Film Festival in Ann Arbor is testament to the growing visibility of, and demand for, the Palestinian narrative in the cinematic format. Screenshot from one of the films to be screened at the Ann Arbor Palestine...Movie explores 1982 massacres
A special showing of the critically acclaimed and Academy Award nominated Israeli film "Waltz With Bashir" will be held on Saturday, February 28, at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor. This is perhaps the most highly regarded film to ever come out of Israel. It has already won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best......
Producer hopes film will educate
After its world premiere at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi on January 7, the ground-breaking IMAX film "Journey to Mecca" made its North American debut at the Henry Ford IMAX in Dearborn this past Wednesday, and creator/producer Taran Davies was in town to promote it. Moroccan ambassador to the U.S., Aziz Mekouar, was in town as...Art exhibit to showcase Arab American heritage, struggle
DEARBORN — "Reflections: An Exhibition of Contemporary Arab American Art" is set to open in January to showcase the work of first generation Arab Americans is being prepared at Henry Ford Community College, curated by well-known local artist and professor Hashim Al-Tawil. "The Bleu Line" by artist May Abutaam The......
“Chronicles of a Refugee”
DEARBORN — A screening of the episode three of the documentary film series "Chronicles of a Refugee" is set for Wednesday, Dec.17, 6:30 p.m. at the Arab American National Museum, 13624 Michigan Avenue. "Chronicles of a Refugee" is a six-part documentary series created by Perla Issa, Aseel Mansour and Adam Shapiro looking at the...
Arabic calligraphy explained
December 6th, 20080 Quebec, Canada – Syrian calligrapher Khaled al-Saa’i discussed Arabic calligraphy at a lecture held Nov. 11 at the Galérie Montcalm in Gatineau, Quebec. The same poetic verse ("wounding a dead man does not torment") written in the eight basic types of Arabic calligraphy by Khaled al-Saa'i. From top to bottom: Riq'a,...
Fighting for women’s rights in Yemen through film
November 29th, 20080 Khadija Al-Salami, considered Yemen's first female filmmaker, has made more than 20 documentaries for TV stations in France and Yemen. Her latest documentary is "Amina," which was screened during the Arab Film Festival in October in the San Francisco Bay Area. A film still from the movie "Amina." The film's center is Amina...Museum program nets national award
WASHINGTON — SURA Arts Academy, an Arab American National Museum program that gives Dearborn youth the opportunity to learn and use photography to foster cultural understanding, is being nationally recognized as one of 15 U.S.-based youth arts and humanities programs to receive the prestigious 2008 Coming Up Taller Award.......
Film series will examine Muslim influence
November 8th, 20080 ROCHESTER — A Muslim Film Series at Oakland University begins on Sunday at 2 p.m. The first film set to be screened on Nov. 9 is "Le Grand Voyage," at 156 North Foundation Hall in Rochester. Screenshots from the film "Le Grand Voyage" Directed by Ismael Ferroukhi, the film is about a French-Moroccan patriarch determined to...Shaheen to perform with DSO
DETROIT — Oud virtuoso and composer Simon Shaheen will perform Concerto No.1 for Oud and Orchestra with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and conductor Tito Munoz on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008 at the Max. M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit. Oud virtuoso Simon Shaheen The event is a world premiere of his performance and will feature a......
Boycott group: McCartney embraces Israeli apartheid
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) says it regrets Paul McCartney's insistence on going ahead with his September 25th gig in Israel despite many appeals to him to cancel it due to Israel's crimes against the Palestinians, particularly its current brutally devastating siege of 1.5 million...Arab women artists create “Utopian Visions”
DEARBORN — Have you ever dreamed of a better, more perfect world? The word "utopia" represents a grand vision for an ideal society, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. This imaginative concept reflects the human desire for civic improvement and perfection. In Utopian Visions, running from......