Arab American comedy matures
Arab American comedy is still going strong. And it's not just about post-9/11 anymore. Mizna Arab American Comedy Festival co-producers Mike Mosallam, R, Sonny Mandouh and short film director Mike Eshaq observe as locals audition for roles in theatrical sketches to be performed at the festival in August. Young people...Chantal Chamandy appears in Dearborn
DEARBORN — When singer Chantal Chamandy performed at the base of the Pyramids in Cairo, Egypt with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, she did so with the idea of bringing people together and showcasing Middle Eastern culture in a positive light. Now, for her concert on Thursday, July 3 at the Ford Performing Arts Center, she hopes to...Marching to his own beat
Rock bands are usually no strangers to sorrow, but most of the time, their wounds are self-inflicted. Many documentaries and movies have been made chronicling the hard times rockers and their bands have gone through, whether due to drug and alcohol abuse or other problems. But the short film that Tony Hajjar made is a...Arab culture and Muslim stereotypes
As a professor of anthropology in the United States, I often begin my college lectures on Islamic culture by asking students to write three adjectives to describe Arabs. Most responses include the word terrorists, an association they see and hear in the media. News stories, television shows and movies rarely show Arabs, Iranians,...Restitution of Nazi-looted art eclipsing Afghani cultural restoration
The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is no stranger to Holocaust restitution claims. In a press release dated October 19, 2000, the museum announced a settlement with the family of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe over Corrado Giaquinto's "Adoration of the Magi" (c. 1725), which was sold by a court in Nazi-controlled France. In the release,...
“Our Arab American Story” wins Michigan Emmy
June 13th, 20080 Hundreds of hours of filming and thousand of miles of travel by television producer Keith Famie paid off June 7, when he and his "Our Story" documentary series co-creator Chris Kassel received four Michigan Emmy awards. "Our Arab American Story," which aired on WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) last December, was awarded in the Societal...European hip-hop band debuts at MSA concert
Detroit — Outlandish (Sony/BMG), a popular award-winning European hip-hop band that promotes positive messages to youth in their music, will debut in the USA, and headline the Muslim American Society's Youth concert tour in Detroit on June 14. The concert, which is billed as the "Voices For Change" tour, will make a stop at...Rock star Serj Tankian talks music, politics
As an Armenian-American who was born in Beirut, Serj Tankian never seems to run out of things to sing and write about. Tankian, the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and keyboardist of the multi-platinum American rock band System of a Down, is currently touring as a solo artist in support of his album "Elect the Dead," which peaked at...Second annual Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival
Detroit — The Detroit Women of Color International Film Festival is returning next month for its sophomore run at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, The festival showcases the culturally diverse voices of women through creative motion picture works. DWC celebrates women from African American, Continental...Film documents refugee experience
A new documentary on the Palestinian refugee experience since 1948 is showing in Livonia next week. It is being celebrated as the first of its kind, a must-see for those interested in the Palestinian experience. The Arab American News had a chance to talk with Adam Shapiro, one of its creators. ...Palestinian youth express themselves through hip-hop
SAN FRANCISCO — May 2008 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba – Arabic for catastrophe, the expulsion of the Palestinian people and creation of the state of Israel. However, the Palestinian diaspora decided to commemorate it with a different image: sharing and performing hip-hop. A commemoration concert was recently held here...Kill ’em with comedy
Arab American comedian Meena Dimian DEARBORN — "That is a lot of peach fuzz mustaches," said New York comedian Meena Dimian when someone told him that 90 percent of Fordson High School students are Arab. Dimian performed at the school's auditorium on May 16 with three other Middle Eastern comics. He's part of a...Palestinian scarf takes fashion by storm
Young people in her neighborhood, Harlem, were wearing a checker-patterned cloth with tassels around their necks, like a bandana pulled down off the face. A few even came into her clothing store, Connection One Fashion, which specializes in urban apparel, to ask if she carried them. No one knew their name, and several asked for...Muslim youth try humor to rout stereotypes
NEW YORK (IPS) — "There are almost 1.2 billion Muslim people in the world. And at least 15 of us are not terrorists. It could even be more than that. Maybe even a lot more," quipped Obaida Abdul-rahim, 28, owner of the Muslim t-shirt business Phatwa Factory. The Calgary, Canada-born Abdul-rahim runs one of several Middle...Fashion students at university design abayas
RICHMOND, Va. — The assignment for Virginia Commonwealth University fashion students: design an abaya, an enveloping cloak worn by Muslim women, that is stylish yet acceptable in Arab countries. The results: elaborately beaded designs, a flamenco-influenced abaya, a punk rock abaya — and perhaps a better understanding of cultural......
Don’t miss Sunday’s PBS special
Just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend, PBS Detroit will air "On a Wing and a Prayer," about an American Muslim taking flying lessons, on Sunday afternoon, May 25 at 3:30 p.m. The hour-long documentary traces the improbable dream of a Pakistani-Muslim living in America who pursues his dream to learn to fly in spite of the...From Ugarit to the world
Perhaps it was inevitable that Syrian composer and pianist Malek Jandali would one day find himself in Ugarit, Syria, creating new music for the world out of the world's oldest. Ugarit is a Bronze Age city the ruins of which lie in a large artificial mound called Ras Shamra, six miles north of Latakia on the Mediterranean......
Harold and Kumar offers cheap laughs, light politics, and little else
Just as the movie "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" hit theaters across the country, the reviled American prison camps were in the headlines once again. An Al-Jazeera cameraman detained by the American government in Guantanamo Bay for 7 years was released. The movie, a slapstick comedy, drew large...
Dabke appeals to Westerners, Arabs alike
May 3rd, 20080 TUSCON — Hani Ghaziz has a loud stomp. The dabke instructor stomps his feet forcefully on the ground, kicks his heels forward and pushes them back down on the floor, making the smooth, wooden floorboards shout. He sashays gracefully forward and tip-toes in place, balancing on his left foot while circling his right leg forward....The Visitor: Redeeming images of Arabs
Actor Haaz Sleiman, a Detroit native and co-star of "The Visitor," after a screening of the film in Bloomfield Hills on April 7. Photo: Khalil AlHajal A new semi-mainstream movie in theaters this weekend kills two giant birds with one stone, countering decades of negative imagery associated with Arabs in American...Michigan International Women’s Show opens May 1
NOVI – The 13th annual Michigan International Women's Show rounds up some popular women's favorites at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi Thursday, May 1 through Sunday, May 4. "You and your girlfriends, sisters and moms can enjoy shopping, makeovers, cooking demonstrations, entertainment and much more all in one place,"......
Play explores Pakistani culture
In Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," Baba enthusiastically encourages his son Amir to fly kites and to defend the record he set as a child for cutting down the most opponents' kites in Kabul. But in "Kite on the Wind: A Tale of Pakistan," a collaboration of the Pakistan National Council on the Arts, the Embassy of Pakistan, and...Nothing to laugh at here
Four comedians recently came together in Houston, Texas "to promote peace through comedy" under the banner of the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. However, rather than promoting a just end to the conflict, their material exploits it in a disturbing manner. "We rely on the conflict; peace would ruin our show," co-founder Ray......
Cross-over music good, but lacks anger
One of the most unfortunate drawbacks of the 1979 Iranian Revolution was the suppression of creativity and artistic freedom in the name of Islamic purity, as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini cemented theocratic rule over an increasingly frustrated populace. In recent years, some of the rules governing the purchase of Western pop music and...‘Awraat Exposed’
Rain from F-16 the merciless rocketsU.S. made on Gaza and Deir Al-BalahDates are ripe-day six, on tripsHow many I make to palm treeBring a'saf en-nakhel in green to coverThe dead and how many woundsMust a palm endureAs daflas flowering - not any moreTheir blooms all cutTo honor the dead? A hundred twenty-four killedAmong them......