Arab festivals are popular everywhere, when will Dearborn’s return?
September 8th, 20183 DEARBORN – Between 1995 and 2012, thousands flocked to the capital of Arab America for a taste of their homeland’s culture, where nostalgia for music and food alike would meet their match at the Arab International Festival. It was a kind of celebration one could only experience in a city in which nearly half its residents are of...
Arab American Portland Festival aims to shatter stereotypes, promotes culture
September 7th, 20180 PORTLAND, Oregon — From Algeria to Yemen to Portland, Oregon, it takes a big, big tent at the festival to welcome everyone who's a part of the Arabic culture. Expats, immigrants and tabbouleh lovers from all over gathered for the Arab Mahrajan Festival on Saturday, Sept. 1 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Oaks Amusement Park in Southeast...
‘Kite Runner’ author pens tribute to refugees who die fleeing war
September 5th, 20180 LONDON — “Kite Runner” author Khaled Hosseini urged world leaders to “act with compassion” towards refugees as he launched his new book inspired by a Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Greece. Hosseini said on Wednesday there was a “deeply concerning” shift in attitudes in Europe - where several...
Lana Del Ray cancels Israel festival appearance
September 5th, 20180 Pop singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey has canceled her September 7 appearance at Israel’s Meteor Festival. Del Rey (real name Elizabeth Woolridge Grant) had pulled out of an earlier engagement in 2014. According to Variety Magazine, the entertainment trade paper, “the organizers are said to be livid”, especially since Grant...
The Arab supergirl fighting crime and smashing stereotypes
August 31st, 20180 By Heidi Pullyard A new vigilante supergirl is defying the genre. Emara doesn't wear spandex, skintight leather or masks — instead, she dons a hijab. The first homegrown female Emirati superhero, Emara is gaining attention around the world. By day, she's a typical teenage girl named Moza. By night, her fearless alter...
Yemen’s ancient architecture threatened by war
August 18th, 20180 SANAA — Yemen’s three-year war has taken a heavy toll on Sanaa’s historic Old City, a dense warren of mosques, bath houses and 6,000 mud brick houses, which date from before the 11th century. Part of the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been razed by bombing. Now only rubble and straggly palm trees remain, where...
Fewer Arab films and filmmakers at Traverse City Film Festival, but still impactful
August 3rd, 20180 TRAVERSE CITY – The Traverse City Film Festival, which runs through Aug. 5, will screen more than 100 new and classic films for movie-goers. Five of them will feature Arab filmmakers or stories featuring Arabs. Last year the festival had a “Travel ban sidebar” that featured seven films from countries affected by President...
Arab American stars in new CBS prime-time series
July 28th, 20180 NEW YORK— An Arab American immigrant will play a leading role in the upcoming CBS series “FBI”, created by Dick Wolf — best known for the “Law and Order” franchise. Zeeko Zaki, who plays Agent Omar Adom Zidan in the show, emigrated from Egypt at just 1 month old in 1990. He grew up primarily outside of Philadelphia in...
Hamtramck Historical Museum unveils new mural celebrating city’s diversity
July 21st, 20180 HAMTRAMCK — On Thursday, July 19, the Hamtramck Historical Museum held an official dedication of the “Coming to Hamtramck” mural installed inside the museum’s main gallery walls. The 150-foot-long by 6-foot-high mural was made possible by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council amounting to $15,000. Since Hamtramck's...
Nine Arab rappers feature in Anghami’s first-ever hip-hop cypher
June 23rd, 20180 BEIRUT — In collaboration with nine renowned international Arab rappers and artists, Anghami — the region's premier music streaming platform — launched its first-ever English/Arabic hip-hop cypher on Wednesday. Directed by the platform's hip-hop editor, Hassane Dennaoui — aka Big Hass — the "Anghami Exclusive"...
Egypt hopeful on Salah as fans remain in suspense
June 14th, 20180 CAIRO/YEKATERINBURG ― Egypt coach Hector Cuper said Mohamed Salah had a “great chance” of playing against Uruguay but no decision would be taken until Thursday’s training session as the Pharoahs flew into Yekaterinburg for the start of their World Cup campaign. “I am optimistic that he will be with us, I think he has a great...
Trump calls De Niro ‘very low IQ individual’ for Tony Awards outburst
June 12th, 20180 LOS ANGELES - President Trump on Tuesday hit back at Robert De Niro, calling him a “very low IQ individual,” after the Oscar-winning actor’s expletive-laden attack on the American president on live television. Two days after De Niro’s outburst on the stage of the Tony Awards ceremony in New York, Trump said he had watched the...
Mona Mansour brings fallible Arab American characters to stage
June 8th, 20180 By Hanan Daqqa Fairfax County Times "You never know where something takes you as a writer… you think you want to write about one thing and it leads you to another path." These are the words of Mona Mansour, a Lebanese American playwright who set out to write a play about her father's choice not to go back to...
Survey: 80 percent of American Muslims observe Ramadan by fasting
June 2nd, 20180 The Pew Research Center has found that 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say they observe Ramadan by fasting during daylight hours. More of the U.S.’s 2.15 million Muslim adults say they do this than say that they pray five times a day (42 percent) or attend mosque weekly (43 percent). More Muslim women say they observe Ramadan in this way...
Egypt’s Salah out for up to four weeks
May 30th, 20180 Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah’s shoulder injury will keep him out of action for three to four weeks, Liverpool’s club physio has said, meaning he could miss the World Cup group stage. The 25-year-old is desperate to play for Egypt in only their third World Cup and their first for 28 years but faces a race against time to be......
Thomas Jefferson hosted America’s first Ramadan iftar
May 25th, 20182 The United States’ first iftar took place at the home of the third president. In 1805, the month of Ramadan fell in December. Far from his friends, family and home, one Tunisian man was attempting to observe it in Washington, D.C. This was the statesman Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, who was spending six months in the United States, on...
Netflix spotlights Arab American comedian Mo Amer
May 25th, 20180 By Jen Rice HOUSTON, Texas — Comedian Mo Amer calls Houston home and he’s coming to Austin next month to record his first hour-long Netflix comedy special. He’s been called a pioneer of Arab American standup and he’s toured for years with Dave Chappelle. Amer made international headlines when he was upgraded to a......
Young Arab American on track to becoming a professional author
May 25th, 20180 By Sarah Kominek DEARBORN - Maya Audi, a 15-year-old sophomore at Dearborn High School, has her eyes set on becoming an author. In April 2016, Audi and her mother entered her story “The Raven Gem” in the National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) Big Read Dearborn, hosted by the Dearborn Public Library. In partnership with...
U.S. returns thousands of smuggled ancient artifacts to Iraq
May 2nd, 20180 WASHINGTON - About 3,800 artifacts, including Sumerian cuneiform tablets dating to 2100 B.C., that were illegally smuggled to retailer Hobby Lobby Stores Inc were returned to Iraqi officials in Washington on Wednesday, according to Reuters. U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials signed over the artifacts to Iraqi Ambassador...
Arab American actor lands role on HBO’s ‘Westworld’
April 23rd, 20180 LOS ANGELES — Boualem Hassaine has always loved acting. He would stand in front of the mirror and practice as a child for hours. All that practice has led to roles in "American Sniper", "The Accountant" and most recently, HBO's "Westworld." Hassaine, who primarily grew up in Algeria, now lives in Litchfield Park, Arizona, a suburb...
Student groups at U of M, MSU and EMU join forces to host PALIFEST
April 6th, 20180 By Farah Harb The Arab American News ANN ARBOR – On Saturday, March 31, the University of Michigan’s Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), in conjunction with Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ) at both Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University, hosted PALIFEST — A celebration of......
Palestinian filmmaker wins at Ann Arbor Film Festival
April 6th, 20180 ANN ARBOR – Filmmaker and media artist Razan AlSalah has enjoyed presenting content in a performative way since her primary schooling while growing up in Beirut, Lebanon. On March 25, AlSalah won the Barbara Aronofsky Award for an Emerging Experimental Video Artist at the 56th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Her short film, “Your...
Local director’s short film ‘Detroit Diamond’ set to compete for Academy Award nomination
March 30th, 20180 DETROIT – On Thursday, April 5, local filmmaker Mohamed “Hamoody” Jaafar’s “Detroit Diamond” will make its world premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival, an Academy Award qualifying festival. “Detroit Diamond” follows a young single mother attempting to regain custody of her child from the state, despite......
Detroit Film Theatre screens Palestinian move, ‘In Between’
March 23rd, 20180 DETROIT — The Detroit Film Theatre held five screenings of Maysaloun Hamoud's first feature film, "In Between (Bar Bahar)", over the weekend of March 16. The film follows three Palestinian women as they share an apartment in Tel Aviv. Elliot Wilhelm, the curator of the Detroit Film Theatre since 1974, said he thought the audiences...
Framing humanity: How an art student’s trip to Lebanon turned into an award-winning project
March 16th, 20180 DEARBORN — A young Syrian refugee girl had no idea when she was selling gum on the streets of Beirut, but the cryptic expression of fear and confidence on her face would become part of a visual story of struggle that aims to connect everyone with a story to tell. Mayssa Fakih, a 17-year-old art student at Mercy High School, an......
