Art & Culture
Art & Culture
Immigrant launches reading series to celebrate culture and language
June 30th, 20170 HAMTRAMCK — Haiti-born graduate student Stephanie Jean will be launching her new reading series in one of Michigan's main immigrant cities, Hamtramck, on July 6 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Aladdin Sweets and Café. Jean moved to the U.S. from Haiti twenty years ago and has been a Michigan resident for two years now--- attending Wayne...
First Institute of Arab and Islamic Art opens in New York
June 12th, 20170 NEW YORK — The city of New York had no institute to showcase the modern and contemporary art of Arab and Muslim artists. But, that changed this May when the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art opened with a four-woman show of work by Dana Awartani, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Zarina and Nasreen Mohamedi. For now, it is temporarily...
Lebanese ministry bans ‘Wonder Woman’ film over Israeli actress
June 2nd, 20170 Lebanon's Interior Ministry banned the new "Wonder Woman" film from cinemas on Wednesday because an Israeli actress plays the lead role, a ministry source and a security official said. Lebanon considers Israel an enemy country and the Ministry of Economy and Trade oversees a boycott of any business transactions concerning...
Saudi artist reflects the unspeakable through works, exhibitions
June 2nd, 20170 RIYADH — Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem spent years pursuing his passion on the side, working a government job as a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army. Like his art suggests, he, too, is a diasporic duality of conflicting cultures, identities and ideas. "I went into the army because it was hard to be an artist at the...
Fashion journalist breaks barriers to benefit Syrian refugees
May 26th, 20170 BIRMINGHAM — Born to a Lebanese mother and Palestinian father in Dearborn, fashion journalist Hoda Salameh Winkler had already broken down barriers— by having two different ethnicities. Yet, the concept doesn't only revolve around her identity. She also uses her eye for style to send a deeper message that promotes peace, social...
Dearborn pastry chef makes national culinary semifinals
May 26th, 20173 DEARBORN — For five years, Eater, a popular online magazine for foodies and restaurant obsessives, has been on the hunt for the best and brightest in the industry. The publication holds an annual Young Guns competition that features rising stars under 30 or those who have less than five years' of experience, but "exhibit the...
Arab artist debuts first solo show at Los Angeles museum
May 5th, 20171 LOS ANGELES — The first solo U.S. show by Saudi Arabian artist Abdulnasser Gharem is currently underway at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) through July 2. The artist, who was also a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army, is known for his political and social artwork that interlaces with his Muslim heritage. The...
Iraqi artist recreates ancient works destroyed by ISIS
April 21st, 20170 ERBIL — As Iraqi forces fight to retake the northern city of Mosul from ISIS, an artist in nearby Erbil is chiseling at clay in a tiny, unheated studio to recreate historic Assyrian monuments destroyed by the group. Ninos Thabet, an 18-year-old Christian who studied art at Mosul University, is creating miniature replicas of statues...
Chinese artist calls on Arab world’s richest country to take in Syrian refugees
April 21st, 20170 DOHA, Qatar — Chinese artist Ai Weiwei called on wealthy Gulf Arab states to take in more Syrians displaced by six years of civil war, saying the surge of refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East was a "test for humanity." Ai, often described as China's most high-profile artist and dissident, has won acclaim for artwork...
Literary journal ‘Mizna’ proves Arab art is timely and alive
April 21st, 20170 TWIN CITIES, MN — Since its inception in 1999, the literary journal Mizna has been a platform for the arts and free expression of a multitude of writers and artists from an Arab and Arab American nexus. The journal, published by Mizna.org, a non-profit arts organization that promotes contemporary expressions of Arab American...
Sesame Street welcomes first autistic Muppet
April 14th, 20170 Long-running children's television show "Sesame Street" welcomed a new kid to the block — a Muppet with autism called Julia. A redhead who loves to sing and remembers the words to lots of songs, Julia debuted on the show for preschoolers on April 10 after a five-year outreach effort to families and experts on autism, Sesame...
Arab American author tells stories from the intersection between cultures
April 14th, 20170 BALTIMORE —Author Susan Muaddi Darraj intersects her identities as a Palestinian and as an American to tell stories from the "third space— the space between two cultures" that ultimately shapes the characters involved in her tales. According to Darraj, there are so many stories that could be told about the Palestinian immigrant...
Pepsi commercial underplays recent protests
April 8th, 20170 Pepsi's new ad featuring Kendall Jenner prompted Twitter users to howl outrage on Wednesday, with civil rights advocates saying it trivialized recent street unrest across the United States. The ad, released late on Tuesday, shows Jenner, a model and reality TV star, in a photo shoot when she notices a protest march passing by her...
Syrian American woman debuts rap video about hijab
April 8th, 20170 FLINT— A Syrian American poet and activist from Flint Township debuted her first rap music video, “Hijabi”, in an effort to shatter stereotypes about hijabis on Muslim Women’s Day. The new hijabi artist, Mona Haydar, 28, filmed it at the Arab American National Museum when she was eight months pregnant. She said that...
Bluesman Eric Bibb: From Syria to Detroit, we are all migrants
April 2nd, 20170 LONDON- "Migration Blues", a new album from veteran bluesman Eric Bibb, uses the sounds of the American South to tell the tale of everyone from 1920s farmers fleeing the Dust Bowl for California to refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe in the 2010s. Along the way are Mexicans seeking a future in the United States, families......
Arab American storytellers share personal narratives
March 24th, 20170 DEARBORN—On Saturday, March 18, The Arab American National Museum held a storytelling event called "Hikayat: Personal Narratives from a Cultural Perspective" from 7 to 9 p.m. Some of the most successful and talented Arab Americans in the country shared their stories. The Palestinians Podcast, a platform that aims to bring the...
Restoration work completed on Jesus’ tomb site in Jerusalem
March 24th, 20170 JERUSALEM— A team of scientists and restorers has completed work on the purported site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem's Old City. The tomb was re-opened to the public on Wednesday. Many Christians believe Jesus' body was buried at what became the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The group has worked for the past nine months at...
Destroyed by ISIS, Iraq’s ancient winged bull to rise again in London
March 24th, 20170 LONDON— An ancient Assyrian winged bull sculpture destroyed by ISIS in 2015 is to be remade from empty Iraqi date syrup cans and displayed in Trafalgar Square in London. The work by U.S. artist Michael Rakowitz has won the next commission for the square's unoccupied Fourth Plinth, upon which a series of 11 new artworks have been...
Get your own facts, Palestinian artist Samia Halaby advises
March 17th, 20170 Palestinian painter Samia Halaby has blunt advice for aspiring Arab artists — get your inspiration firsthand, whether from ordinary people or historical documents, avoiding the "lies" of the media. Halaby, who made her name with abstract paintings, drew on both kinds of source for her most overtly political project, a series of......
Statue of girl stares down Wallstreet’s bull in defiance on Women’s Day eve
March 10th, 20170 As many American women prepare to draw attention to their role in the workplace, a Wall Street firm on Tuesday put up a statue of a girl in front of Lower Manhattan's well-known bronze charging bull, as if to fearlessly stare it down. Placing the diminutive, grade school-aged girl in front of the massive bull on the eve of...
Chicago based artist combines Eastern and Western motifs
March 10th, 20170 CHICAGO-Chicago-based artist Zeinab Saab looks to Islamic art to develop an intricate patchwork in a Western nexus. With finesse, precision and passion, she draws together a narrative through imagery that she describes as “having both feet in two rivers.” A Fordson High School graduate originally displaying a penchant for......
State Department tweets, then deletes congratulations to Iranian Oscar winner
March 6th, 20170 Washington, DC - On Monday, the U.S. State Department issued and then deleted a congratulatory message for an Oscar win by a prominent Iranian director who criticized President Trump's travel ban as "inhumane." The State Department's official Persian-language Twitter account, @USAdarFarsi, tweeted congratulations to the Iranian...
Mahershala Ali makes history as first Muslim actor to win Oscar
March 6th, 20170 Los Angeles - Mahershala Ali made history as the first Muslim actor to win an academy award. He won the best supporting actor Oscar on Sunday for his role as a drug-dealing mentor to an impoverished Black boy in the intimate independent drama "Moonlight." Ali, 43, plays Juan, a drug dealer who takes a young Black boy living in......
