Levantine
Cultural Center's Public Programs Emphasize Bridge Building
and Coexistence
staff report
 |
|
Peter
Cole at Levantine Center
|
Levantine Cultural Center was established during the summer of 2001 with
the vision of creating a permanent landmark Middle Eastern
arts center in Southern California—a project that
requires a capital campaign and many millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, for the past six and a half years, Levantine
founders and board members have focused on establishing
the center's identity, as an initiative that practices
coexistence and community-building, using the arts as
a gateway to greater understanding of the Arab/Muslim
world.
The public programs offered by the center during March
2008 were a prime example of why Levantine Cultural Center
continues to answer the needs of a post-9/11 world where
cross-cultural dialogue is essential.
On March 9, 2008, poet and translator Peter Cole gave
a talk on "Al-Andalus to Jerusalem: A Poetry Tour
From Andalusia to Modern Israel/Palestine." The tour
highlighted the historical parallels and common journey
of poets writing in Arabic and Hebrew from Spain to contemporary
Israel and Palestine.
Peter Cole is one of the most prolific and lauded translators
of both Arabic and Hebrew poets. In 2007 he received the
coveted MacArthur
Fellowship (nicknamed the "genius grant"),
awarded to individuals who "show exceptional merit
and promise for continued and enhanced creative work."
Using literary examples from classical Andalusian and
contemporary Hebrew and Palestinian poetry, he discussed
the cross-cultural world of medieval Spain and connected
it with the contemporary poetic traditions of such poets
as Aharon Shabtai and Taha Muhammad Ali. He drew from
his new book The Dream of the Poem, in which he
describes how Hebrew culture experienced a renewal in
medieval Spain that produced what is arguably the most
powerful body of Jewish poetry written since the Bible.
Fusing elements of East and West, Arabic and Hebrew, the
particular and the universal, the poetry discussed in
The Dream of the Poem and in Cole's seminar embodied
an extraordinary sensuality and intense faith that transcend
the limits of language, place, and time.
 |
|
|
On March 19, 2008, with Mediators Beyond Borders, Levantine
Cultural Center presented "Foreign Exchanges: A Mirror
Image of You," which discussed the issues raised
by the documentary film "To Die In Jerusalem."
In 2002, two teens, one Palestinian and the other Jewish,
were both killed when the Palestinian youth detonated
herself at a market place in Jerusalem. To Die in Jerusalem
follows the teens’ mothers, one living in Gaza, the
other in Jerusalem, as an effort is made to have them
meet face-to-face towards reconciliation. Their meeting
erupts into chaos and once again conflict remains entrenched.
Mediator Ken Cloke, artist and mediator Dorit Cypis and
Joumana Silyan-Saba, who is a Policy Advisor to City of
Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, presented a critical
unwinding of this film and guided discussions among 100
people in the audience, encouraging everyone to imagine
what successful reconciliation could look like in the
Middle East. They brought their combined professional
backgrounds in mediation, art and human relations to imagine
a sequel to this film, elaborating on how mediation, aesthetics
and cultural understanding can design a process of conflict
transformation. Excerpts of the film were screened along
with critical observations.
 |
On
March 22, 2008, the center presented The
Art of Resistance 2: Arabs, Blacks & Jews Culture
Jam.
A multidisciplinary evening of music, poetry, theatre,
discussion and more, "The Art of Resistance"
provided an artistic and intellectual forum for participants
and audience members to think about alternatives to the
existing master narrative, and to see/hear how Black,
Arab and Jewish artists and writers "resist"
our status quo of received ideas. "The Art of Resistance"
was copresented by Levantine Cultural Center and the international
literary journal The
Truth About the Fact, and was co-produced and co-hosted
by African American author Michael Datcher, editor of
The Truth About The Fact: An International Journal
of Literary Nonfiction based at LMU, where he teaches
in the English Department; and Arab Jewish writer Jordan
Elgrably, who heads up the Levantine Cultural Center in
Los Angeles, which has explored contemporary arts/cultures
of North Africa and the Middle East, building bridges
to peace since 2001.
Guest artists include actors Roger Guenveur Smith and
Mark Broyard, poets Peter Harris and Rachel Kahn, and
the hip hop crew Chutzpah, along with author/LMU professor
Darnise Martin and Palestinian activist Vivien Sansour.
There was a musical performance by Nailah.
The program was cosponsored by CODEPINK:
Women for Peace and The
Whole 9. KPFK
90.7 FM was the media sponsor.
 |
On
March 29, 2008, the center presented Artists
for Baghdad: Memorial for Mutanabbi Street with the
Newport Beach Library. On March 5, 2007, a bomb exploded
on Mutanabbi Street, the bustling center of Baghdad bookselling,
filled with lively bookstores, cafés and book stalls.
30 people were killed, more than 100 wounded. This program
brought together about 200 audience members and was covered
by the Daily
Pilot with a story that appeared the following day
entitled "Artists Pay Tribute to Culture From Iraqi
Capital."
 |
The
afternoon featured a musical performance by the Saadoun
Al-Bayati Ensemble and readings by poets by Beau Beausoleil,
Michael Datcher, Sesshu Foster, Sam Hamod, Dima Hilal,
Janet Sternberg and Carina Topal. Artist/writer Doris
Bittar presented her 4-minute animated video exploring
her relationship to her mother's Arab culture through
embroidery. A short documentary about Mutanabbi Street
followed the readings and the program concluded with a
lavish Middle Eastern buffet offered by Baghdad native
Suad Brandt.
Orange County resident Megan Doherty wrote afterwards
that the experience so inspired her that she sat down
and produced a poem about it. "The event yesterday
was breathtaking," she wrote. "It was truly
my first exposure to seeing the eye of the hurricane.
Thank you for all your efforts at making the day a success...
"I am a poet, sometimes referred to as an overripe
'beat poet' and activist here behind the 'Orange Curtain.'
The event so touched my heart that I was up at 4:00 a.m.
this morning at my computer. I've attached a poem which
I wrote to commemorate the occasion. It worked its way
thru to my consciousness and I wish to present it to you.
Peace,
Megan M. Doherty
March 30, 2008
Dedicated to the bearers
of Mutanabbi Street we sit
audiencing the
library’s auditorium
sounds clash with
drum beat rolls
cast cries from pits
pits too deep to dare
to see the small coffin dedicated
its remains to hear the cries
of pages turned, burned
for a son a brother
a baby I see our faces the rows of
faces capturing the rain between tears
a former
of a former time it is to see the
faces for a moment freed to the drums
of the drums to clapping hands from Morocco
or Lebanon to Iraq or beyond to hold
the beat of a book
a baby
a boy
a beloved once more
to home
a bomb that was
once more
only once more.
If
you would like to bring any of these programs to your
community, contact Levantine Cultural Center, 310.657.5511.
Mideast
Arts/Cultures 
