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We welcome submissions of short articles, essays, stories, news items and photos for publication in the Levantine newsletter. Please send your queries to the editor.
Click here for Afghan concert, Sufi seminar and Al Karisma concert
FEATURE ARTICLE
GO FLY A KITE:
Palestinians and Israelis Prepare to Fly 10,000 Kites Over the Wall
By Yael Samuel
It all started with a simple yet daring idea: 10,000 Israelis and Palestinians flying 10,000 Kites on both sides of the controversial 36-foot high, 500-kilometer long wall that separates them. Two artists, an Israeli and a Palestinian, came up with the idea last July after hearing about a child flying a kite amidst the rubble of his war-torn neighborhood.
Since then, 10,000 Kites has become the largest scale art for peace project ever to take place in the Middle East.
The ongoing violence has painted a picture of hopelessness and despair, but more than 80 Israeli, Israeli-Arab, and Palestinian organizations and communities are in the process of painting a very different picture: the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and visions of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who desperately want peace. They are planning to fly the 10,000 kites with their messages of peace in more than 50 locations on both sides of the separation wall at the same hour on the same day in spring 2005.
“10,000 Kites represents something that ignites the imagination in a different way for Israelis and Palestinians,” says Israeli artist Adi Yekutieli, one of the two 10,000 Kites visionaries and artistic director of The Association for Arts in the Community and Cross-Cultural Dialog, established in 1998 by Israeli and Palestinian artists and educators to encourage dialogue through mutual artistic creations.
“We have been at war for so many years, that peace seems obscure and abstract. 10,000 Kites provides an image, a primary one, to build peace on.”
Yekutieli’s colleague, Bethlehem sculptor George Nustas, adds, “It is the process that has meaning, and the process is making a difference.”
Yekutieli and Nustas are facilitating the joint Israeli-Palestinian venture to create and manufacture the kites, as well as the painting of the kites by Israeli and Palestinian families. It is multi-dimensional in its elements: art, community, grass roots, and education.
“For some it may be about art, for others politics or an expression of emotion,” says Yekutieli. “All are valid.”Initially, the project was scheduled for November 2004, but as word caught on about 10,000 Kites, the scope of it grew, and more time was needed to plan the event. And as the scope of it grew, so did the cost of flying the kites. Yekutieli came up with a budget of $250,00, with half that needed by the end of December 2004, the target date to begin work in the Israeli and Palestinian communities.
Yekutieli contacted friends in California to raise seed money for the project. The response was overwhelming, and plans were soon made to introduce 10,000 Kites at a December 2nd fundraising dinner at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles and for multiple community events to raise money and for local communities to make and fly kites in solidarity.
Getting the kites off the ground is just the beginning. 10,000 Kites plans to put the messages of hope into action with educational programs to promote ongoing dialogue; a documentary film for widespread exposure; murals and billboards to visually reinforce the desire for peace; and by creating a growing community of Israelis and Palestinians whose collective call for peace will be heard around the world.
“The settlers and those committed to violence have been very effective in communicating their message to the public,” says Yekutieli. “Such groups have very little understanding of what peace could translate into. The importance of 10,000 Kites is that it is entering that public arena.”
And enter it has. 10,000 Kites has taken Los Angeles by storm. More than 260 guests signed up for a $350-a-person fundraiser in December, and hundreds more are buying and wearing 10,000 Kites’ yellow enamel kite pin that sells for $25.
Skeptics have raised questions, such as, will the kites really fly, and will this really make a difference?
According to Yekutieli, the kites will fly, and the difference is already being made. “What we have been doing in the past few months is the thing itself already.”Yael Samuel is a Santa Monica writer and Executive Director of 10,000 Kites.
Culture News
Jan. 15 (Sat.), 7:00 pm/Jan. 16 (Sun.) 3 pm—Ustad Farida Mahwash Performs Afghan Concerts at the Getty
Sounds of LA, the Getty's free weekend performance series exploring Los Angeles' rich musical heritage, launches its seventh season with an eclectic mix of music by master musicians as well as the next generation of culture bearers.
The 1960s and 70s are remembered as the golden age of Afghan music. It was the heyday of Radio Afghanistan, Kabul was a cultural center, and powerhouse vocalist Ustad Farida Mahwash was the voice of the times. Sounds of LA 2005 opens with the legendary singer who has devoted her life to sharing traditional Afghan music and culture. With characteristic Indian influences, the music ranges from elegant classical melodies to ecstatic festival songs. Click here for more info on Ustad Farida Mahwash.
Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Free to the public, with reservations, limit four seats per reservation. For tickets call 310.440.7300.
Jan 22 (Sat.) 10 am-5pm—A Sufi Seminar: "The Alchemy of Happiness"
This day-long event features "dances of universal peace, breathing practices, visualization, chanting, meditation, discourses and poetry," according to its organizers.
A day of immersion in the ocean of spiritual practices given by the Sufis to awaken the heart, with particular emphasis on the stream of blessings brought by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Murshid Samuel L. Lewis and Mevlana Rumi. Presented by Rev. Tasnim Hermila Fernandez, Senior teacher, Sufi Order International, Co-founder of the, International Network for Dances of Universal Peace, Interfaith Minister, Director of the Church of All in Burbank.
10am–5pm, $40, pre-registration required. Burbank workshop space is limited. Email Rev. Tasnim or Waliya for further info, or call 818.841.3246 or 310.575.1972.
Jan. 22 (Sat.) 8-11 pm—Al Karisma Live in Venice
Levantine Cultural Center & Souhail Kaspar's Neareastmusic.com present:
Al Karisma, an ensemble featuring the Grooves of Andalusia, Arabia & North Africa.
:: Open Dancing • Optional Traditional Dress Encouraged • Open Bar with Lively Reception & Middle Eastern Jewelry Vendors 8-9 pm • Full Show 9 to 11 pm ::
This refreshing quintet brings together visiting master musician from Morocco, Rachid Halihal, with master percussionist Souhail Kaspar for an evening of inspired music and song.
The first half of the program presents vibrant grooves from the Golden Era of Arabic music with vocal and instrumental selections including the likes of Oum Kolthoum, Mohamed Abdul Wahab, and the Rahbani brothers. The second half of the program will present a variety of different styles of music from Morocco and North Africa, including "ala" or music of Andalusia. Features visiting master musician from Morocco, Rachid Halihal on oud, violin and vocals; master percussionist Souhail Kaspar; Kylie Faint on kanun; Chakib Hilali on oud, percussion and ney; and Bahia Sultan on percussion.
For full bios and to purchase advance tickets, click here. Or call 310.559.5544 during office hours. Seating limited, advance purchase recommended online, or get your tickets at the door (cash only please).
Tickets $20 preferred seating (includes one drink), or $15 general admission.
Location: Venice United Methodist Church, 1020 Victoria Ave. at Lincoln Blvd., Venice 90291.
Click here for map. Street parking. For full details, click here.
Entertainment translation company seeks native speakers to translate Kurdish, Hebrew and Turkish into English.
Contact Liane Schirmer at
IN OTHER WORDS (mention Levantine Center). 323.697.8130 Off/Cell or
www.iowtrans.com
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About the Center
evantine Cultural Center was founded in the summer of 2001 by four Middle Eastern Americans, who recognized through their own friendships and professional relationships with others of Mideast descent that we share much in common—no matter what our family religion, or our politics.
We all live in the U.S., while our families sometimes have long histories in the Middle East, sometimes going back hundreds of years. We have an affinity for artistic expression in music, literature, film, painting, sculpture and new media. We all wish to see more peace, justice and democracy flourish in the Mideast, and we support the arts as well as humanitarian causes here at home as well as abroad.
Our objective is to raise American consciousness with regard to the artistic and intellectual achievements of people of Mideast heritage, whether still living in the region, or in diaspora in the U.S., Europe or elsewhere. To have maximum effect and extend our reach beyond our current audiences (over 50,000 people a month visit our website, and nearly two thousand are on our listserv), we need you to become active suppporters of Levantine Cultural Center. Take out membership today; become a program sponsor; or volunteer! Call us at 310.559.5544 for more information.
We look forward to 2005 being a banner year in terms of advancing the center's development. Our longterm objective is to build a groundswell of support, much the way the Paris landmark Institute du Monde Arab (IMA) did in the late '80s and early '90s. In fact, it took the founders of IMA 13 years to raise the millions they needed to construct their nine-story, state-of-the-art building on the Left Bank.
It took the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles 20 years to raise $50 milion to construct the complex they now occcupy off the 405.
Our doable goal in 2005 is to move into our own building, and begin a capital campaign to raise millions over the next five years, so that we will have managed to construct the first premiere arts complex anywhere in the West devoted to cultures of the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Please become an active supporter, joining dozens of board members, volunteers, advisory board members as we put our shoulders to the grindstone over the coming months. This year, we seek a new five-year home, where we can save for the future while continuing to make the present an enriching experience of cultural exploration for the city of Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Then we will begin the hard development work of a capital campaign.
Be sure to tell your friends about us, and we hope to see you on Jan. 22 for Al Karisma.
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Copyright © 2005 Levantine Cultural Center
editor@levantinecenter.org