Event Details

Date/Time: 

Feb 16 2010 3:00pm - Feb 28 2010 6:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public. Regular center hours through Feb. 28, Monday-Friday,
10 am-6 pm and by appointment

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
street parking

East/West CONVERGENCES features artists from Syria and Lebanon and highlights the eloquence and interconnectedness of Arab and Western cultures. Exhibit runs through February 28, 2010.

East/West Convergences: work by Kinda Hibrawi and Nouha Sinno

Levantine Cultural Center presents "East/West Convergences" at its Inside/OutsideGallery January 29-February 28, 2010. The exhibition is dedicated to the exploration of the convergences between eastern and western cultures, and features the artists Kinda Hibrawi (Syria) and Nouha Sinno (Lebanon), who both use Arabic calligraphy in their art, albeit in contrasting styles. Hibrawi's new series is entitled "Dear Mr. Gibran" and is dedicated to the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran who spent much of his life living in the west, and who wrote The Prophet—a book revered by western and Arab/Muslim readers alike. Sinno's use of Arabic from the Koran celebrates the universal language of peace. But what does the American eye see when it scans eastern calligraphy? To westerners, writing in Arabic or Farsi may seem strange, unfamiliar and perhaps even disquieting. Yet, unbeknownst to most of us, the Roman alphabet has its roots in the ornate calligraphy of the Arabic language. Another convergence often forgotten in the west is that it was the intellectual ferment of the Middle Ages in Spain amongst Arabs, Jews and Christians, during the period known as Al-Andalus, that led to the Enlightenment.

The opening reception included two young Arab American poets, May Alhassen (Syria) and Dima Hilal (Lebanon). Their bios follow. The closing reception takes place on Friday, February 26, 7-10 pm.

DETAILS: Mankind's earliest known alphabet was North Semitic, which developed around 1700 BC in ancient Palestine and Syria. Consisting of 22 consonant letters, Arabic, Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets were based on this model. Around 1000 BC the Phoenician alphabet was the model for the Greeks, who added letters for vowels, and Greek in turn became the model for Etruscan around 800 BC, and from Etruscan evolved the letters of the ancient Roman alphabet, and ultimately all western alphabets. The period known as the Golden Age or Al-Andalus in Spain in the Middle Ages was a period of cross-pollination of the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Centuries of intellectual ferment amongst the three faiths led to scholarship and translations of philosophical, religious and mathematic texts that directly correlated to the dawn of the Enlightenment in Europe.

ARTIST BIOS:
Nouha Sinno

After she left her career as an interior designer, Nouha Sinno set off on a journey of self-discovery that began with a desire for free expression, unrestricted by any boundaries. She had always been taken by the enchanting concept of Arabic language as art, and as a result her work is a reflection of her years contemplating the visual beauty of Arabic culture, from Islamic tiles and geometry to architectural motifs and calligraphy. Her art pays tribute to her love for the language. "I am grateful," she says, "for the rich legacy of beauty and elegance that is the Arabic alphabet." This collection of her work is reveals intricate lines and colors that coalesce into abstract rendition of Arabic words and their meaning. Her rich compositions speak of her memories as an Arab Muslim woman, born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, where she graduated from the Lebanese University of Fine Art as an interior designer. She worked as such in her country before she moved to Southern California in 1984, escaping the civil war there. Nouha Sinno has participated in several group shows in Beirut, Bahrain, Seattle and Los Angeles.

Kinda Hibrawi

Kinda Hibrawi's artwork is a passionate journey of femininity, spirituality and cultural convergence. Of Syrian heritage, she grew up between Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and the United States. Through her studies she began to expand on the ancient tradition of Arabic calligraphy by giving it a modern twist. As an Arab American, she felt the need for her artwork to reflect the richness of the Middle East coupled with Western diversity. Hibrawi's original work is sought by collectors worldwide and has been exhibited in galleries across the US as well as in the permanent collection of the Arab American Museum. Her 2007 solo exhibition in Washington DC drew acclaim, and she was named "an artistic ambassador" by Arab News. In 2008, her paintings were selected by the Artists in Embassies Program for Ambassador Kurt Volker, the U.S. Representative to NATO. As an artistic ambassador she lectures on her work nationwide. Recently she was invited to speak at the School of Visual Fine Arts in New York City. Hibrawi runs a portrait studio MyPopArt.com in California and hopes to continue bridging cultural misunderstandings between Arabs and Americans through her artwork. She is currently represented by AyseTurgut in New York and the Chiarini Gallery in California. Visit her site.

Dima Hilal

Dima Hilal is a poet and writer, born in Beirut and raised in California, where she studied at the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has appeared in various publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Orion literary journal, Aramco, The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, edited by Nathalie Handal (Interlink Books, 2001) and Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab and Arab American Women on Writing, edited by Susan Muaddi Darraj (Praeger, 2004). Her numerous readings include radio appearances on KPFA, KXLU and KPFK. She has been featured at the Beyond Baroque Cultural Center, World Stage, Levantine Cultural Center, Autry Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has been invited to lecture and read at venues such as UC Berkeley, the Association of Writers and Writing Program's Annual Conferences and the Alexandria Library in Egypt. Last year, her libretto, Raheel, was a finalist in the Oakland East Bay Symphony's Words and Music Project. Hilal currently resides in Dana Point, California where she is working on a collection of poetry. Visit her site.

May Alhassen

May Alhassen is a performer and organizer for the Hijabi Monologues. She co-hosts the television show "What's Happening." May received her BA in Political Science and Arabic and Islamic Studies and later her MA in socio-cultural anthropology from Columbia University, where she did research for the Malcolm X Project. She has facilitated creative literacy workshops with incarcerated youth at Rikers Island, where she helped organize a Hip Hop Film Festival in the prison's high school and wrote an introduction for "One Mic," an anthology of the students' art and poetry. Currently a doctoral student of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, May finds it of the greatest importance to bridge her worlds of community, social justice, academia and the arts in the process of authentic self-revealing; actively practicing love as first impulse; and orienting herself toward pleasing God.