Can you believe it?!

We are just starting our 12th year serving greater Los Angeles. Don Heckman wrote the first LA Times article about us, positively reviewing our first public program, in a Calendar review published June 25, 2001. (We received another thumbs-up review in December 2001 by theatre critic Don Shirley and many more LA Times articles since.) 

The Levantine Cultural Center has canceled the Charming Hostess concert this evening and will reschedule for a future date. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please watch our website for future dates.

Charming Hostess is a music ensemble exploring the intersection of text, space, and diaspora consciousness. Recent immersive installation work includes The Bowls Project, on Babylonian amulets (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts); HEAVENSHOW, on letters and breath (Contemporary Jewish Museum); and Teraphim, on the joys of idolatry (Meridian Gallery). Their music has been curated into the Prague Bienalle and the Museum of Peace in Uzbekistan. Visit the web site.

"'Arabesque' was out of this world amazing. We enjoyed it very much and can't wait for the encore." —Laila El-Hajoui 

"Great event at the Levantine Cultural Center Saturday night...the music took my soul on a beautiful journey." —Nancy Tedder 

The Levantine Cultural Center presents an encore performance of "Arabesque" with Al-Fareed of Radio Al-Fareed, AKA Alfred Madain and a group of musicians, the band calling itself Bedouin X. The band members are David Markowitz, Timothy Maloof and David Martinielli. Special guest artist visiting from Tunisia, Jamel Eddine Boukraa.

"A Grand Souk Festival" will feature activities for adults and children on Sunday, May 19th at El Rancho Cordillera del Norte in Northridge from 11:30 am until 5:00 pm. This open air bazaar of arts and culture is a culminating celebration of the Big Read Program through the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. This Valley celebration is sponsored by The Museum of the San Fernando Valley, a participant in this year's Big Read Program, along with the Levantine Cultural Center.

[Los Angeles-MAY 1, 2013] On Friday, May 17, progressive comedienne/actor and activist Roseanne Barr presents "Mideast Masters of Jazz," a progressive be-bop quintet starring sax maniacs Gilad Atzmon and Zane Musa, performing together LIVE for the first time. The event will be hosted at The Mint in Los Angeles, accompanied by some of the best be-bop musicians in Los Angeles. To be sure, jazz as well as rock, heavy metal, hip hop and blues are all-American music originals, but they are genres that are constantly being challenged and reinvented by swingers in the Middle East-by composers, singer-songwriters and musicians who are both natively Middle Eastern but strongly western in their tastes and travels.

Levantine presents the Abbas Premjee Project, a concert of progressive Pakistani jazz in conjunction with the Inside/Outside Gallery exhibition "The Art of Music" by Adnan Hussain. The exhibition of 19 paintings is inspired by travels through Central and South Asia, featuring watercolor, gouache and ink pieces of music from Kyrgyzstan, Uyghurs from China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Enjoy art and live performance in a unique atmosphere.

By Jordan Elgrably

Recently, I had the rare pleasure of experiencing Monajat—a concert by the American Iranian Jewish singer, composer and cultural anthropologist Galeet Dardashti. Monajat took place on the campus of UCLA, in the Fowler Museum's Lenoir Auditorium. It was an unexpected fusion of Persian classical singing, piyutim (Hebrew spiritual chanting in a poetic mode), Arab and Persian instrumentation, and jazz-like jamming. The concert was bathed in video projections (prepared by Dmitry Kmelnitsky and Lustre) behind the musicians and on two sides of the audience. The immersion in Iranian and Jewish culture—and Arab and American world music culture—was total.

Rock, metal, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz and blues are all-American music originals, but they are genres that are constantly being challenged and reinvented by swingers in the Middle East—by singer-songwriters and musicians who are both natively Middle Eastern but strongly western in their tastes and travels. Turkey spans the European and Asian continents and is a bridge culture between east and west. Kutsal is an Istanbul, Turkey born-and-educated rocker with four recordings to her credit, and Band Twenty7 is a top indie band; both Kutsal and Twenty7 rock the house singing in both English and Turkish. This is one in a new series, "The Middle East Rocks," and is a collaboration between the Levantine Cultural Center and The Mint—LevantineMint. Tickets are $12 or $15 at the door, available now online.