How We Live at the Casitas StudiosSays photographer Sara Anjargolian: "'Are these photographs going to make a di

Ordinary Lives: your purchase benefits in part LCC (click image to buy)Re

Golnaz Family Reunion, Tehran to LAX: Photos by Shelley Gazin (NFS); All Rights ReservedLevantine Cultural Center's Inside/Outside Gallery presents a roster of six artists in "Artists for Iran," a celebration of the arts and human rights.

Combining cultural diplomacy and human rights, "Artists for Iran" comes on the heels of International Human Rights Day.

Works in the show "Artists for Iran" will remain on display at the Inside/Outside Gallery through December 31, 2009.

Among the participants are:

Anahid Boghosian (artist)
Rabea Chaudhry (artist)
Sophia Gasparian (artist)
Shelley Gazin (photographer)
Maryam Gueramian (artist)
Jessica Shokrian (photographer-video artist)

Contact: Sarah Holswade For Immediate Release
Tel: 310.657.5511
Email: sarah@levantinecenter.org

ARTISTS FOR IRAN
A Celebration of the Arts and Human Rights

Who: Visual artists, poets, writers, comedians, actors and more.

What: A night devoted to literary, visual and performing arts highlighting the issues of human rights in Iran and around the world.

Where: Levantine Cultural Center,
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035

When: Dec. 12, 2009 from 7:30pm to 12am

Details: Free to the public, donations requested, open bar.

Levantine Cultural Center is pleased to sponsor a new project that builds bridges between Americans and the Middle East through both art and youth.

Kiyana dance, mystical whirling weekendOctober 23, Friday, 7-9 pm, Conference and Demonstration

October 24, Saturday, 6-9 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing

October 25, Sunday, 4:30-7:30 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing

Sama'a master Javad Tehranian returns for a national tour with Kiyana presentations in Los Angeles in October, teaching the Persian form of whirling or Sufi dance known as Kiyana.

Wear comfortable clothes and prepare for a three-hour intense dance and exercise workshop (Oct. 23 is a conference and presentation only).

Javad Tehranian teaches vital exercises, infinity respiration, eye exercises, and body discipline, as well as symmetric and asymmetric movements by the method of divided attention, inner development, rhythmical contemplative movements, and the  enchanting, euphoric Sama'a dance.

Kiyana, meaning “the origin”, is a system of movements and internal work coming from ancient Persia; it relates to the education and the complete development, the unity and oneness of the body, mind and spirit, cleanliness, purity, equilibrium, power, health of body, tranquility in the mind and subtility of the soul of human beings.

 

Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi march through Valiasr Street during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009

Young men run

Defying an official ban, hundreds of thousands of Iranian supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate in Tehran on Monday, Jun

A café in Baghad: in the al-Mutannabi street districtHow much do Americans really know about Iraq and W.’s military adventures there?

While scores of books appeared subsequent to the invasion and occupation that began in March 2003, few Hollywood films and documentaries delved below the surface ("In the Valley of Elah," for example, dealt more with Iraq vets here at home than "over there"). Moreover, since  the Occupation, fewer than 250 Iraqi nationals have been allowed to emigrate to the United States with refugee status (while over half a million crowd into Amman, Jordan). And for years, American media was banned from broadcasting or publishing images of body bags or coffins. Somehow, Iraq became remote, filtering through to us in a haze of figures and statistics.

Shirana Shahbazi at the Hammer MuseumBy Catherine Batruni

Shirana Shahbazi is sure of who she is and what her work is about. This is not always the case for her observers and critics, however, and sometimes leads to a great deal of frustration for the artist. It may be human nature to want to classify, define and label people and objects into constricting categories. Hence, when critics learn that Shahbazi was born in Tehran in 1974-even though she immigrated to Germany with her family ate the age of eleven-this is enough information for arbiters of her photographs to brand her an "Islamic female artist," regardless of the fact that her compositions are irrelevant to religion and gender.

Wafaa Bilal at Levantine CenterJoin us Fri. Feb. 27 when we inaugurate our new space with guest artist/writer Wafaa Bilal, co-author of Shoot An Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun (with Kari Lydersen, from City Lights 2009). Also featuring Baghdadism, a new exhibit of drawings by Faris Al-Saffar. This evening is cosponsored by CODEPINK: Women for Peace. This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.


“History simply refuses to leave some people alone. The Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal grew up under Saddam Hussein, survived two wars, was forced to live for periods at refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and finally escaped to the U.S. in 1992 to study art.