By Orit Arfa

Kamran Pasha
In Kamran Pasha's new historical novel, Shadow of the Swords (Simon & Schuster: $16), a feisty, beautiful Jewish heroine named Miriam falls in love with the legendary Muslim sultan, Saladin, as he seeks to guard the Holy Land from the Third Crusades at the turn of the 12th century. If that doesn't sound racy enough, Miriam is the fictional niece of Maimonides (aka Rambam for Jews and Ibn Maimum for Muslims), who is also Saladin's trusted adviser and courtier.

June 1, 2010
Forum: Arts, Technology Ease U.S.-Middle East Relations

By Ryan Torok

Forum on cultural diplomacy: From left: Alesia Weston, Farah Pandith, Mariam Atash Nawabi and Simon Mainwaring speak at the Central Library during the Levantine Cultural Center forum. The panelists discussed cultural diplomacy between the U.S. and Middle East. (Photo by Ryan Torok)On May 27, Farah Pandith, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's special representative to Muslim communities, was part of a forum hosted by the Levantine Cultural Center on strengthening diplomatic ties between the United States and the Middle East.

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched the Gaza War, codenamed Operation Cast Lead, in response it said to the rocket attacks of Hamas. 22 days later, over a 1,000 Gazans had been killed, 4,000 homes and schools were destroyed, and 400,000 were left without running water. The war only worsened the siege of Gaza, causing an outcry around the world. Concerned Jewish communities in Morocco, Montreal and London, among other places, called for Israel to stop its attack. In the wake of the destruction Gazans found themselves living a humanitarian crisis. Read more.

Gaza event: Levantine event for Gaza with (l-r) CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans, Nile El Wardani and Jordan Elgrably (Photo S. Twair)IN A FIRST-of-its-kind experiment, the Levantine Cultural Center engaged speakers for its March 4 Gaza benefit to participate in a live KPFK radio conversation with Don Bustany, host of "Middle East In Focus."

Jordan Elgrably: speaking at a recent event at USCBy Amanda Georges
The L.A. Pilot

LOS ANGELES — Even before September 11 drastically shifted the way Arab-Americans lived, journalist and writer Jordan Elgrably was already thinking about ways to educate America about the Arab world.

Months before the attack, Elgrably helped found Levantine Cultural Center in 2001, a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that works to showcase the top names in Middle Eastern music, film and art as an alternative resource of information about the Middle East.

In a post-9/11 world, Elgrably finds his original mission to be even more relevant and imperative.

Elgrably believes that art and culture offer people a unique perspective into Arab and Middle Eastern life and politics.

Even as the United States finds itself increasing enmeshed in the Arab/Muslim world politically, Hollywood exports a great deal of film and television programs watched in the Middle East. We are indeed the dominant cultural force in many Arab/Muslim countries. Meanwhile, Americans are finding more and more Arab/Muslim characters in their film and TV programming…

Recently SAG and DGA members discussed the issues and viewed excerpts from a range of features and documentaries. Invited panelists were actors Shohreh Aghdashloo ("House of Sand and Fog", "X-Men 3", "House of Saddam"), Maz Jobrani ("The Interpreter"), Raya Meddine ("Bosta", "CSI Miami") Omar Metwally ("Rendition", "Munich"), Oded Fehr ("The Mummy", "Sleeper Cell") and Tony Shalhoub ("The Siege", "AmericanEast"); directors Peter Berg (“The Kingdom”), Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) and Stephen Gaghan (“Syriana”); writer Matthew Michael Carnahan (“The Kingdom”, “Lions For Lambs”); and casting director April Webster ("Lost", "Criminal Minds").

After September 11, a night at the King KingBy Siran Babayan, LA Weekly

This fall, the night before the anniversary of September 11, local Middle Eastern arts organization the Levantine Cultural Center hosted a talk between authors Mark LeVine and Reza Aslan at the King King club in Hollywood. The conversation, however, wasn't a political discourse, and the pictures projected on the wall above the stage weren't images of war. Instead, the audience saw face-painted, punked-out kids and a girl in hijab and an Iron Maiden T-shirt at the 2006 Dubai Desert Rock Festival, illustrating what, according to LeVine and Aslan, is really shaking up in the Arab world: metal.

This year saw the rise of Arab metal madness. Both LeVine's book Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, and Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi's documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad capture a secret musical culture whose proponents take real-life risks every time they attempt to perform, all for the love of the devil horns (praise Allah). The former is a map across the Middle East's musical underground, the latter, a poignant story of one band's personal journey. If what LeVine said is true that night about having more "uncomfortably in common" with Muslims than we think, and if heavy metal is no longer white-man's trash but belongs to the universe, then Iron Maiden is the world's savior, and the band's mascot, Eddie, is the new peace symbol. 

Read full story.

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September-October 2008, pages 57-58

Music & Arts

Levantine Center Program

Levantine Center panelists (l-r) Naser Musa, Jordan Elgrably and Noa Baum (Staff photo S. Twair).

“A Land Twice Promised” was the title of Noa Baum’s June 21, 2008 presentation at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles—the third program in a series on coexistence sponsored by Levantine Cultural Center. Adding a multi-ethnic touch to Baum’s monologue was the innovative music of Naser Musa, a Jordanian vocalist and master of the 'oud of Palestinian heritage. 

In "David and Fatima," the Montague and the Capulet clans become the Aziz and the Isaacs, setting the stage for a battle of the two faith.

By Siran Babayan, LA Weekly

Jordan Elgrably: (photo Kevin Scanlon for the LA Weekly)In a town where you're as ethnically pure as your favorite ethnic restaurant, comedian Peter Shahriari talks to the mutt in all of us—you know, born there, raised here; studied this, speak that. Since 2005, Shahriari and his fellow members of the Sultans of Satire—all of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean descent—have been skewering more than kebabs. Using humor to ease the tensions that plague Jews, Muslims and Christians, they tackle the issues that are parting the mono-browed sea.

The comedy act—which has done an eight-month residency at the Laugh Factory and has upcoming shows at the Improv and in this month's Los Angeles Comedy Festival—is the brainchild of Jordan Elgrably, co-founder of the Levantine Cultural Center, a nonprofit artistic watering for all the city's desert people, regardless of where and in which direction they pray.

"Los Angeles is the second-largest Iranian city outside of Tehran," Elgrably says. "There are more Lebanese abroad than there are in Lebanon. This is the diasporic world we live in, and that's one of the things the center is trying to capture."

In its seven years of existence, Levantine has organized literary and arts events, concerts and film screenings. In addition, referrals are available for lecturers to speak on topics ranging from Berber culture to rai music. And you can come in any time and sign up for an Arabic lesson or a doumbek drumming class.

Elgrably himself embodies the center's pan-culturalism.

Read the complete article.

Most people might not think there's a lot of room for humor when discussing the Middle East, but former journalist Jordan Elgrably has put together a group of Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Baha'i comedians who think otherwise.

Coming to the Irvine Barclay Theatre on April 29, the Sultans of Satire will parody their own Arabic, Persian and Turkish cultures hoping to offer audiences a fresh and funny perspective on the Middle East in their Laugh for Peace Comedy Benefit.