Our proposal is the creation of a Middle Eastern arts complex with shared offices, facilities and services for like-minded cultural, social and peace organizations, as well as artists and writers, such that the Levantine Cultural Center (LCC) becomes a hub, a peace center, an arts center open to all. With the "Arab Spring" or Thaura (Revolution) that began in Tunisia and the protests and uprisings against governments that have spread across North Africa and the Middle East, we want to bridge cultures and build peace—to promote understanding across boundaries. Would you give us a mandate, knowing that the LCC has already devoted the past decade since 2001 building these bridges? Sign our petition.

By Jordan Elgrably

TLC's new reality show, All American Muslim, comes along at just the right time to counter Fear, Inc.'s river of anti Arab/Muslim rhetoric. While right-wing pundits like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch make a living spewing anti-Islam epithets, 1.7 million Americans tuned in to watch TLC's first episode take take fear out of the equation by following the mundane lives of several Lebanese Muslims of Dearborn, who turn out to be your everyday, garden-variety Americans. One of them, as it happens, is Jeff McDermott, a recent convert to Islam from Catholicism whose nervy wife Shadia sports multiple tattoos and piercings and goes to country music concerts, yet insists he'll have to become Muslim before they can get hitched.

Menu for August 20, 2001

Coffee:                                                                             Tea:
Cafe Americain                                                                  Moroccan Mint Tea
Cafe Cassé                                                                        Persian Tea
Café Fez (Turkish Coffee)                                                    Sage Tea                                          
Café Beiruti (w/ cardamom and orange blossom water)         Anise Tea
Espresso                                                                            Chai Tea

Cold Drinks:                                                                      Snacks:
Mint Lemonade                                                                  Labneh Plate
Qamar al-Deen (Apricot drink)                                            Zaatar and Zeit (olive oil) Plate
Ayran (Yogurt drink)                                                           Zaytoun (olives) and Feta Plate
Iced Tea                                                                            Hummus

Café Fez at the Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035 (east of La Cienega, west of Fairfax). 310.657.5511.

"We have met the enemy and they are us"

Pre 9/11, few secular Americans put much thought into the schism between the West and the Middle East, other than a lingering aftertaste from last century's Iranian hostage crisis and the first Gulf War. Addressing this in the summer of 2001, a group of forward-thinking Angelenos with Middle Eastern roots would soon seem almost prescient in their founding of the Levantine Cultural Center (LCC)—an attempt to narrow the gap between the United States and the Arab/Muslim world before it became a chasm. Unlike other peace talks, this one would focus on artistic and educational exchanges.

For Immediate Release [Los Angeles May 20] The wave of revolutions that has swept over North Africa and the Middle East has come as a shock to many people in the world. These revolutions that spread over the region have been coined the term Arab Spring. What exactly is the Arab Spring and what does it hold in store for the future? In "Rocking the Casbah: Morocco and the Arab Spring," writer and professor Laila Lalami will discuss the North African uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, before focusing on the case of Morocco, which has experienced its own unique response to this unexpected era of change. The lecture will happen June 2, 2011, at the Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, 90035.