Passage to Dawn concertThe Society of Cinema and Arts presents "Passage to Dawn" at the Zipper in a night of live Persian and Azari music with master musicians Hamid Motebassem on setar, Pejman Hadadi on percussion and Imamyar Hasanov on kamancheh.

This is haunting, spirited music suitable for those with the soul of a Sufi wanderer.

Sample some Hamid Motebassem music now.

A portion of the ticket sales benefits Child International (C.H.I.L.D.), a major charitable organization that helps children in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East with educational and development needs—so you can feel good while feeling good.

Buy tickets online here (be sure to scroll down).

Miriam Peretz Silk Road-Afghan Dance WorkshopDon't miss this exclusive dance workshop taught by the much-lauded San Francisco-based dancer and choreographer, Miriam Peretz.

The Silk Road was a historic trading route stretching 7,000 miles across Central Asia from the China Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. Some of the countries include- Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Turkey.

This workshop will give small samples of various Central Asian dance styles, with a main focus on Afghan dance. The workshop will give special attention to the art of spinning (central to all Central Asian dance forms,) and teach Afghan dance vocabulary culminating in a short dance. We will also learn the attan—the national folk dance of Afghanistan, danced at almost all celebrations and rites of passage.

Miriam Peretz is an internationally acclaimed performing artist and instructor specializing in dances from the Silk Road and the Middle East.

Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):

• Are the Jews of the Middle East/North Africa as Arab or Iranian as their host nationalities?
• 
  How were they received in Israel?
• 
  Are the Mizrahim/Sephardim a missing link to Middle East peace?

Using film, music and scholarship, on August 5th, speakers will explore the Mizrahim (Eastern Jews):

 
Thayer Hall: at the Colburn SchoolWhile you may have never heard of Azerbaijan or know where it is (just east of Armenia and north of Iran), this little country that could has produced one of the finest young violinists and cultural diplomats this side of, well, Baku (Azerbaijan's capital). A member of the European Cultural Parliament and a musician who active seeks to bridge eastern and western cultures, Sabina recently spoke at USC at a symposium on cultural diplomacy, though she actually lives in London. She appears in Los Angeles again on May 29th with her ensemble at Thayer Hall, Colburn School of Performing Arts, to mark Azerbaijan Republic Day, in a free concert sponsored by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan.

Violinist Sabina Rakcheyeva

Sabina Rakcheyeva, Violin

Kathleen Tagg, Piano

Attab Haddad, Oud

Richard Baughman, Percussions

"From BACH to BAKU..."

Michael T. Klare's latest book on the geopolitics of energy: your purchase benefits LCC programmingRising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, by Michael T. Klare

Reviewed By Dick Platkin

Richard Dreyfuss, Dick Cheney: The actor incarnates the veep in Oliver Stone's "W"In his new movie "W," a biopic about outgoing President George W. Bush, director Oliver Stone has Dick Cheney (played by Richard Dreyfuss) narrate a series of large-screen slides that demonstrate how the countries adjacent to the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea contain most of the world’s proven oil and gas reserves. As the Cheney-Dreyfuss presentation unfolds, we see the locations where the U.S. government has constructed dozens upon dozens of Middle East military installations since the first Gulf War. We are also told that the country which controls these Middle Eastern oil and gas reserves will control the Eurasian continent. This, in turn, will become key for the U.S. to maintain its dominant position in the global economy.

Christopher Caldwell on "What is the West's Problem with Islam?"

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West: your purchase benefits LCC programming Europe has received a wave of immigration from the global south in recent decades, similar in scope to the US-but very different in its results. Many immigrant and second-generation communities have astronomical unemployment rates and a thin connection to European identity. Some have produced terrorists. The problems are particularly severe among newcomers from the Muslim world.

If Europe has an Islam problem, whose fault is it? Is Islamic belief and culture incompatible with Western institutions? Or is there such a thing as "Islamophobia," poisoning immigrants' efforts to integrate on European terms?

Christopher Caldwell, who writes for the Financial Times, The New York Times Magazine and The Weekly Standard, visits Zócalo to talk about themes from his upcoming book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West.

By Crystal Allene Cook

Read about the "Art Knows No Borders" event on November 18, 2008.

Arriving in Yerevan, Armenia on a Fulbright in 2004 to research a novel, I had some specific things in mind. Once on the ground, making friends, talking to people, traveling, many of my preconceived notions of those things, and of myself, soon began to change.

The eclectic Al-Fareed aka Alfred Madain is a deejay, musician and ethnomusicologist in Los Angeles.