Deconstructing stereotypes: Jack G. Shaheen remembers 40 years
of commitment to positive Arab and US
understanding in evening lecture

[Monday December 10, 2012] On Wednesday December 19th, The Levantine Cultural Center presents honored media critic and film scholar Dr. Jack G. Shaheen in an intimate discussion and forum on misleading stereotypes based on Hollywood's negative portrayal of Arabs. Shaheen will be discussing his life-long commitment to illuminate social justice, with insights into the highs and lows of his 40-year quest, including his mission to reveal and terminate these damaging Arab and Muslim stigmas.

WHO: Jack G. Shaheen, media activist
WHERE: Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., LA 90035, street parking.
PRICE: Free to general public
INFO/RSVPs: Levantine Cultural Center, 323.413.2001, levantinecenter.org.

[Los Angeles-Monday November 27, 2012] Beginning Saturday, December 1st, the Levantine Cultural Center presents a fascinating new exhibit based on the work of film and media scholar Dr. Jack G. Shaheen's work: A is for Arab: Stereotypes in U.S. Popular Culture.

BEYOND "ARAB SPRING" & "ARAB RAGE"
VIJAY MAHAJAN FINDS THRIVING ARAB MARKET
OF 350 MILLION CONSUMERS
THU, OCT. 18, 2012, 7 PM

"...what really makes the book is its immediacy. The author is not afraid to get his boots dirty. His research took him to...areas where foreigners do not normally go, such as south Beirut. He spoke not only to business leaders but also to ordinary people in the streets and shops." —LA Times

By Nahrain Al-Mousawi

After reciting her poetry at Lulu Square where Bahrain's protests were centered in February and March 2011, twenty-year-old poet Ayat al-Qormezi disappeared. Although al-Qormezi has been reported dead, her death has also been reported to be a rumor. Traces of the square that galvanized demonstrators in Manama became subject to disappearance as well, when Bahraini authorities tried to halt protests by razing the Lulu monument to the ground and destroying the rest of the square.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jun 2 2011 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Price: 

$12 general admission, $10 members, $5 students with I.D.
to buy tickets call: 310.657.5511 or Click here
free light refreshments

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
between La Cienega and Fairfax
ample street parking
or in the CVS underground lot (closes 10 pm)

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.

In a letter titled "Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011," published on the Mideast web site 972mag.com, young Jewish descendants of the Arab and Islamic world living in Israel posted the following letter to their peers in the Middle East and North Africa on April 24, 2011.

We, as the descendents of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.

By Timothy Karr and Clothilde Le Coz | Foreign Policy in Focus

Springtime in the Arab world is looking bleaker now that despots in Libya, Bahrain, and Yemen and reactionary elements in Egypt have gained an upper hand against the pro-democracy protesters who have inspired the world. And the Internet, hailed sometimes in excess as a potent tool for these movements, has itself come under increasing fire from these and other autocratic states seeking to crush popular dissent.

By Tamim Ansary

Review by Tara Marie Good

A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes: your purchase benefits in part Levantine Cultural CenterIn 1940 Walter Benjamin wrote, "To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize ‘how it really was.' It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger." For the German-Jewish Marxist philosopher that moment of danger was the Nazi march on Europe. The moment of danger that inspired Afghani born Tamim Ansary to articulate Islamic history in Destiny Disrupted was September 11th.

Destiny Disrupted is a historical narrative of the Islamic world addressing the chasm seen to separate Western and Middle Eastern histories. The main thesis presented by Ansary is that the history of Islam and the West are two parallel histories, which overlap at points, but are fundamentally separate. Claiming to represent a general Muslim perception, Ansary charts Middle Eastern history from the ancient world to the western colonial and economic expansion in the modern era.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Nov 11 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Price: 

Suggested donation $10 or purchase of autographed copy of "A Country Called Amreeka"

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
one block east of Crescent Heights Blvd.
ample street parking

West Coast Tour for Alia Malek's "A Country Called Amreeka"The documenting of Arab American history is still in its infancy stage, despite the fact that Arabs have been immigrating to the United States for centuries. Just this week, on October 17, the Arab American Historical Society held what was its fourth annual conference on the subject at USC.

Following Gregory Orfalea’s 2006 The Arab Americans (Olive Branch Press), New York-based civil rights attorney Alia Malek has written a new volume that merits wide attention. A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories, presents a range of individuals and families across the country, from the uplifting story of Alabama football hero Ed Salem to the unfortunate saga of Palestinian American Alex Odeh, who was assassinated in Orange County by a bomb blast in his office in 1985. This sad chapter in Arab American history worsened when eight Arab Americans were haunted by the FBI and threatened with deportation (known as the “L.A. 8,” all charges were dropped years later, in the post-9/11 era).

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Nov 9 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Price: 

Free the public, autographed copies of "A Country Called Amreeka" available.
Advance RSVPs recommended: 310.657.5511.

Where: 

Chapman University
Beckman Hall Room 404
One University Way at Glassell., Orange, CA, 92856
Parking in any structure, $3 for four hours

West Coast Tour for Alia Malek's "A Country Called Amreeka"The documenting of Arab American history is still in its infancy stage, despite the fact that Arabs have been immigrating to the United States for centuries. Just last month, the Arab American Historical Society held what was its fourth annual conference on the subject at USC.

Following Gregory Orfalea’s 2006 The Arab Americans (Olive Branch Press), New York-based civil rights attorney Alia Malek has written a new volume that merits wide attention. A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories, presents a range of individuals and families across the country, from the uplifting story of Alabama football hero Ed Salem to the unfortunate saga of Palestinian American Alex Odeh, who was assassinated in Orange County by a bomb blast in his office in 1985. This sad chapter in Arab American history worsened when eight Arab Americans were haunted by the FBI and threatened with deportation (known as the “L.A. 8,” all charges were dropped years later, in the post-9/11 era).