Reviewed by Afsaneh Ashley Tabaddor

What does it mean to be "White" in America today?

"Captain Abu Raed"Levantine Cultural Center presents an exclusive screening of the critical hit that Jordan picked to be its Oscar contender in 2009. 

Abu Raed is a lonely janitor at Amman's International Airport. Never having realized his dreams of seeing the world, he experiences it vicariously through books and brief encounters with travelers. Captain Abu Raed is the story of everyday people intersecting across social boundaries. It is a story of dreams, friendship, forgiveness, and sacrifice.

Captain Abu Raed is the second in Levantine Cultural Center's series this year, "New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema", which takes place the third Thursday of each month.

This event's reception is sponsored by the Jordanian American Club of Southern California.

Yuval Ron Ensemble: with guests Najwa Gibran, Norik Manoukian, Miriam Peretz, Maya Karasso

The Yuval Ron Ensemble will perform mystical music and dance of the Middle East. Celebrating the ancient cultures of the three Abrahamic faiths, this concert features musical director Yuval Ron on oud and Norik Manoukian on duduk and woodwinds, with Palestinian vocalist Najwa Gibran, and folkloric dancers Maya Karasso and Miriam Peretz.

Tickets available at the Middle East Ministry Table on Sundays or call 626.583.2734 and speak to Norma Sigmund.

Listen to music sample.

Levantine Cultural Center in association with The Writing Studio^TM offers ongoing classes in creative writing,

Arabic instructor Dina Abou-SalemRegister Today To Learn Conversational Levantine or "Shami" Arabic Using Dive

When Tupac Shakur spit tracks in the ‘90s about American racism, poverty, social injustice, and life in the hood, he probably had no idea that he would later become one of the most revered cultural icons for thousands of young Palestinians.

Slingshot Hip Hop, the DVD: $25 per copy for personal home use only"Slingshot Hip Hop," a 2008 documentary from the New York-based director, producer and editor Jackie Reem Salloum, follows the burgeoning Palestinian hip hop scene from the mixed (Arab and Jew) cities in Israel to the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The documentary focuses on the members of the first Palestinian hip hop crew, DAM, who describe how they learn English by translating 2Pac's lyrics into Arabic. [Levantine Cultural Center was the first organization to bring DAM to Southern California for a live performance, back in 2007.]

A Country Called Amreeka by Alia Malek: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural Center

By Alia Malek [from the Washington Post]

Arabs—both Christian and Muslim—began emigrating to the United States in appreciable numbers from the Arabic speaking world in the late 1800s. But too often their lives here are invisible, absent from national conversation, except in moments like the one we are living through right now in the wake of the tragedy at Ft. Hood. We tend to check in with this diverse community only when something goes "BOOM" in America or when someone of Arab or Muslim descent does something criminal.

American edition of UnveiledSome women dream of marrying a prince, and in this memoir, a Lebanese-American from Long Island nearly does exactly that. After she comes to her senses, however, she instead winds up with a Palestinian politico under Arafat.

Author Deborah Kanafani shares a story that would be-among other things-any parent's nightmare, for Unveiled is a captivating page-turner that in some parts reads like a spy thriller replete with stories of intrigue, espionage, glamour, and romance. Dramatically played out against a backdrop of Middle Eastern conflicts, invasions, occupations, and uprisings, Kanafani's life story rolls out in a chronological order that elicits feelings of camaraderie in a plot gone wrong.

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.