Beyond Borders Art ExhibitFeaturing art, music, and film by American Lebanese, Middle Eastern & American Artists, this event takes place on Saturday, Oct 9 from 12 noon until 5 pm. There is a VIP reception from 5 pm to 7 pm and artists' reception 7 pm to 9 pm. Guests are also invited to join in creating the Lebanese Flag Mosaic Art wall piece. On Sunday, Oct 9 the exhibit continues with an art viewing and film screening from 12 noon to 5 pm, and includes a special mosaic workshop from 1 pm to 3 pm for children under age 18.

Participating Artists include:

Visual artists: Doris Bittar, Huguette Caland, Carole Choucair Oueijan, Michelle Constantine, Jeanice Deeb, Dalaa Al-Jundi Faytrouni, Ronald Feghali, Hanna Hajjar, Reem Hammad, Sam Hassan, Kinda Hibrawi, Mohammad Kaakati, Carrie Kaba, Dina Khouri, Koko, Michael Rababy, Linda Dalal Sawaya, Nouha Sinno, Dr. Raja Srour, Wafa Tarafi, Wafa Daya Tarrab and Zareh.

[Note from the Editor: We re-publish this opinion from the August 1st issue of the New York Times to stimulate debate. Efraim Karsh is professor and head of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King's College London. He is regarded as perhaps the most vocal critic of the New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who have questioned the conventional history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. According to Howard Sachar, he is "the preeminent scholar-spokesman of the Revisionist (politically-rightist) Movement in Zionism." Daniel Pipes described him as "the preeminent historian of the modern Middle East writing today." His views would counter those of many who describe what happened to the Palestinians in 1948 as the Nakba, or "catastrophe". We will review Karsh's book Palestine Betrayed in a forthcoming issue of the Levantine Review.]

Reviewed by Jordan Elgrably

Natacha Atlas: live at the Skirball July 29, 2010In a mellifluous voice that was at once deep, soft, beautiful and strong, former Transglobal Underground vocalist Natacha Atlas brought her east-west repertoire back to Los Angeles on July 29. The cross-over artist performed in a free open-air concert at the Skirball Center that was supported by the L.A. County Arts Commission and the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. A star in parts of Europe and the Middle East, Natacha Atlas has a smaller following Stateside but certainly merits a broader audience, both among those who love world music and fusion, and others with a passion for female vocalists.

"Arbol de la Vida": by Vahé BerberianRecently I attended the opening reception for contemporary Armenian artist Vahé Berberian's latest collection of paintings, "Involuntary Laughter". The visionary abstract expressionist has once again produced a series of thought-provoking paintings.

The title "Involuntary Laughter" might imply entertainment or triviality—a would-be departure from Berberian's style. Armenians, as Berberian has been noted to say, tend towards seriousness. Indeed, many of his earlier paintings have a solemn, dark overtone. In contrast the works in the "Laughter" exhibit are almost effervescent. Did he draw the title from his own life experience as a celebrated monologuist and comedian in the Armenian language?

Samuel Maoz Samuel Maoz, who trained as a cameraman and worked in art direction for both film and television in Israel, was wounded as a 20-year-old soldier during the 1982 Summer War with Lebanon. 25 years later he began a process of confronting his personal feelings and experiences for his first feature film, Lebanon. His colleagues Joseph Cedar and Ari Folman were already on their way to making their own war films, Beaufort and Waltz With Bashir respectively. Lebanon describes the traumatic experiences of a four-man Israeli tank crew in a Lebanese village early in the war.

After Lebanon had been rejected by both the Berlin and Cannes film festivals, Maoz picked up a Golden Lion at last year's Venice Film Festival. The film was nominated in ten categories for the Ophir, Israel's national film awards.

Lebanon is the first feature for Maoz, who carved out a reputation as a documentarian in Israel. Here Maoz is interviewed by Carlos Valdivia, a media assistant at the Levantine Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Two soldiers in a tank: (outtake from "Lebanon" dir. Samuel Maoz)
Lebanon, the first feature from Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz, takes us in with a platoon of Israeli soldiers at the beginning of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The story is drawn from the personal recollections of writer-director Maoz, who was an actual participant in that attack. As events play out, the camera stays entirely within a tank to which four of the soldiers are assigned, so we are always either looking at them or through their eyes out of the tank's gunsight. Over the span of their brief first mission, the soldiers' mental state devolves from apprehension to delirium as their simple directive to search an already-airstruck Lebanese town leads them into a nightmarish trap.

a creative writing workshop

Levantine Cultural Center & The Writing Studio present Writing for Peace: War, Peace & the Path to Freedom. This workshop in creative writing with Elana Golden is for new and experienced writers—limited to 10 participants.

Turning wounds into literature is an act of self-preservation, self-discovery—a journey toward personal and global healing and peace. Elana Golden is a Los Angeles writer and teacher who works and corresponds with Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel. She has taught creative writing at Levantine Cultural Center for  the past two years. She has worked with new and established writers from many countries, including Iran, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Egypt and the United States.

Whether among nations, classes or families, the workshop provides a peaceful, respectful and inspiring space in which to write stories born of war, conflict or occupation. The skills of creative writing will be taught and explored, as well as effective methods to put aside the critical mind.

Contact: Jordan Elgrably, Nile El Wardani, Elie Karam
Levantine Cultural Center
310.657.5511 or 310.402.8866

[Los Angeles, May 20, 2010] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aide, Special Representative to Muslim Communities Farah Pandith, will speak in a public forum on cultural diplomacy organized by the Levantine Cultural Center on Thursday, May 27, 2010, at 7 pm at the Mark Taper Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.

The "clash of civilization" dialectic and the "war on terror" discourse require Americans to broaden our international outreach, to improve understanding of the Arab/Muslim world. In fact, the alchemy of change requires that we empathize with narratives that may differ from our own; and sometimes these narratives are strikingly similar. Cultural diplomacy efforts use the arts to address communities in conflict-or groups that appear to have opposing interests whether because of different religious traditions, political beliefs or ethnic identification.

Mohammed Attar; Laila Soliman; Imad Farajin; Arzé Khodr; Kamal Khalladi: New Arab playwrights

On April 29 and 30, 2010, the British Council/Royal Court Theatre Project came together with a handful of major American theatre institutions to host a conference with five Arab playwrights. The PEN World Voices Festival: I Come From There: New Plays from the Arab World conference was the culmination of a remarkable 18-month international theatre project that took place in five different countries. Beginning in England where a number of the playwrights presented their work as staged readings at the Royal Court Theatre, they subsequently presented staged readings of their work that reflects contemporary life in the Middle East in Damascus, Cairo, and Tunis. The playwrights include Mohammad Attar from Syria presenting his piece "Withdrawal"; Imad Farajin from Palestine and his play "603", which has continued to tour at various theatres in the West Bank, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi; Kamal Khalladi  from Morocco, who wrote "Damage"; Arzé Khodr from Lebanon who developed "The House", her first full-length play; and Laila Soliman from Egypt, who presented her piece entitled "Egyptian Products". The conference in New York took place at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, City University of New York, and was a combinations of readings and panels that reflected these artists' remarkable journey. —Tara Marie Good

Read playwrights' bios here.