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Turkish

"East/West Convergences" Exhibit Closes With Live Music and Artists

Date/Time: 
Feb 26 2010 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Price: 
Free to the public, donations requested. Doors open at 7 pm. Open Bar.
Where: 
Inside/Outside Gallery-Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
corner of Stearns (one block east of Crescent Heights)
street parking and in the CVS underground lot across the street until 10 pm only.

Race Matters: Are Middle Easterners Really White?

Subtitle: 
"Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority" by John Tehranian

Reviewed by Afsaneh Ashley Tabaddor

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

Happy New Year—Insha'Allah!

Subtitle: 
Musings on the Evil Eye


By Mischa Geracoulis

Turkish Classes for Adults & Kids

Istanbul cityscapeIstanbul cityscapeTurkish Classes for Adults & Kids

Creative Writing Classes, Saturdays at Levantine Cultural Center

Date/Time: 
Jan 9 2010 2:15pm - Mar 20 2010 5:15pm
Price: 
$120 for four workshops
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
one block east of Crescent Heights, between Fairfax & La Cienega
ample street parking

Levantine Cultural Center in association with The Writing StudioTM offers ongoing classes in creative writing,

Bab'Aziz

Subtitle: 
Or, The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul
Reviewed by Jen Reinhardt


He who has faith will never get lost. He who is at peace won't lose his way.
—Bab'Aziz.

"Bab'Aziz" poster: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural Center"Bab'Aziz" poster: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural CenterWatching "Bab'Aziz" reminded me of how much I had become accustomed to Western cinematic conventions such as linear temporality and narrative structure. Akin to the dance of a whirling dervish (i.e. a Sufi Muslim ascetic), this film blends together a kaleidoscope of tales with breathtaking dreamscapes shot by celebrated Iranian photographer and cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari and an original musical score by Israeli composer Armand Amar. (The film costars Golshifteh Farahani.)

Co-written by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir, "Bab'Aziz" (2006) is the third and final installment of his "Desert Trilogy," and loosely follows the story of blind dervish, Bab'Aziz, and his granddaughter, Ishtar, as they embark on an eventful journey through the desert. Much like "A Thousand and One Nights," in which Scheherazade entertains the Prince with her tales and postpones her death by prolonging the ending until the following day, in order to keep Ishtar entertained on their search for the gathering of the Dervish that occurs once every thirty years, Bab'Aziz spins the story of a prince who one fateful day leaves his kingdom and becomes transfixed by his reflection.

Love Park, a Novel of Greek American Coming of Age

Reviewed by Mischa Geracoulis

Love Park: your purchase benefits in part LCC (click image to buy)Love Park: your purchase benefits in part LCC (click image to buy)
Love Park
may be for the City of Brotherly Love what cult classic Confederacy of Dunces was to the Big Easy. At first glance, LOVE Park is a timeless coming of age story in which the angst-ridden protagonist struggles to find his way. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the stage for this modern day Greek tragedy, though at times it might have been the ancient Philadelphia of Asia Minor. The University of Pennsylvania and Temple University are akin to Dunces' Tulane University and the University of Louisiana, and Greek Orthodoxy rather than Catholicism explains the religious zeal and anguish.

Fictional Peter Pappas is the middle son in a Greek-American family ingrained in Old Country ways, yet vested in American pop culture. He lives with his priest father, mother and extended family-a family intent on keeping secrets in the name of tradition and sanctity. Both Peter and the plot itself straddle a ubiquitous midpoint. Details like Peter's July 4th birth date serve to accentuate the central Greek-American theme.

Women Design New Istanbul Mosque, a First in the Muslim World

Subtitle: 
A Contemporary Spin On Classical Islamic Architecture

Zeynep Fadillioglu, architect, at the Sakirin MosqueZeynep Fadillioglu, architect, at the Sakirin MosqueWomen and Islam is always a hot topic, whether in the Arab/Muslim world or in the West, where we tend to believe that women enjoy far more freedoms, and naturally are not obliged to disguise themselves in burkas nor hijabs. The debate remains lively even in Turkey—a largely Muslim country with a secular constitution. Now the world's first mosque designed by a woman has opened in Istanbul.

The new Sakirin Mosque's design relies on Turkey's Islamic architectural mainstays and was overseen by Zeynep Fadillioglu, who together with her team of interior designers and architects have created a beautiful if relatively orthodox structure. It is Fadillioglu's first mosque.

Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate, in Conversation with Reza Aslan

Date/Time: 
Nov 5 2009 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Price: 
$25 general ($17.50 Levantine members & Los Angeles Public Library Associates)
Where: 
The Aratani/Japan America Theatre
244 South San Pedro Street
Los Angeles, CA CA 90012
Box Office: 213.680.3700
www.jaccc.org


Novelist Orhan PamukNovelist Orhan PamukOrhan Pamuk in conversation with Reza Aslan is a rare treat indeed for Los Angeles. Orhan Pamuk is one of Turkey's most prominent novelists. He also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Orhan Pamuk Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing. His work has sold over seven million books in more than fifty languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.

Kiyana, Sama'a, Whirling Dance Presentations and Workshops October 2009

Date/Time: 
Oct 23 2009 7:00pm - Oct 25 2009 9:00pm
Price: 
$40 in advance, 45 at the door ($38 members in advance); Oct. 23 conference tix $30
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Center at Mimoda Studio
5774 W. Pico Blvd. corner of Ogden
entrance in rear, street parking

Kiyana dance, mystical whirling weekendKiyana dance, mystical whirling weekendOctober 23, Friday, 7-9 pm, Conference and Demonstration

October 24, Saturday, 6-9 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing

October 25, Sunday, 4:30-7:30 pm, Training, Movements & Dancing

Sama'a master Javad Tehranian returns for a national tour with Kiyana presentations in Los Angeles in October, teaching the Persian form of whirling or Sufi dance known as Kiyana.

Wear comfortable clothes and prepare for a three-hour intense dance and exercise workshop (Oct. 23 is a conference and presentation only).

Javad Tehranian teaches vital exercises, infinity respiration, eye exercises, and body discipline, as well as symmetric and asymmetric movements by the method of divided attention, inner development, rhythmical contemplative movements, and the  enchanting, euphoric Sama'a dance.

Kiyana, meaning “the origin”, is a system of movements and internal work coming from ancient Persia; it relates to the education and the complete development, the unity and oneness of the body, mind and spirit, cleanliness, purity, equilibrium, power, health of body, tranquility in the mind and subtility of the soul of human beings.