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Middle East Diasporic

Members Salon & Open Mic, Moroccan-Style!

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Jun 23 2013 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Price: 
Free for members and a guest. Non-members, $20 at the door.
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
ample street parking
Join us for the first in a new series of member salon/open mic gatherings! The Levantine Cultural Center has a large and diverse membership of creative individuals and progressive organizations, all of whom support our mission to champion Arab/Muslim/Middle Eastern cultures through arts and education. We cordially invite you to share in an informal afternoon/evening salon and open mic. Hosted by Bouchra Azizy, come and enjoy authentic Moroccan music and refreshments, with musician and gnawa singer Youssef Ifred, actor Kamal Moummad and other participants to be announced. Enjoy a relaxing environment, play chess, backgammon or just engage new friends in conversation.

"1983" Novel Reading, Signing Recalls the Cold War Era

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Jul 11 2013 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Price: 
Suggested donation $10, $20 with signed copy of "1983"
refreshments served
Click here to buy tickets
RSVP to 323.413.2001
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
Subtitle: 
a dialectical novel proposes a different Russian revolution

Join Lebanese-American novelist and chess master Anthony Saidy when he presents his new book, 1983: A Dialectical Novel, at the Levantine Cultural Center on Thursday, July 11, 7 pm. This exclusive author event is cosponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and copies of the novel will be available for autographs. Attendees will be reminded, sometimes satirically, of the gone but not forgotten Cold War era. You may even suffer some nostalgia when considering the behemoth that our current War on Terror has become. Visit the 1983 Facebook page to comment. 

L.A.'s Middle East Cultural Arts Center Fêtes 12th Year!

Subtitle: 
fiscal year ending, donations requested by June 30th

Can you believe it?!

We are just starting our 12th year serving greater Los Angeles. Don Heckman wrote the first LA Times article about us, positively reviewing our first public program, in a Calendar review published June 25, 2001. (We received another thumbs-up review in December 2001 by theatre critic Don Shirley and many more LA Times articles since.) 

New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema series

The fourth season of the New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema series will present as many as two dozen features, documentaries and short films in Los Angeles and Orange County, to foster a greater understanding of the Middle East and North Africa, and to afford provocative opportunities for meaningful dialogue, while working with major partners including the Arab Film Festival, UCLA, USC, Chapman University, the University of California at Irvine, and others.

Comic Relief with the Sultans of Satire, with guest K-von

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 30 2013 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Price: 
$10 advance, $15 at the door
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking

Get some comic relief and laugh about the Middle East with one of L.A's hottest comedy group, the Sultans of Satire, in a special performance featuring Middle Eastern comics with guest star K-von. The Sultans of Satire are seriously funny-if you love to laugh, if you need to laugh, you'll appreciate this show with its satirical insights and fresh perspectives on American and Middle Eastern life. The humor is universal; the comedans hail from the Middle East and North Africa! This show's cast features Noël Elgrably, Zara Mizrahi, Sammy Obeid and Mona Shaikh, with specal guest K-von. The Sultans of Satire is the longest-running Middle Eastern stand-up comedy show in the U.S. Features some of the best young stand-up comedians today from diverse faiths. This show cosponsored by Freedom Theatre West. Tickets/info 323.413.2001. Watch video clips at sultansofsatire.com.

Live Music, Storytellers Redefine the Iranian American Experience

Event Details
Date/Time: 
Jun 8 2013 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Price: 
$12 advance admission/$10 members; $15 at the door
$22 with signed copy of anthology
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
ample street parking
Subtitle: 
new fiction by Iranian American writers

Come to the Levantine café on a Saturday night and enjoy a lively evening of live music,storytelling and passionate conversation, when six writers from diverse Iranian/Iranian American backgrounds come together in the spirit of entente. A new anthology represents an important step in the evolution of Iranian American writing, and offers a bridge between two countries whose governments are engaged in a cold war. Following the popular film Argo which has had an injurious affect on US-Iranian relations (as if they weren't bad enough already), the Levantine Cultural Center will present authors Gina Nahai, Ari Siletz, Zohreh Ghahremani, Shideh Etaat and the two editors of Tremors, Anita Amirrezvani and Persis Karim, reading from the anthology. Enjoy a concert of live Iranian music with multiinstrumentalist Nima Janmohammadi and percussion master Rowan Storm. This program presented by the Levantine Cultural Center and the Friends of the West Hollywood LibraryListen to a KQED podcast.

Café Arabesque 2 features North African, Arab Music

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 24 2013 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Price: 
$18 advance/$15 members/students/seniors or with postcard; $20 at the door; doors open 7:30 pm
RSVPs strongly advised, 323.413.2001
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center's Café Arabesque
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
Subtitle: 
Al-Fareed and his cohorts perform authentic North African/Arab music, dancers welcome!

"'Arabesque' was out of this world amazing. We enjoyed it very much and can't wait for the encore." —Laila El-Hajoui 

"Great event at the Levantine Cultural Center Saturday night...the music took my soul on a beautiful journey." —Nancy Tedder 

The Levantine Cultural Center presents an encore performance of "Arabesque" with Al-Fareed of Radio Al-Fareed, AKA Alfred Madain and a group of musicians, the band calling itself Bedouin X. The band members are David Markowitz, Timothy Maloof and David Martinielli. Special guest artist visiting from Tunisia, Jamel Eddine Boukraa.

Egypt Now, with Jawad Nabulsi, Ahmed Maher & Karim Amer

FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Kameron Myles or Lulwa Bordcosh 310.657.5511


"EGYPT NOW", PUBLIC DEBRIEFING ON THE POST-REVOLUTION ERA, BRINGS TOGETHER KEY ACTIVISTS, SCHOLARS AND GENERAL PUBLIC, MON., APRIL 29, 7 PM, LEVANTINE CULTURAL CENTER

[Los Angeles-APRIL 23, 2013]—To get a deeper sense of life in Egypt today after the popular revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak and led to the election of Mohamed Morsi, top activists Jawad Nabulsi, Ahmed Maher and Karim Amer will speak to a limited audience in Los Angeles on Monday evening, April 29, 2013. "Egypt Now" is a public conversation with activist/entrepreneur Nabulsi, activist/engineer Maher, and activist/producer Amer (The Square), moderated by Nerfertiti Takla, on what Americans should know about Egypt in 2013.

There will be an exclusive short screening excerpt from the forthcoming documentary The Square by director Jehane Noujaim (Control Room) presented by its producer, Karim Amer. 

Mideast Masters of Jazz: Gilad Atzmon & Zane Musa Quintet

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 17 2013 9:00pm - 11:00pm
Price: 
$25 advance purchase/$30 cash at the door
Doors open 8:00 pm
Seating limited, advance purchase strongly suggested
Click here to buy tickets
Where: 
The Mint
6010 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
street parking
next door to the Levantine Cultural Center
Subtitle: 
Roseanne Barr presents two Mideast jazz greats at The Mint, together for the first time

On Friday, May 17, progressive comedienne/actor and activist Roseanne Barr presents LevantineMint's pairing "Mideast Masters of Jazz" starring sax maniacs Gilad Atzmon and Zane Musa, performing together LIVE for the first time. It's all happening right here in Los Angeles, backed by some of the best be-bop musicians ever. The bonus is that both Gilad Atzmon and Zane Musa are dyed-in-the-wool originals, so if you love jazz and are curious about how an Israeli and Palestinian get along on stage and off, reserve your tickets for "Mideast Masters of Jazz" at 323.413.2001. Tickets are only $25 general admission, $30 cash at the door. Seating is limited, this show will sell out, don't delay. The performance is one in a new series, "The Middle East Rocks," organized by the Levantine Cultural Center and hosted by venerable L.A. club, The Mint. 

Rock, metal, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz and blues are all-American music originals, but they are genres that are constantly being challenged and reinvented by swingers in the Middle East—by composers, singer-songwriters and musicians who are both natively Middle Eastern but strongly western in their tastes and travels.

Arabesque: Performance Workshop on Aesthetics & Music of the Arab World

Event Details
Date/Time: 
May 4 2013 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Price: 
$18 general admission/$15 members/students/seniors
$20 at the door. RSVPs strongly advised: 323.413.2001
Buy Tickets
Where: 
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
ample street parking or CVS underground lot (till 10 pm only!
Subtitle: 
Al-Fareed and his cohorts perform and present a plethora of great music, traditional and contemporary

The Levantine Cultural Center presents a rare live performance lecture on the aesthetics of Arabic music.