MEDIA ALERT

CONTACT JORDAN ELGRABLY, 310.402.8866
or DHIA RABIAI, 310.593.3961

FREE TUNISIA ORGANIZATION PRESENTS NEW TUNISIAN FILM FESTIVAL
IN HOLLYWOOD ON ANNIVERSARY OF REVOLUTION, JAN. 10-12, 2012

WHEN: Tues-Thurs, Jan. 10, 11, 12, 2012, 5-10 pm
WHERE: Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles 90027
WHY: To celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the Tunisian democracy revolution
WHO: Tunisian filmmakers, artists, musicians and diplomats
HOW : Tickets are a suggested $10 donation. For tickets/reservations, call 310.657.5511 or 424.242.3856 or go online:

http://www.levantinecenter.org/event/tunisian-film-festival

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jan 10 2012 5:45pm - Jan 12 2012 10:00pm

Price: 

Tickets $10 (suggested donation)
Seating limited, RSVPs strongly advised. Call 310.657.5511, or 424.242.3856
Click here to donate

Where: 

Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
4800 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90027
just west of Vermont
free parking

Read KPCC story. On the 1-year anniversary of the Tunisian uprising against an authoritarian regime—an uprising that arguably launched a revolution that continues to shake the world—comes the first film festival dedicated to Tunisian cinema. Following the Tunisian revolution, which after just 28 days saw the departure of dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Free Tunisia.org team met around this unique idea to bring Tunisian cinema and culture to the great city of Los Angeles. Cosponsored by New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema.

Our proposal is the creation of a Middle Eastern arts complex with shared offices, facilities and services for like-minded cultural, social and peace organizations, as well as artists and writers, such that the Levantine Cultural Center (LCC) becomes a hub, a peace center, an arts center open to all. With the "Arab Spring" or Thaura (Revolution) that began in Tunisia and the protests and uprisings against governments that have spread across North Africa and the Middle East, we want to bridge cultures and build peace—to promote understanding across boundaries. Would you give us a mandate, knowing that the LCC has already devoted the past decade since 2001 building these bridges? Sign our petition.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Dec 20 2011 12:30pm - 2:30pm

Price: 

Contribution requested (min. suggested $100)
Click here to RSVP with donation

Where: 

The Palm
1100 S. Flower StreetLos Angeles CA 90015
RSVP by Dec. 15 to 310.657.5511

At 11th and Flower across from the Staples Center
free valet parking at lunch behind the restaurant

The arts help create a safe space for exploration of potentially difficult issues. The Middle East is the birthplace of our civilization. It is where Judaism, Christianity and Islam-three faiths with much in common-originate. The Middle East is also the primary resource for our energy needs and where we have many strategic partners, from Turkey and Israel to Saudi Arabia.

By Dana Siegelman

Much of what Americans think of the Middle East and our foreign policy toward it over the past ten years has been a response to 9/11. This is understandable. President Bush's neoconservative approach to the "War on Terror" was advocated by those who believed spreading democracy was essentially spreading peace. In a 2003 speech, Bush assessed that "Stability at the expense of freedom, has brought us neither stability nor freedom."  In other words, supporting corrupt dictators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) did not create friendlier or stronger economic partners (except when that partnership centered around oil.)

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 29 2011 8:00pm - 10:30pm

Price: 

$25 to $45 Click here to buy tickets.

Where: 

The Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles CA 90032
on the Cal State campus off the 10 FWY

Named "Best African Band" by Rolling Stone, Tinariwen was formed in 1979 by group members from Tessalit, an oasis in the Sahara Desert in northern Mali. The group, whose name translates to "deserts," draws their style of music from rock as well as African and Middle Eastern music mixing acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass, drums, and gnarled picking patterns from West African lutes. The melodies are as straightforward as folk tunes that tug against harmonies in ways that reflect Tinariwen's nomadic lifestyle. Visit their site.

BOOK & DVD DRIVE CALLS FOR DONATED NEW & USED MATERIALS ON MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA FOR RESOURCE LIBRARY

The Levantine Cultural Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that champions a greater understanding of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), seeks to build a new library and resource center that will provide access to valuable research materials. The library will be open to the public beginning Monday, November 7, and will be available during regular center hours, Monday-Saturday, 10 am-6 pm.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Sep 11 2011 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Price: 

Suggested donation $11 (students $5) includes light refreshments (no-one turned away for lack of funds) to benefit the center

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90035
ample street parking
between La Cienega and Fairfax

Activists, artists, writers and members of the general public are invited to participate in a community roundtable discussion on the events of 9/11, including the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the passing of the USA Patriot Act, the "war on terror," Islamophobia, the Green Movement in Iran in 2009, and this year's Arab Spring and just what we can look forward to in the months and years ahead.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

May 26 2011 8:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

$15 advance, $20 at the door
Click here for tickets

Where: 

Ahavat Torah Congregation at Village Church of Westwood Lutheran
343 S. Church Lane
Los Angeles, CA 90049

Yuval Ron and his ensemble players present a fusion concert, "My Heart is in the East" with music from Israel, Morocco, Yemen, Spain, Turkey and Pakistan. This will be the last concert in Los Angeles before the Ensemble departs on a Peace Mission Tour in Turkey.

Anatomy of a Disappearance (Viking 2011) by Hisham Matar

By Lina Sergie Attar

Hisham Matar's timely novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance, arrives as the Middle East is rising, alight, its people chanting and fighting their way to justice—knocking down their dictators, one by one. As we watch brutal regimes cling to power by clawing into the flesh and spirits of their people, Matar tells the story of a boy whose father is abducted in an act of political brutality.

Disappearing fathers, a recurring theme in Matar's work, draws parallels from his own story. Matar's father, Jaballa, a prominent Libyan dissident living with his family in exile in Cairo, was abducted from his home in 1990. He was imprisoned in the notorious Abu Sleem jail in Tripoli. Save for a few letters, the last one from 1996, there has been very little information on his father's status. Until this day, Matar does not know his father's fate.