Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jun 20 2010 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Price: 

$40 in advance, $45 at the door ($36 members with advance RSVP)
Click here to buy tickets

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Street parking
Located equidistant between Fairfax and La Cienega

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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.

"I Save Babylon" Benefit Concert Features World MusicLevantine Cultural Center and Souk77 Productions will host I Save Babylon, a benefit concert featuring the legendary Cheb i Sabbah, along with MC Rai, Sila and guests, performing North African, AfroFunk and world fusion at the historic Warfield Theatre in the heart of San Francisco on July 17, 2010.

Features house/electronica DJ's including Algeria's DJ Pheeko Dubfunk Trio.

I Save Babylon is the first of an ongoing annual concert event whose mission is to raise money to provide instruments to community outreach and youth centers for the children of Iraq. Some Iraqi children have never touched a musical instrument due to devastating effects of poverty and ongoing conflicts. This concert was created in the hope of bringing inspiration to the children of Iraq so they can envision a brighter future for themselves and their community through unity and music.

When asked about the purpose of the concert, MC Rai stated that "...having an opportunity to express myself musically while growing up in Tunisia gave me the ability to adapt to different cultures and understand the real meaning of tolerance. This is why I wanted to create an evening of not only sharing the music of Cheb Khaled and North Africa, but also an opportunity to give back to young people that need the hope that musical expression creates."

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jul 17 2010 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Price: 

General $25, VIP $100
Can't attend? Donations are welcome. Click here to donate to "I Save Babylon"

Where: 

Warfield Theatre
982 Market Street
San Francisco CA 94102
415.345.0900

"I Save Babylon" Benefit Concert: with Cheb i Sabbah, MC Rai, Sila, Hamsa Lila et alLevantine Cultural Center and Souk77 Productions host I Save Babylon, a benefit concert featuring the legendary Cheb i Sabbah, along with MC Rai, Sila and guests, performing North African, AfroFunk and world fusion at the historic Warfield Theatre in the heart of San Francisco on July 17, 2010.

Features house/electronica DJ's including Algeria's DJ Pheeko Dubfunk Trio.

I Save Babylon is the first of an ongoing annual concert event whose mission is to raise money to provide instruments to community outreach and youth centers for the children of Iraq. Some Iraqi children have never touched a musical instrument due to devastating effects of poverty and ongoing conflicts. This concert was created in the hope of bringing inspiration to the children of Iraq so they can envision a brighter future for themselves and their community through unity and music.

Can't attend the show in San Francisco? You can make a donation to "I Save Babylon" here. You'll receive a receipt for your taxes and an update on where the instruments are going!

When asked about the purpose of the concert, MC Rai stated that "...having an opportunity to express myself musically while growing up in Tunisia gave me the ability to adapt to different cultures and understand the real meaning of tolerance. This is why I wanted to create an evening of not only sharing the music of Cheb Khaled and North Africa, but also an opportunity to give back to young people that need the hope that musical expression creates."

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Mar 10 2010 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public, donations or book purchase suggested. Doors open at 7 pm.

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
street parking and in the underground lot
at the CVS across the street (until 10 pm only)

Arabs Jews, a Critical PresentationVisiting Author Rachel Shabi Presents Her Book We Look Like the Enemy: the Hidden Story of Israel's Jews of Arab Lands

Jordan Elgrably introduces the evening with personal stories and a visual presentation.

Reviewed by Afsaneh Ashley Tabaddor

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

Omid ArabianReviewed by Omid Arabian

Levantine Cultural Center Presents

New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema Series

THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN
A film by Abdellatif Kachiche

What: The Secret of the Grain (2008)
French, Arabic, and Russian with English subtitles. 151 minutes

When: January 21, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
Film to be followed by a Q & A discussion and refreshments.

Where: Levantine Cultural Center @
The Goethe-Institut Cinema
5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100
Los Angeles CA 90036
(free parking after 6 pm)

Details: Tickets $12 general public/$10 LCC members

MOVIE SYNOPSIS: In this complex and moving portrait of a North African immigrant family in the south of France, aging protagonist Slimane Beiji is a divorced father down on his luck who seeks to change his fortunes by opening his own restaurant, serving his ex-wife's famous fish couscous. The family rallies around him, despite the financial hurdles they must overcome and the racial and class discrimination from local officials.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jan 21 2010 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

$12 general, $10 Levantine members includes Q/A and reception
Click here to buy tickets

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center @ the Goethe-Institut Cinema
5750 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100
Los Angeles CA 90036
free parking after 6 pm

"La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif KachicheLevantine Cultural Center presents an exclusive screening and discussion of the critical hit that took France by storm in 2008, winning a César for Best Film, from writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche (Tunisia). 

In this complex and moving portrait of a North African immigrant family in a southern French city, aging protagonist Slimane Bejii is a divorced father down on his luck who seeks to change his fortunes by opening his own restaurant, serving his ex-wife's famous fish couscous. The family rallies around this common cause, despite the financial hurdles they must overcome, and the racial and class discrimination from local officials.

"The Secret of the Grain" is an extraordinary film from Tunisian-born writer/director Abdellatif Kachiche whose cinematic eye successfully enters into the most intimate parts of his characters in a style akin to Italian Neo-Realist films of the 1940s and 1950s. Little wonder the film picked up a César for Best Film and appeared on numerous critics' top ten lists for 2008, including that of A.O. Scott of the New York Times.

A post-film audience discussion will be led by Levantine Cultural Center's artistic director, Jordan Elgrably, whose family emigrated from Morocco to France, and Pani Norindr, Associate Professor of French & Comparative Literature, and Chair of the department of Comparative Literature at USC. Dr. Norindr received his doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University. He is the author of Phantasmatic Indochina: French Colonial Ideology in Architecture, Film, and Literature (Duke University Press). He focuses his research on French, Francophone, and Southeast Asian cinema. He has recently published an essay on Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory" in Yale French Studies.

Tickets available here online, or at the door but subject to availability (space is limited).

"The Secret of the Grain" is the first in Levantine Cultural Center's series this year, "New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema", which takes place the third Thursday of each month. The February selection on Feb. 19, 2010 is Amin Matalqa's "Captain Abu Raed."

Read a review of this highly-lauded film in the Levantine Review.

 "La Graine et le Mulet" by Abdellatif Kachiche: your purchase in part benefits Levantine Cultural CenterReviewed by David Shasha

The precarious status of North African immigrants in France grounds the complex family drama that is "The Secret of the Grain." Taking its title from the savory fish couscous that is a signature dish of North African Arabs and Jews, the movie enters into the difficult world of one family led by a broken patriarch named Slimane.

Slimane works on the docks of an unnamed French city where his time as a laborer is about done. After working for over 30 years at the same place, he is now being moved out as labor costs are being slashed and he is now over 60 years old. We quickly learn that Slimane is divorced from his wife Souad and has a whole bunch of children and grandchildren. The film shows us a paterfamilias who is worn out, his family bursting at the seams and tensions everywhere. Souad complains that he is late with the alimony checks and his daughter Karima is fighting mightily with her two-year-old daughter to get her potty trained.