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

"'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.

Deconstructing stereotypes: Jack G. Shaheen remembers 40 years
of commitment to positive Arab and US
understanding in evening lecture

[Monday December 10, 2012] On Wednesday December 19th, The Levantine Cultural Center presents honored media critic and film scholar Dr. Jack G. Shaheen in an intimate discussion and forum on misleading stereotypes based on Hollywood's negative portrayal of Arabs. Shaheen will be discussing his life-long commitment to illuminate social justice, with insights into the highs and lows of his 40-year quest, including his mission to reveal and terminate these damaging Arab and Muslim stigmas.

WHO: Jack G. Shaheen, media activist
WHERE: Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W. Pico Blvd., LA 90035, street parking.
PRICE: Free to general public
INFO/RSVPs: Levantine Cultural Center, 323.413.2001, levantinecenter.org.

[Los Angeles-Monday November 27, 2012] Beginning Saturday, December 1st, the Levantine Cultural Center presents a fascinating new exhibit based on the work of film and media scholar Dr. Jack G. Shaheen's work: A is for Arab: Stereotypes in U.S. Popular Culture.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Nov 3 2012 8:00pm - 10:30pm

Price: 

$40 preferred, $25 general
seating limited, call 323.413.2001 to reserve
click here to buy tickets
Free parking. Arriving, take the driveway down around behind
the Sanctuary as directed by the attendant and park.

Where: 

The 1909 Sanctuary
1909 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga Canyon CA

POSTPONED This event has been pushed forward to January 2013. Artists for Peace features a very special performance by Tony Khalifé in an evening of mystical music and dance with influences from Lebanon, India, North Africa and beyond, with special poetry performances by Sholeh Wolpe and Sheila Vossough reciting the poetry of Ahmad Shamloo and Forough Farrokhzad in English and Farsi, also featuring The Forbidden poetry of Iran.

Reviewed by Omid Arabian

From our neighbors up north comes Monsieur Lazhar, a French-Canadian film starring Algerian actor Mohamed Fellag. The film is set in a Montreal public school, where the sixth-grade class has just lost their teacher to suicide. As the story begins, two of the kids discover the teacher's body hanging from the ceiling of their classroom. The motives behind her grizzly act and her deliberate choice of venue never become quite clear; this lack of clarity is in essence what drives and complicates the kids' emotional journey in the weeks and months that follow.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Apr 21 2012 5:00pm - Apr 22 2012 5:00pm

Price: 

$16 in advance/$20 at the door April 21; $15 at the door April 22
Click here to get tickets

Where: 

April 21, Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90027
April 22Electric Lodge
1416 Electric Avenue
Venice CA 90291

The Tazzla Institute presents the 4th annual Amazigh Film Festival. Amazigh or "free people" is the proper name for the original inhabitants of North Africa, often referred to as "Berber." An estimated 60% of Morocco's population, for example, shares Amazigh heritage. The Amazigh Film Festival is sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and cosponsored by the Levantine Cultural Center.. Tickets are $16 in advance for the program on Sat April 21, available here. Get them directly at the Electric Lodge on Sun Apr 22.

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.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 30 2010 5:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

Tickets available online: http://www.laaff.org
$12 adult, $8 child (under 12)
Or at the door: $15 adult, $10 child

Where: 

The Barnsdall Theatre
4800 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90027

This festival cAmazigh Film Festival 2010elebrates the rich Amazigh culture of North Africa and the Sahara with film, music, and food. "Amazigh" is the original word for the Berber people and means "the free people". Amazigs and their descendants are found in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The celebration will commence on Saturday, October 30 at 5 pm at the Barnsdall Theatre and Art Gallery. The event will feature two films, Footsteps to Africa: A Nomadic Journey and Asshak: Tales of the Sahara, as well as exhibit artwork by painter Leslie Clark and jewelry designer Moussa Albaka.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Mar 14 2010 1:30pm - 3:30pm

Price: 

$30 pre-register, $35 at the door

Where: 

Dance Garden L.A.
3401 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90039
near Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Silver Lake
street and metered parking

Rosa Rojas: guedra dancer and teacherGuedra is a ritual blessing dance from the Tuareg Berbers, or "Blue People". Guedra is performed to envelop all present with positive energy, peace and spiritual love.The rhythmical clapping, and chanting, and dancers finger's and hand movements all have their origin in ancient symbolism. The Blue People consider Guedra to be their direct contact the elements, spirit, and universe. It is their deepest expression of their souls and provides protection against a hostile environment and evil spirits. The Guedra is an Arabic word for cooking pot. The cooking pot was covered in animal skin to make a drum to be played in the heartbeat rhythm. Workshop is open to all!

The Guedra workshop will begin with counter clapping and chanting warm up. Students will learn two blessing and counter clapping rhythms. There will also be a T'bal (standing dance) warm up. we will than proceed with Guedra on the knees and sitting position, and explore the intricacies of the hand, and arm movements. The Symbolic gestures are designed to send out blessings to the future, past, and present; to the Sun, Earth, Water and Wind. Towards the end of the workshop we will combine all elements of the Guedra.

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.