Reviewed by Omar Fadel

Mounqaliba, the new recording from Natacha Atlas
I feel it important to start off this review by saying that I really enjoyed some of Natacha Atlas' earlier work with Halim and Something Dangerous being my favorites. Ya, there was always an orientalist vibe going on but the "cool" factor in the composition and production always overshadowed any shortcomings. So, in short, I am a fan.

Moving forward.

On first listen it would seem as though Natacha Atlas' latest release, Mounqaliba, is a concept album...which begs the question, what is the concept?

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 29 2010 7:00pm - Nov 30 2010 10:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public

Where: 

inside/Outside Gallery
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
one block east of Crescent Heights
ample street parking or across in the CVS underground lot (till 10 pm only)

Swimming Down the Nile. Faces from Ethiopia to Cairo

Ramadan's Lanterns: mixed media, by Olfet AgramaA retrospective by Olfet Agrama

October 29-November 30, 2010

The work of Olfet Agrama spans four decades depicting people, landscapes and still life in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. The current show includes 30 works from her paintings on cultures of Africa and North Africa.

Educated at Cairo University with a Bachelor of Arts, Olfet Agrama received a Master's in English Literature from UCLA and studied art at the UCLA Art Department Extension, and later at the Brentwood Art Center 2002-2003. Ms. Agrama has participated in artist workshops in Provence, France from 1999-2003, and in Mojacar, Spain, from 1990-2002.

Reviewed by Jordan Elgrably

Natacha Atlas: live at the Skirball July 29, 2010In a mellifluous voice that was at once deep, soft, beautiful and strong, former Transglobal Underground vocalist Natacha Atlas brought her east-west repertoire back to Los Angeles on July 29. The cross-over artist performed in a free open-air concert at the Skirball Center that was supported by the L.A. County Arts Commission and the city's Department of Cultural Affairs. A star in parts of Europe and the Middle East, Natacha Atlas has a smaller following Stateside but certainly merits a broader audience, both among those who love world music and fusion, and others with a passion for female vocalists.

By Joyce Zonana

David ShashaBy David Shasha

Recently I was shopping at my favorite record store, Academy CDs in Manhattan, and purchased two CDs: one by the great African-American singer and activist Billie Holiday, the other by the legendary Egyptian singer Um Kulthum.

Um Kulthum
While many Americans will immediately recognize Billie Holiday, whose harrowing "Strange Fruit" described the lynching of blacks in the Jim Crow South and became a central part of the Civil Rights struggle, few Americans are familiar with the music of the greatest singer the modern Arab world has known.

In "Homage to a Belly-Dancer," an essay honoring the famous Egyptian belly dancer Tahia Carioca, Edward Said begins with a discussion of Um Kulthum that places her work in the proper perspective:

The greatest and most famous singer of the twentieth-century Arab world was Um Kalthoum, whose records and cassettes, fifteen years after her death, are available everywhere. A fair number of non-Arabs know about her too, partly because of the hypnotic and melancholy effect of her singing, partly because in the world-wide rediscovery of authentic people's art Um Kalthoum is a dominant figure. But she also played a significant role in the emerging Third World women's movement as a pious 'Nightingale of the East' whose public exposure was as a model not only of feminine consciousness but also of domestic propriety.

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.

Mohammed Attar; Laila Soliman; Imad Farajin; Arzé Khodr; Kamal Khalladi: New Arab playwrights

On April 29 and 30, 2010, the British Council/Royal Court Theatre Project came together with a handful of major American theatre institutions to host a conference with five Arab playwrights. The PEN World Voices Festival: I Come From There: New Plays from the Arab World conference was the culmination of a remarkable 18-month international theatre project that took place in five different countries. Beginning in England where a number of the playwrights presented their work as staged readings at the Royal Court Theatre, they subsequently presented staged readings of their work that reflects contemporary life in the Middle East in Damascus, Cairo, and Tunis. The playwrights include Mohammad Attar from Syria presenting his piece "Withdrawal"; Imad Farajin from Palestine and his play "603", which has continued to tour at various theatres in the West Bank, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi; Kamal Khalladi  from Morocco, who wrote "Damage"; Arzé Khodr from Lebanon who developed "The House", her first full-length play; and Laila Soliman from Egypt, who presented her piece entitled "Egyptian Products". The conference in New York took place at the Martin E. Segal Theater Center, City University of New York, and was a combinations of readings and panels that reflected these artists' remarkable journey. —Tara Marie Good

Read playwrights' bios here.

Reviewed by Jessica Proett

By Jordann Saliba Sullivan

Ali Mama Café: a Silver Lake hole-in-the-wallSince being back in the USA after spending two years in the sun-drenched, chaotic city of Cairo, I've searched high and low for an establishment that will satiate my nostalgia for the simplicity of Egypt's cafés. Finally, in Los Angeles, I found what I had been looking for. Ali Mama's Café in Silver Lake skips the pretention of lounges and is completely devoted to creating an authentically Middle Eastern hookah experience.

I miss many things about Egyptian life. However, I'm most nostalgic not for the majesty of the Giza pyramids, nor the humbling grandeur of Karnak Temple. It's the simple tradition of smoking hookah that I miss the most. Hookah (also called shisha or nargeileh) cafés are as ubiquitous in Egypt as Starbucks are in LA. An integral part of the very fabric of Egyptian life, enjoying a hookah is not simply about inhaling cool, flavored tobacco, but also carries with it a sense of unapologetic relaxation.