Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 1 2011 8:30pm - Oct 2 2011 12:00am

Price: 

$15 general, $12 members, $10 students

Where: 

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

Palestinian American performance artist Remi Kanazi will appear at the Levantine Cultural Center, along with special guests VJ Um Amel with a live visuals show and Philistines master rapper Nizar Wattad. Mix together outrage at the illegal occupation of Palestine and the passionate performance of spoken word artist Remi Kanazi and you get an evening of "Poetic Injustice," slated for Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Levantine Cultural Center. + Special guest poets Nadia Shamout and Saria Idana.

Remi Kanazi
... "I am proud to have Remi Kanazi as a partner-in-rhyme," said hip hop artist, author and producer, Omar Offendum. "His words resonate on paper just as much as his unforgettable delivery in person."

Palestinian-American poet, commentator and performer, Kanazi will be making his first appearance at the Levantine Cultural Center, which has been presenting Palestinian performance artists and writers since 2001. Based in New York City, he has performed
extensively in the US, the UK and the Middle East.

He has appeared in the New York Arab American Comedy festival, the Palestine Festival of Literature and Poetry International. His commentary has been featured in Al Jazeera English, GRITtv with Laura Flanders, BBC Radio, the Jerusalem Times, CounterPunch and other media outlets.

Kanazi is also the co-founder of the web site poeticinjustice.net and author of the newly released book, Poetic Injustice: Writings on Resistance and Palestine.

The performance, which begins at 9:00 p.m. (doors 8:30), will also feature local poets and musicians. Admission is $15 general, $12 members, $10 students. The Levantine Cultural Center is located at 5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035 (between La Cienega and Fairfax).

This program cosponsored in part by Anthony Saidy, Tony Litwinko, Amani Jabsheh and Bana Hilal, along with Students for Justice in Palestine UCLA, and UCLA Muslim Student Association. For information on how you can support public programs at the Levantine Cultural Center, call 310.657.5511.

Also performing is Nadia Shamout. She is a senior at UCLA majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Middle Eastern/North African Studies. She grew up in Long Beach and Simi Valley, California with her multiethnic family. She plans to pursue a career in international law, inshallah.  

VJ Um AmelVJ Um Amel is a media artist and critic. Her practices include visual projection,installation art, interactive storytelling, data visualization, and innovative research. She believes that a thriving art scene and digital literacy are keys to 21st century democratic practices. Says Youmna Chlala, "VJ Um Amel's work takes hold of the dizzying speed at which image, text and communication collide and transform it into intentional markers of identity and possibility." Visit her site.

MC rapper Nizar WattadNizar Wattad is a Palestinian rapper, hip hop producer and screenwriter who grew up in the United States. He and his younger brother Bader were first exposed to hip-hop by a cousin in Palestine, and began freestyle rapping while growing up in Johnson City, Tennessee. After graduating from the George Washington University, Wattad found work as a journalist for a magazine on Middle East affairs. The attacks of September 11, 2001 motivated him and his younger brother Bader (B-Dub) to form a hip-hop crew, in the hopes of providing an alternative to the mainstream media's depiction of Arabs and Arab Americans. The brothers recruited the producing talents of GW alum CJ Pizarro (Cookie Jar), and formed The Philistines. Their lyrics reflect a wide range of contemporary issues, with particular emphasis on the situation of the Palestinians. Visit his site.