a new project for freedom

This event includes spoken word performances, a silent auction, refreshments, and much more about the project. According to Syrian Freedom Waves, "The grassroots of the Syrian people have shown epic resilience in demanding an end to dictatorship and the opportunity to build a democratic Syria that guarantees human freedoms for all. For fifteen months and still counting, the regime has been countering these efforts by killing protesters and committing large-scale massacres. Security personnel and regime proxies systematically try to sow discord among Syria's sect communities. Tens of thousands of Syrians are detained for exercising their freedoms of expression and assembly."  

This is a benefit event to raise significant support for the Syrian Freedom Waves project. Your contributions are tax-deductible. Tickets are $50 general admission, $75 VIP admission (with additional gifts of signed chap books) and $25 for students with i.d. Sunday, July 15, 6 pm, at the Levantine Cultural Center. For more information/reservations, contact 323.413.2001 or visit the web site. Watch poetry performances by Mohja Kahf.

Professor Mohja Kahf

About Mohja Kahf

Born in Damascus, Syria, Mohja Kahf is an associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Arkansas. She has published three books: a novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, a volume of poetry, E-mails from Scheherazad, and Western Representations of the Muslim Woman. Her poems have been projected on the facade of the New York Public Library, and published in more conventional venues such as Mizna, Banipal, Paris Review, Tiferet: A Journal of Literature and Spirituality, and Atlanta Review, as well as the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond from W.W. Norton, and Hayan Charara's Inclined to Speak. Some of Kahf's short fiction was online at MuslimWakeUp.com's "Sex and the Ummah" column. An Arkansas resident for the last fifteen years, Kahf has lived in the Arab world and returns there regularly with her husband and three children. Kahf's next poetry manuscript is about Hajar, Sarah, and Abraham, and she is working on a book of essays on interfaith and faith issues, called Love, Anyway: Letters from Your Muslim Aunty. In 2010 she won a Pushcart Prize for an essay about her son. Read a New York Times profile about Mohja. She is a Cultural Ambassador for the Levantine Cultural Center.