By Juliana Maio

During her recent talk at UCLA, Lucette Lagnado, an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, expressed nostalgia for a lost world as she discussed her memoirs about her family's life in Egypt and subsequent exile in America.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Dec 6 2009 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Price: 

Suggested donation $10-$20 per person includes dinner.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
one block east of Crescent Heights Blvd., ample street parking
RSVPs required, to 310.657.5511.
Only 25 participants will be involved in this first meeting, so RSVP early.

Los Angeles-TehranThis is the first working committee meeting and leadership dinner of the new Los Angeles-Tehran "World Cities" Online Dialogue.

Only the first 25 to RSVP will be seated. A delicious Middle Eastern buffet will be served. RSVPS to 310.657.5511. No reservations will be accepted via email. Calls only.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 31 2009 2:15pm - Feb 6 2010 5:15pm

Price: 

$120 for four workshops (payable in advance).

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
one block east of Crescent Heights Blvd.
corner of Stearns, ample street parking

Levantine Cultural Center in association with The Writing Studio^TM offers ongoing classes in creative writing, autobiography, memoir and fiction, with Elana Golden.

Every Saturday except the 4th Saturday in the month

CLASS CAN BE JOINED AT ANY TIME, SIGN UP FOR A SET OF FOUR CLASSES.
2:15 - 5:15 PM

At Levantine Cultural Center, 5998 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035
$120 for four (4) consecutive classes paid in advance
Suitable for new and experienced writers - limited to 10 participants

In each class, participants write and read in the group in an atmosphere of respect and artistic passion. The skills of creative writing are taught and explored, as well as methods to put aside the critical mind and free the writer's personal voice.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Aug 2 2009 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public.

Where: 

UCLA WG Young Hall, CS76
Parking Lot 2 is $10.00.

A scene from "Come Mother"Azi Aiyma (Come Mother, 77 minutes) is a new documentary written and directed by Sami Shalom Chetrit and produced by Haim Buzaglo.

This is an exclusive screening of Sami Shalom Chetrit's latest film, the story of the filmmaker's journey with his mother Yakut ("pearl" in Arabic) as she searches Israel for her elementary school classmates from the elementary school, Alliance, which she attended 60 years ago in the little village of Gurama in the Tafilalt region of Morocco. Through tales of past and present, transition, cultural crisis, and survival, Morocco is retold by women who were among the first generation of emigrants to Israel. The film is in Moroccan, Hebrew and French with English subtitles. 

The director will be in attendance and a short Q and A will follow.

Script and Director: Sami Shalom Chetrit
Producer: Haim Bouzaglo Production LTD
Cinematography: Philippe Bellaiche
Editor: Eli Hamo Soundtrack: Ilan Ben Ami, Yossi Appelbaum
Music: Ilan Ben Ami
Singing: Niva Ben Simon

By Elaine Hagopian

Hisham Sharabi. Embers and Ashes: Memoirs of an Arab Intellectual. Translated by Issa J. Boullata. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2008.186 pages. Paper $15.00.

THE 1967 WAR TRIGGERED a frantic Arab-American rush to organize and to challenge the mendacious Zionist narrative. The community intellectuals formed the Association of Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) and pursued a program of scholarly analyses which challenged Zionist accounts. I served on the AAUG Board with Sharabi among others. He was quiet-spoken and verbally economic in his interaction with others but clearly politically committed and intellectually accomplished. He was a complex personality, confounding friends and enemies alike with his sphinx-like manner. His memoirs go far in revealing and clarifying his persona.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jul 18 2009 1:30pm - Aug 15 2009 4:30pm

Price: 

$120 for four workshops (payable in advance).

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
one block east of Crescent Heights, ample street parking

The Immigrant Experience WorkshopLevantine Cultural Center in association with The Writing Studio invites you to a series of four (4) writing classes with Elana Golden:

THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
Saturdays July 18th, August 1st, 8th and 15th, 1:30 - 4:30 PM

Whether you and/or your family immigrated by choice, were exiled or displaced as a result of war, revolution or political suppression, you left one life behind and crossed a threshold into a new one. You may be living a life with the body in one place and the heart in another.

The workshop will offer inspiration from literature, art and music to usher you into a story that positions the personal against a historical/ political/ societal background.

HELP US STOP THE SUPPRESSION OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE

The Iranian people's outcry for freedom is a reaction to 30 years of suppression of their freedom of speech and the repression of their human rights. Their cry calls on all freedom-loving people, democratic institutions and governments to unite in condemning the latest anti-democratic actions of the Iranian regime.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Feb 28 2009 6:00pm - Mar 25 2009 9:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center Gallery
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657

BaghdadismFaris Al-Saffar presents new and recent drawings (pen/ink) with an opening reception on Saturday, February 28, 6-9 pm, and a closing reception on March 25, 6-9 pm. Baghdadism runs Feb. 28-March 25, 2009 during regular center hours, Monday-Friday, 10 am-6 pm.

The works include imagery of Baghdad and subjects from Al-Saffar's experience of children's songs, impressions of nature, visits to local mosques and much more. With humor and irreverence the artist captures his city like no other. 

Al-Saffar, formerly a civil engineer under Saddam who was forced to work on a secret long-range missile program, fled across Iraqi Republican Guard lines into the hands of Allied Forces during the first Gulf War. He was taken prisoner and spent a year and a half in a Saudi Arabian detainee camp in the desert with over 100,000 other Iraqi POWs, before receiving political asylum in the U.S. in 1993.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Feb 27 2009 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

$10 at the door includes a drink
Or $18 gets you an autographed copy
Beer/wine cash bar

Where: 

*** Grand Opening Event ***
Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035

Wafaa Bilal at Levantine CenterJoin us Fri. Feb. 27 when we inaugurate our new space with guest artist/writer Wafaa Bilal, co-author of Shoot An Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun (with Kari Lydersen, from City Lights 2009). Also featuring Baghdadism, a new exhibit of drawings by Faris Al-Saffar. This evening is cosponsored by CODEPINK: Women for Peace. This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs.


“History simply refuses to leave some people alone. The Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal grew up under Saddam Hussein, survived two wars, was forced to live for periods at refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and finally escaped to the U.S. in 1992 to study art.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Oct 24 2008 7:00pm - Oct 26 2008 11:00pm

Price: 

Where: 

Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028
For complete film schedule and tickets call 323.663.1882.

From October 24-26 in Hollywood, Arpa International Film Festival will screen 50 films from 21 nations, including Armenia, Australia, Canada, China, Congo, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tobago, Trinidad, Turkey, UK, and Venezuela.

Arpa International Film Festival, which goes green in 2008, is produced by Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA), a non-profit organization dedicated to artists exploring identity, multi-culturalism, war, exile, genocide and global empathy.