America So BeautifulIRAN/AMERICA Then and Now (1979-2009): A Public Conversation and Special Screening of the feature "America So Beautiful" (visit americasobeautiful.com), with a panel discussion featuring writer/director Babak Shokrian, costar Fariborz David Diaan and international vocal star Sussan Deyhim, moderated by author Mark LeVine.

Presented by CODEPINK Women for Peace (codepinkalert.org), Levantine Cultural Center (levantinecenter.org) and Sociarts (sociarts.com).

Movie tickets $10, available in advance or at the door, call 310.657.5511 or 310.657.5522.

By Jordan Flaherty

The Maqusi Towers in Gaza City look a bit like US housing projects. The neighborhood consists of several tall apartment buildings grouped together in the northern part of town. It is also ground zero for Gaza's growing Hip-Hop community. On a recent evening in one small but well-decorated apartment, a dozen rappers and their friends and families relaxed, danced, smoked flavored tobacco, and rapped the lyrics to some of their songs.

The DARG Team and friends at Hip Hop Kom. (Jordan Flaherty)The occasion was a post-show celebration of the taping of Hip Hop Kom, an "American Idol"-type talent competition for Palestinian rappers. Fifteen acts from across Palestine performed on Thursday night, and the show was broadcast simultaneously in Gaza City and the West Bank city of Ramallah. Through the use of video conferencing and projection, each city could see and hear the performances happening in the other. Five groups from Gaza participated, and Gazans came in first, third, and fourth place.

Palestinian-Lebanese filmmaker Mai MasriMai Masri is a Palestinian-Lebanese female filmmaker. She is the daughter of a Palestinian father from Nablus and an American mother from Texas who was raised in Beirut, where she has lived most of her life. Her films focus on Palestine and Lebanon, more specifically on Palestinians living in Lebanese refugee camps. Several of Masri's films concentrate on the arduous lives of Palestinian children-a largely unheard and ignored voice. Ironically, Palestinian children seem to radiate with optimism in the face of their intolerable situations.

In her film "Frontiers of Dreams and Fears" (2001) Masri explores the enduring friendship that is fostered between two young Palestinian girls who live very close yet very far away from each other. Mona was born and raised in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut and Manar lives in the Dheishe refugee camp in the West Bank. Mona and Manar's friendship begins when their two schools collaborate and set up a pen pal system.

Mixed Roots Fest: how many of us are the product of parents from different cultures or religions?How many of us are the product of parents from two different cultures, religions or nationalities?

Nadine LabakiNadine Labaki is best known for her film Caramel which she co-wrote, directed, and starred in. Caramel debuted in 2007 and instantly became an international sensation. This is one of the few post-war Lebanese films that is apolitical and portrays a Beirut that most outsiders are not familiar with. It is a romantic comedy that deals with five Lebanese women who gather in a beauty salon and encounter love, sexuality, tradition, disappointment, and the daily ups and downs of life. The 35-year-old Labaki received much acclaim as a director and actress from the success of her film and was placed on the "10 Directors To Look Out For" list in Variety magazine.

Giorgos SeferisGiorgos Seferis (pen name for Geōrgios Seferiádēs) was born in Urla, Ottoman Empire. In 1914 his family moved to Athens. Later Seferis studied law at the Sorbonne. He also had a long successful diplomatic career in the Royal Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs after moving back to Athens in 1925. Giorgos Seferis was also one of the most important Greek poets of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963 "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of culture". Seferis was the first Greek to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He also published a translation of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and his famous stanza from Mythistorema was featured in the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Abdullah al-BaradouniAbdullah Al-Baradouni was a Yemeni writer and poet. Al-Baradouni was born in Zarajat Baradoun in Dhamar, Yemen. When he was six years old he came down with smallpox leaving him blind. Al-Baradouni started writing poetry when he was 13 years old. He published 12 poetry books and six books on topics ranging from politics to folklore to literature. He is considered Yemen's most famous poet. He advocated for democracy and women's writes and wrote poems critical of the government and revolutionaries who overthrew them. Because of his beliefs Al-Baradouni spent time in prison throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

Muhammad al-Gharsi is one of the most famous modern Yemeni poets. He is a friend of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the current President of Yemen, and former President of Yemen Arab Republic. Before the unification of Yemen, al-Gharsi was viewed as "an eloquent spokesman for the republican regime."

Khalid AbdulrahmanKhalid Abdulrahman is a beloved singer, songwriter, and musician from Saudi Arabia. He is affectionately nicknamed "Friend of the Night" due to him staying up late in to the night to write poetry. Abdulrahman is one of Saudi Arabia's most popular vocalists who gained fame from the release of his first album "Sarihini" in 1987. This led to a series of successful album releases. His latest album is titled "Rouh Rouhey" (Soul of My Soul) and was released in 2008.

Tahar Ben JellounTahar Ben Jelloun was born in Fez to a shopkeeper and his wife in December of 1944. He is one of North Africa's most successful post-colonial writers, author of such novels as The Sand Child, The Sacred Night (for which he won France's Prix Goncourt), Corruption, This Blinding Absence of Light, and Leaving Tangier. Ben Jelloun moved at eighteen from Fez to Tangier where he attended a French high school until enrolling at the Universite Mohammed V in Rabat in 1963. It was at the university where Ben Jelloun's writing career began. Exposed to the journal Soufflés (Breaths) as well as the journal's founder, poet Abdellatif Laabi. Later, while interned in Morocco under the iron fist of King Hassan II, Ben Jelloun found an escape in James Joyce.