Ammiel Alcalay reads from his new book at Beyond Baroque on July 27, 2002 at 7:30 pm.

Activist and author Ammiel Alcalay offers a poetic response to international crises, as Beyond Baroque publishes his epic poetic work, from the warring factions. Alcalay is a the poet, scholar and political activist noted for his work in the Middle East and Bosnia. He will provide a poetic context for viewing international religious and ethnic wars in a special event at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, Saturday, July 27. Alcalay will mix poetry and commentary as part of the First Annual Beyond Text Festival. Levantine Cultural Center cosponsors this Beyond Baroque publication event.

Beyond Text Festival Schedule Beyond

Baroque Literary/Arts Center is in the Old Venice City Hall, 681 Venice Blvd., California. For more information on this or other events presented by Beyond Baroque, please phone (310) 822-3006.

The following is a complete schedule of the Beyond Text Festival: July 26 ­ 28, various times

BEYOND TEXT FESTIVAL featuring Jerome Rothenberg, Sami Chetrit, Richard Grossman, Stephanie Taylor, Ellyn Maybe, Majid Naficy, Will Alexander & others, including a publication reading of Beyond Baroque Books¹ from the warring factions, by Ammiel Alcalay. $7 per single event, $20 full weekend.

Friday, July 26, 2002 - 7:30 PM - George Drury Smith, experimental fiction writer & founder of Beyond Baroque; World Stage poet AK Toney performing; poet Paul Vangelisti, author of Selected Poems and many other books, reading his work; LA artist Stephanie Taylor, who has shown work in LA, Berlin, and others, performing new work ³Valsalhalal¹s Tin Gun²; Judson Church founder, LA dance improviser and writer Simone Forti; and poet/editor/UNESCO ambassador Jerome Rothenberg, editor of the Book on the Book and major international anthologies, delivering the keynote and reading his poems.

Saturday, July 27, 2002 - 7:30 PM - LA artist Andrew Choate DJing found sound and language collages; LA writer & artist Matthew Byloos reading fiction; Holly Crawford performing punctuation; Majid Naficy, author of Muddy Shoes, will read new work; and the Levantine Cultural Center hosts the Beyond Baroque Books Author Publication reading of Ammiel Alcalay's new from the warring factions, an epic poem on wars and dispossession in the contemporary world. Alcalay is author of After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture and Keys to the Garden, New Israeli Writing, and several volumes of poetry and non-fiction.

Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 4 PM - Jordan Elgrably, writer and cultural activist, has published in Salamagundi and The Paris Review, will read "Life and Death: Photographs"; Sande Cohen, author of Passive Nihilism and several books on historiography, will discuss oxymorons in contemporary culture; poet Ellyn Maybe, author of Cowardice of Amnesia and the forthcoming Walking Barefoot in the Glassblowers Garden, will read; and poet and model for young Israeli refuseniks Sami Chetrit will read from new work, in Hebrew and with translations by Ammiel Alcalay

Sunday, July 28, 2002 ­ 7 PM - San Diego artists Tony Allard & Alexi Morrisey will read from their moebius strip manual typewriter cut-up of the weekend¹s texts; artist and writer Paul Zelavansky will discuss moron jokes; poet Will Alexander will read from his book Stratospheric Canticles accompanied by slides of his art work; musician and member of Solid Eye Joseph Hammer will perform; members of the Beyond Baroque Working Group will read texts on the preservation of culture; LA artist Cory Peipon will perform acapella with her band; and text maestro and author of The Alphabet Man and Book of Lazarus Richard Grossman will close with excerpts from the forthcoming Breeze Avenue.

Installations in the building will include extended performances from Tony Allard & Alexi Morrisey, Jason Mahanes and Michael Markowsky with works by Robbie Kimberg, Richard Grossman, Andrew Choate, , Simone Forti, Matthew Byloos, George Drury Smith, Paul Zelavansky, Holly Crawford, and the Beyond Baroque Working Group.


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LEVANTINE CULTURAL CENTER
Cultures of the Middle East & Mediterranean 2002
8424A Santa Monica Blvd., N.789, West Hollywood CA 90069
323.650.7010, info@levantinecenter.org

Levantine Cultural Center advocates for, educates about, and in general promotes and supports Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures and arts. The Center exists to promote music, literature, art, film/video, new media and history through advocacy, education, scholarship and entertainment. We are strongly committed to the principle of cross-cultural cooperation, and support the strengthening of ties between all cultural, ethnic and religious communities of the Middle East as well as between all peoples of Middle Eastern descent.