Event Details

Date/Time: 

Feb 15 2012 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Price: 

Suggested donation $10, students $5

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
Between La Cienega & Fairfax
ample street parking or in CVS underground lot

Syria expert and George Mason professor Bassam Haddad talks about Syria's political economy, business networks and the resilience of the Al-Assad regime. Presented in the monthly series, "Progressive Conversations on Israel/Palestine and US Foreign Policy in the Middle East," cosponsored by Friends of Sabeel and LA Jews for Peace in association with the Levantine Cultural Center.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Dec 20 2011 12:30pm - 2:30pm

Price: 

Contribution requested (min. suggested $100)
Click here to RSVP with donation

Where: 

The Palm
1100 S. Flower StreetLos Angeles CA 90015
RSVP by Dec. 15 to 310.657.5511

At 11th and Flower across from the Staples Center
free valet parking at lunch behind the restaurant

The arts help create a safe space for exploration of potentially difficult issues. The Middle East is the birthplace of our civilization. It is where Judaism, Christianity and Islam-three faiths with much in common-originate. The Middle East is also the primary resource for our energy needs and where we have many strategic partners, from Turkey and Israel to Saudi Arabia.

By Tony Litwinko

Samir Twair, Syrian activist, journalist and correspondent for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, spoke at the Levantine Center on Sunday, November 6, 2011, about the history of and current situation in Syria.

The talk was one in the series "Progressive Conversations on Israel/Palestine and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East," sponsored jointly by the Levantine Center, LA Jews for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Friends of Sabeel Los Angeles and Orange County.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Nov 6 2011 3:00pm - 5:00pm

Price: 

Free to the public. Donations welcome ($10 general, $5 students suggested)

Where: 

Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035
between La Cienega and Fairfax
ample street parking or across in the CVS underground lot

Samir Twair, a leader in the Syrian resistance movement in diaspora, will discuss the ongoing struggle for freedom in Syria with a talk entitled, Syrian Spring: Factors and Forces.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Sep 9 2011 7:00pm - Sep 15 2011 11:00pm

Price: 

$12 movie tickets

Where: 

Covina
1414 North Azusa Ave
Covina CA 91722
888.262.4386

Orange AMC 30 At the Block
20 City Blvd West, Orange, CA
888. 262.4386

Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football is a feature-length documentary film that follows four talented high school football players from the working class Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown. The film begins on September 11, 2009 and concludes at the end of Ramadan ten days later. The story takes place at Fordson High School, a public school built by Henry Ford in 1922 that was once all white, but now attracts a 98% Arab-American population. The film plays in Southern California at the AMC 30 at the Block in Orange (OC) and in LA County at AMC Covina. Locations/showtimes.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Aug 27 2011 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

$5 admission. Snacks and beverages available for purchase.
Doors 7 pm, films 7:50 pm.

Where: 

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

Friends of Film presents an evening of documentary film on North Africa and the Levant with filmmakers Melanie Reynard and Soula Saad in person for Q & A after the screening. Tagut ("Fog"in Tashelhit) (17 minutes), directed by Melanie Reynard, follows the non-profit organization Dar Si-Hmad, based in Ifni, in Morocco's southwest, as activists launch a fog-collecting project in June 2011 in order to provide drinking water to Amazigh (Berber) communities living in the anti-Atlas Mountains to relieve women from fetching water an average of 3.5 hours per day.

By Souraya Al-Alaoui

Syrian singer and man of the hour Omar Souleyman stood out in the Echo Park crowd with his red keffiyyeh wrapped piously around his head, accented by a pair of aviator sunglasses and a white thob. Hailing from the Al Jazeera region in Syria's northeast, Souleyman serves up the most folkloric and essential part of Syrian and Lebanese music—dabké, intended to be dance music specifically for a style of dance called dabké. Dabké, which varies from one Arab country to the next, is a unique part of Arab culture. It is a dance of celebration, community, and unity; after all, it's not a dance to be performed solo, but rather requires people to move together, holding hands, shoulders, bodies, and dancing as one. On occasion there is a solo performer who adds some of his own flair while the rest continue on together.

Reviewed by Omid Arabian

Cultures of Resistance, directed by Iara Lee, bills itself as a documentary that "highlights the work of artists, musicians, and dancers throughout the world who are working for peace and justice, and are re-conceiving resistance as a fundamentally creative act." Starting in 2003, Ms. Lee traveled across the Middle East, North Africa, and other regions, documenting grassroots movements for change within various countries.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Sep 11 2011 5:00pm - 8:00pm

Price: 

Suggested donation $11 (students $5) includes light refreshments (no-one turned away for lack of funds) to benefit the center

Where: 

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

Activists, artists, writers and members of the general public are invited to participate in a community roundtable discussion on the events of 9/11, including the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the passing of the USA Patriot Act, the "war on terror," Islamophobia, the Green Movement in Iran in 2009, and this year's Arab Spring and just what we can look forward to in the months and years ahead.

Event Details

Date/Time: 

Jul 12 2011 8:30pm - 10:00pm

Price: 

8:30pm / $10adv; $12 day of show / 18+
Click here for tickets

Where: 

The Echo
1822 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
213.413.8200

Omar Souleyman is one of Syria's most popular street singers. The timing couldn't be better for this rare US tour. His latest album "Jazeera" is getting attention even as protesters are changing Syria's image abroad. The Arabic word "jazeera" means "island" or "peninsula" in English, but it seems unlikely that the people at Souleyman's label, Sublime Frequencies, were going for something as Malibu breezy as "Island Nights" for the title of this compilation.

Even though many Americans and Europeans are aware of the distortions and exaggerations some Western media outlets have made about Arabic news network Al Jazeera, the bugaboo surrounding the word feels as if it will limit this album's audience. That's unfortunate, because Jazeera Nights: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria is probably the most dynamic collection of Omar Souleyman's work that Sublime Frequencies has yet released.