Author Archives: Arab America

NEW YORK: R&B star Lauryn Hill on Monday canceled a concert in Israel just a few days away, saying she had tried unsuccessfully to perform in the Palestinian territories as well.
The former Fugees singer had been scheduled to perform Thursday near Tel Aviv but faced a social media campaign by activists who urged her to boycott Israel over its occupation of Palestinian land.
Hill said that she had wanted to schedule a second show in Ramallah in the West Bank but that the logistics “proved to be a challenge.”
“I’ve wanted very much to bring our live performance to this part of the world, but also to be a presence supporting justice and peace,” she wrote on her website.
“It is very important to me that my presence or message not be misconstrued, or a source of alienation to either my Israeli or my Palestinian fans,” she said.
Hill said she would “seek a different strategy to bring my music to ALL of my fans in the region.”
Activists had pressured Hill to cancel, with a campaign that quoted “Killing Me Softly” — a cover song she is famous for — to describe Israeli policies.
Israel has faced boycott calls by artists, academics and musicians including Roger Waters and Brian Eno, who hope that such cultural ostracization can change Israeli policies.
However, Israel’s defenders have fought against the campaign and plenty of musicians have defied boycott calls to play in Israel in recent years including Paul McCartney and Elton John.
Hill came to prominence in the mid-1990s with the Fugees, who also featured Haitian American Wyclef Jean and incorporated elements of hip-hop and Caribbean music into R&B.

Source: www.arabnews.com

It’s been said music crosses cultural and historical barriers. And while metro Detroit’s music scene has always been diverse, Arabic music rarely enters the conversation.

Conductor, musician, and educator Michael Ibrahim wants to change this.

The National Arab Orchestra will take the Masonic Temple stage for a gala performance at 8 p.m. Friday, May 8, led by Ibrahim, and will feature composer and vocalist Salah Kurdi, joined by students from the Detroit School of Arts (formerly the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts). Even though it’s not their native language, these students will sing in Arabic.

A Sterling Heights native, Ibrahim, 30, has devoted his life to music and to teaching different groups how to sing in Arabic, especially when they don’t know the language. Ibrahim had his own entrance into the culture at an early age.

Priestly beginnings

As a child, Ibrahim was fascinated by his grandfather’s voice. He rhapsodizes about the chanting he’d hear, which struck something deep within him.

“I guess I got into music because my grandfather was a priest, and when he would chant he had a good voice,” Ibrahim says. “The music in the church was really beautiful. Part of that inspired me in the beginning. I like creating good work. I like doing good work. That’s what motivates me to keep doing this.”

He was raised Greek Orthodox, born of Syrian immigrants, and while music was integral to daily life, it didn’t truly land on his radar as a career until college.

“Nobody in my family really played anything,” Ibrahim says. “My dad had an oud (similar to a guitar). He would just take it out and fiddle with the strings. I remember watching him when I was a kid. I liked the sound and look of the instrument. Music has always been a way for Arabs to hold onto their culture. I’m a product of that system. I had my cultural awakening through the music.”

Later, at Eastern Michigan University, where he earned a degree in music, he discovered the music of Simon Shaheen & Qantara on a CD called Blue Flame. The music brought tears to Ibrahim’s eyes.

Still, he found himself moving between two worlds: music and spirituality. “I had a stint where I worked with the bishop in Toledo,” he says. “I was ordained a sub-deacon. I just figured out that wasn’t for me. I found myself always coming back to music.”

Ibrahim has studied with Shaheen, Johnny Sarweh, Nadeem Dlaikan, Douglas Bianchi, Anthony Iannacconne, Dr. David Pierce, Robert Williams, and Victoria King. He earned a master’s degree in conducting from Wayne State University.

“It just made sense,” Ibrahim says. “My teacher said, ‘Instead of just getting a regular master’s degree in music, you should do conducting.’ That was the best advice he gave me. The education I got at Wayne helped me to apply all that technique to that work.”

Ibrahim wanted to grow as an artist.

Starting the National Arab Orchestra

The NAO, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2009 and established in 2010. Its goal is to preserve and perform the classical and contemporary traditions of Arab music.

“There’s not a lot of groups like this group,” Ibrahim says. “There are a bunch of student groups, a bunch of smaller groups that don’t have fuller instrumentation. The New York Arab Orchestra was around about a year before I started doing my thing. Most groups center it around one individual. So there’s no real sense of strategy or direction. I purposely set it up, when I believe someone might take my spot, I make it about the music, rather than about myself.”

Getting past the stereotypes

Thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation, Ibrahim and his group began to think about expanding their base.

“We basically thought, ‘Why don’t we share this music with non-Arabs,'” Ibrahim says. “Which we were already doing, but we weren’t doing it in the sense that we were allowing the general public to participate in the concert. Inherently, Arab music is participatory because people clap along; they listen to it, they like what they’re hearing. To really allow students to learn the music was one of the motivating factors. Schools across the states, either their funding is being cut or wiped out all together.”

Did it take some getting used to for the Detroit School of Arts students? Sure, but music wasn’t the only challenge.

“These kids probably don’t have any experience with Arab culture outside of a gas station — most of them,” Ibrahim says. “That’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality. So when you try to talk to them in Arabic, they’re going to giggle, and they’re going to be like, ‘This is weird.’ But that dies out real quick, when you start to communicate with them and make it about the music, they get serious about it, and then they get into it. And that’s just the most rewarding thing to see. You’re sharing something very personal with other kids that you otherwise wouldn’t have any contact with.”

Finding a national platform

The gala performance is in its fourth iteration, but as executive and music director of the National Arab Orchestra, Ibrahim wants to spread the word beyond metro Detroit and the Arab community.

“It’s no secret that metro Detroit has the largest population of Arabs outside the Middle East, hands down, so it’s a pretty big community,” Ibrahim says. “The best way to represent any group of people is through their artistic achievements. You’re talking about a culture that has over 2,000 years’ worth of cultural heritage. A lot of that is based in music.”

They have upcoming performances in Jacksonville, Fla. on Aug. 22, and a performance Sept. 19 at the Music Hall with the Michigan Philharmonic.

“Teaching Arab music outside of the culture is a great way to create cross-cultural references,” Ibrahim says. “It’s a great way to put people in touch with people. I want to see this music be passed down. I don’t want it to die out. It’s dying in the Middle East. That’s one of our missions as an institution. We’re trying to keep this music alive.”

Source: www.metrotimes.com

WASHINGTON — The sad realities of Syria’s civil war permeate the paintings of Essa Neima, a 34-year-old Syrian national.

At a recent exhibit, his oil on acrylic works ranged from depictions of damaged church and mosque mosaics, to a broken icon of Mary and a refugee woman forced into servitude by the need to survive.

Most of the paintings were strewn with the deep red color of blood.

“It is like treasure … covered by blood because (of) what’s happening now, the sad events happening in Syria,” Neima told Catholic News Service in Washington, thousands of miles from his country, where conflict has killed nearly 200,000 people and dispersed about 10 million others, according to U.N. estimates.

Neima said the exhibit began with a dream he had in 2014, soon after learning that his friend, Dutch Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt, 75, had been killed by extremists in Syria. The dream was filled with writing and a human eye, which Neima interpreted as signs he should inform people outside Syria of the toll that the war was taking on his country’s ethnically and culturally diverse communities.

Source: www.catholicsentinel.org

Witnessing these four young mental health advocates share the highs and lows of their healing journeys, it was clear to all present that telling one’s story openly and honestly is a sign of strength — not weakness and shame.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Sydney food truck operators are pulling up to the kerb, not in search of parking spots, but rather bricks and mortar.

Thievery opens tonight, at 91 Glebe Point Road, backed by the team behind Eat Art Truck. Its modern Middle Eastern-inspired food is the creation of Jordan Muhamad (Rockpool, Chin Chin) and 2015 Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year Julian Cincotta. Eat Art Truck co-owner Mo Moubayed explains they’ve toyed with pop-ups, but branching out to permanent restaurants is a natural business progression.

“Everyone assumes food trucks are cheaper than running a restaurant, but they are extremely hard work. You still need an off-site kitchen, Sydneysiders aren’t late night eaters and most venues offer food,” Moubayed says.

Soft-drink bottles at Thievery in Glebe. Photo: Christopher Pearce
Thievery takes its design cues from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

“It looks like a hideout; we wanted to create somewhere people could go and hang out. Somewhere we could have fun and be experimental with Middle Eastern,” he says.

One dish turns the traditional lamb nayyeh on its head, raw minced lamb replaced with the very-Sydney addition of kingfish. At Thievery the mojitos will be orange blossom-flavoured and the accent strong.

“We’ve even sourced Coke bottles with Arabic writing on them. There are local beers and beers from Lebanon,” Moubayed says.

He’s also bullish about a strip that has claimed more than its share of restaurant scalps.

“We like the village vibe, it’s near Sydney Uni and Newtown is a little saturated.”

Source: www.goodfood.com.au

Mustafa Shaheen looked like a million bucks as he walked hurriedly around Witt Gallery, making final preparations for the opening of his first solo art show, “Friends and Sometimes Friends.” On a small table by the entrance was a pencil-drawn image of celebrity chef Guy Fieri, screaming. The picture was titled “Welcome To Flavortown.” Like Fieri, Shaheen attended American River College. Unlike Fieri, everything else.
Born in 1985 in Egypt, Shaheen remembers his early life being centered around the concept of family. In fact, the majority of his family lived in the same building owned by his grandfather, who gave each of his children a section of the building to begin their families.
“I had a ton of cousins. English was my first language, but I picked up Arabic just playing with kids,” said Shaheen.
Shaheen and his parents, along with his younger brother, moved to Qatar, where both of his parents worked.
But they wouldn’t be there long, before having to move to America in 1996 as political refugees after his father, a firefighter for Qatar’s Royal Navy, unsuccessfully tried to blow the whistle on a string of corruption that he had seen.
According to Shaheen, co-workers of his father were stealing military equipment and selling it elsewhere. His father was jailed by Qatar’s military until he was released on the condition that he and his family leave the country.
“When you’re 11, you don’t really think about how deep that s— is in any way. You’re just like, ‘Oh, my dad’s in this weird solitary jail facility and I have to visit him once a month,” said Shaheen.
None of this was hidden from Shaheen as a child, which he sees as a good example of the differences between Middle Eastern culture and America.
“There is no coddling with children (in the Middle East). You grow up fast and mature quickly there,” said Shaheen.

Source: www.arcurrent.com

Graffiti is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Dubai. When you stroll among the desert city’s skyscrapers or drive along its ever-changing roads, there is little street art to be seen, aside from the occasional hastily scrawled musing.

But, if you meander down the alleyways of the beachside suburb of Jumeirah, visit the warehouses in the industrial al-Quoz area, Dubai Festival City’s car parks, or the streets of the bustling Karama neighbourhood, you’re likely to come across a scattering of dynamic walls of work.

There are Matisse-esque two-headed green women, playful bows with antlers, and expanses of elegant Arabic calligraphy painstakingly painted over splashes of colour.

More surprising than the pieces themselves is that female artists created many of them. Less surprising is that the street art is not a free-for-all but must be confined to approved public spaces.

“It’s really difficult to get a permanent wall in Dubai and any street art on a non-approved wall is removed after a few days,” says Tarsila Schubert, a 27-year-old Brazilian street artist. “There are a few walls with permanent works on them, though.”

Dubai-born street artist Fathima, 31 – who has also painted in the UK and Canada – agrees, but adds that she finds the emirate’s scene “weird”.

Source: www.theguardian.com

The legendary Rai musician will be joined by singers Fares Karam and Aryam in November
Entertainment hasalways been a key component of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and this year’s star-studded event will be delivering a concert line-up fit for the occasion.
The Yasalam After-Race concert series has announced its Arabic music roster for the event’s opening night on November 26, with headlining acts that include legendary Algerian musician Cheb Khaled, Lebanese folk singer Fares Karam and Emirati songstress Aryam. Best-selling electronic dance music producer Said Mrad will also be entertaining the thousands of race fans expected to attend the Middle Eastern showcase, while international artists set to perform at the festival’s seventh anniversary remain to be announced.
Arguably one of the biggest Arab artists to headline the event in years will be Rai musician, Khaled. Credited with helping to mainstream Arabic music to the world, the 55-year-old has sold over 80 million albums worldwide and is recognised as one of the region’s most progressive and socially conscious artists.
From his first global smash hit Didi (1993) and universally acclaimed love ballad Aïcha (1996), to his latest chart topper C’est la vie, produced by Moroccan-Swedish producer RedOne, the singer-songwriter remains one of the only Middle Eastern artists to achieve recognition and success outside the borders of the Arab world.
In 2009, Khaled spoke to City Times about the struggles he often faced for his controversial music. “I received no support when I was growing up and I suffered for my art and was marginalised. At least today these young artists can sing more freely,” he said.
The concert line-up will also feature popular artist Fares Karam, best known for his traditional style of Levantine folk music. The best-selling singer, best known for uplifting ‘Dabke’ dance hits including Al Tannoura and Al Ghorbi, is considered something of a national treasure in his native Lebanon nearly two decades after launching his career.
Only race ticket holders will have access to the concert. For tickets call 800 927 or visit www.yasmarinacircuit.com/. ;

Source: en-maktoob.entertainment.yahoo.com

For one day only, this Saturday, Mystical Letters, the successful Sufi inspired art collection by contemporary British Muslim artist Aadil Abedi arrives in London following growing demand for his work in the Middle East and an impressive client list that includes Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai Bachan.

But it’s his creative journey, interspersed with adventure and risk-take as an “acclaimed artist” which has already created a buzz a head of his first solo-exhibition in London’s high end district of Knightsbridge, not least because he infuses it into his Calligraphy productions.

His collection of work gives the ancient tradition of Arabic calligraphy a modern twist as he merges the ancient style of text with contemporary design, which he describes as “Arabesque Art.”

Speaking to Al Arabiya News, he further reflected on how his work was a fusion of his mixed heritage and his Islamic faith: “I am Muslim and want to showcase the creative, beautiful side of my religion. Although my pieces are not strictly religious, I can cater to my clients’ needs. I am of both Indian (Dad from Hyderabad) and Pakistani (Mum from Karachi) heritage, and my great grandmother’s from Iran so I am a merge of all these cultures.”

Source: english.alarabiya.net

Art galleries are generally quiet, hushed spaces, but at the Los Angeles County Museum a show called Islamic Art Now is sparking some heated discussions as visitors ponder the photographs, paintings and neon sculptures on display.

Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi has covered every inch of a reclining odalisque with graceful Arabic calligraphy. The woman is staring right at us, and viewers wonder: Is the writing protection? A shield? Imprisonment?

Translating the calligraphy, curator Linda Komaroff doesn’t see it that way. “I see it more as: This is who I am. See me for who I am. Read me if you like, but this is me,” she says.

Egyptian-German artist Susan Hefuna’s Woman Behind Mashrabiya I is a black and white image of a shrouded woman looking out from behind a pierced screen. We can’t really see her, but she can see us. Is she protected? Trapped?

“It’s very mysterious — and deliberately so,” Komaroff says. “It’s this notion about: Do we really understand? … To me, a lot of these images are a challenge to an American audience to maybe rethink what their perceptions are of women in the Middle East, women in the Islamic world. Maybe they’re not that different from us after all.”

Some provocative images may feel very different from Western experience. Viewers get an extreme close-up in Iranian artist Shirin Neshat’s 1996 photograph Speechless. We see a portion of a woman’s face, circled by a black headscarf. At her right ear, what looks at first like a clunky earring turns out to be the barrel of a gun. With a look of determination, she’s pointing the gun directly at the viewer.

“I don’t think she’s after us,” Komaroff says. “I think she could be questioning our view of her. … It’s about reading her.”

Her face is covered with calligraphy — words about martyrdom and protection. But one could read menace and melancholy here as well.

“To me, a lot of it is about trying to get the viewer to get past his or her own preconceptions about who this woman is, and what she’s doing,” Komaroff says.

The curator says this armed and veiled female warrior fought in the revolution that deposed the Shah of Iran. Artist Shirin Neshat went back to an Iran ruled by the ayatollahs. UCLA professor Ali Behdad says this photo reflects the impact of revolution; it has “positioned women in a subordinate position at the same time it has also empowered them,” he says.

The women go to college, hold political office, drive, yet still wear chadors.

“A lot of the artists that you see in this gallery, they have double consciousness,” Behdad explains. “Many of them are caught between a certain tradition … and that tradition for the most part is Islamic — Islamic culture — on the other hand, they are secular and they are very much Westernized.”

These artists are from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Israel. According to the show’s catalog, they are Muslim, Christian and Jewish. Many are ex-pats. In fact, Behdad questions the title of the show — Islamic Art Now.

“I think the subtitle of this show is actually a more accurate description — artists from the Middle East,” Behdad says. “Because many of these artists — I think the overwhelming majority of these artists — are actually not Muslim in the very traditional sense of the word at all. They are incredibly secular. Many of them live in the West. If you called Andy Warhol a Christian artist would that make sense?”

Komaroff disagrees. She acknowledges that “Islamic” is a loaded word, but says that in its broader meaning, it applies here. “When we use the term ‘Islamic art’ we’re not talking about Islam, we’re not talking about religion,” she says. “… All the artists here are from this world that was initially shaped by Islam, by an Arabic alphabet, but has evolved into something so much more and much more complex than standard views of either religion or violence. It’s about beauty as well.”

Source: apr.org

During the Arab Spring, the revolution in Egypt was often described as a Facebook Revolution. On Facebook pages like “We are all Khaled Said,” Egyptian civil society organized itself and coordinated its protests in Tahrir Square.

Even today — four years after the fall of Mubarak, the ensuing political tumult and the reinstalment of the old elite under el-Sissi — the significance of Facebook for everyday communication continues unabated. And instead of sharing cat photos, Egyptians use the social network for new models of society, fundraising and progressive campaigns.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet is a celebration. It’s a celebration of the renowned Lebanese poet’s best-loved work, a reflection on life, love, food and death that has been translated into 40 languages and read by millions since its publication in 1923.

It’s also a celebration of the art of animation, with 10 directors called on to add their own distinctive voices to an ensemble piece that uses a range of techniques, from crayon drawings to modern motion capture, to bring Gibran’s messages to the screen.

And it is a celebration of life, freedom and the human spirit – the core values that shine through Gibran’s flowery, philosophical words.

And is The Prophet worth celebrating in this way? Without question.

Translating a slim volume of 26 poems into a ­feature-length film sounds implausible. However, overseen artfully by writer-­director Roger Allers – whose CV includes Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King – this brave undertaking succeeds by devoting large chunks of screen time to quoting Gibran’s words verbatim in a series of literary “lessons”, linked thematically with a fresh framing plot specially created for the film and not in the poems.

We begin with Mustafa (voiced by Liam Neeson) – the Prophet of the title, shortened from Almustafa – being released after seven years under house arrest. He is granted his freedom on the condition that he be escorted from an unnamed Mediterranean village – a sunny market town where people of different religions mix freely – and board a waiting ship to return to his (also unidentified) home country. He is followed by a mischievous, mute, cute young girl called Almitra, who is in turn pursued by her long-suffering mother, Kamila (voiced by co-producer Salma Hayek).

On the trek from his hilltop retreat, Mustafa encounters reverential villagers seeking his advice, which sparks the nine themed extracts from Gibran’s work, each illustrated by a guest director.

Two of them feature the poet’s words put to music, with tasteful compositions by Damien Rice (On Children) and a duet by Lisa Hannigan and Glen Hansard (On Love).

If this all sounds teeth-clenchingly twee, the quality and invention of not only Gibran’s words, but also the animators’ work make this worth seeing. Standouts include veteran cartoonist Bill Plympton’s humorous, hand-drawn segment (On Eating & Drinking), Michal Socha’s animated birds (On Freedom), and Emirati director Mohammed Saeed Harib’s beautiful, naturalistic watercolour animation (On Good & Evil), which includes nods to Arabic calligraphy.

Yet it’s the contrast and variety of seeing each of these pieces together that makes one appreciate the craft more.

It is perhaps inevitable that some will find the structure frustrating and the messages overwrought and preachy. In many ways, your enjoyment of the film will depend on your feelings about the prospect of listening to Neeson prophesying airy platitudes – for example: “For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst”; “Work is love made visible”; and “Your children are not your children / They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself” – on top of arty animation.

But allow yourself to be swept along with it, don’t dig too deep and you will find that it is a genuinely effective combination of words, pictures and music – an inventive fusion of mediums that in no way definitively captures the essence of The Prophet, but offers a fitting tribute for fans, a light introduction to the curious and an entertaining, engaging evening to everyone else.

Source: www.thenational.ae