Dearborn Open Mic … The Artistic Oasis in Arab American Dearborn

Wednesday September 6  was a special evening in Dearborn.  The Dearborn Open Mic, after 5 months of consistent efforts had a line up of poets, reciters, and story tellers that took the program over time for the first time.

“We launched Dearborn Open Mic as the first Arabic and English Open Mic in America, as far as I know, in the heart of Dearborn, and in the one and only Arab American Museum in the nation, as part of Dearborn blog’s efforts in changing the conversation in Dearborn” said Wissam Charafeddine, the founder of Dearborn Blog and the Dearborn Open Mic.

“Dearborn has a consortium of Arabic poets, Young Artists, and Arab American creative writing talents, that it should be considered an intellectual and artistic center, if it wasn’t for the lack of that expression in the community.  We are going to change that.”

Wissam said that Arab Americans visit Dearborn from all over the country for the food.  We should offer them more than that.

 

The Dearborn Open Mic launched with less than 10 attendees.  It stayed consistent, and now attendance is picking up, and poets are lining up for the engaging and rich platform.

From young Arab American poets, like Nisreen Faraj – We Judge – 4-12-17 , to porfessional Arabic poets, like Bashar Darwish – فضحتنا صفحات الماء في شط العرب and Do I Truly Love him? by Ali Alsendy,you will get a variety of poets and participation in Dearborn Blog.

His excellence, the Former Ambassador of Lebanon, Dr. Ali Ajami, who is also a known poet, has participated with a group of poems, like his famous “Aynaky” poem:

 

Ali El Sendy, the famous young Iraqi poet, who has won several awards in the poetry forums of Lebanon, has been a consistent contributor to Dearborn Open Mic. The following is his play list:

 

The founder Wissam Charafeddine, who is an established poet in English (received the second place in the national college poetry contest), and an Arabic poet too, has been in addition to organizing the event, participating consistently:

 

There have also been some English poets from the community and from out side the community participating.  Renoun, a well known Detroit poet, and the founder and organizer of several open mic’s in the area has participated with few poems, including her famous Detroit is Not on Fire:

 

Dearborn Open Mic takes place every first Wednesday of each month at 7PM at the Arab American Museum.  It runs til about 9PM.  All participation are welcomed and the event is free of charge, thanks to the sponsorship of Dearborn Blog and the Arab American Museum.