DIWAN7 EXAMINES ISSUES, TRENDS IN ARAB AMERICAN ART
Biennial conference joins MOVE 2017 Arab American summit
Includes premiere of new commissioned music score, opening of new AANM exhibition on LGBTQ themes
Dearborn, Mich. (Oct. 16, 2017) – Over the past 12 years and six convenings, the Arab American National Museum’s (AANM) DIWAN: A Forum for the Arts has provided a critical safe space for dialogue and networking among Arab American artists and those interested in their work. DIWAN7, set for Nov. 16-18, 2017, is being presented as part of a new national Arab American summit called MOVE 2017, powered by ACCESS – the largest Arab American community nonprofit in the nation and the parent organization of AANM.
DIWAN (an Arabic word for “gathering”), a biennial convening, is the only such multidisciplinary art gathering of its kind in the United States. Arab American artists from around the country share their work, reaffirm their identity, stand up against profiling and advocate for our shared humanity. It also reinforces AANM’s commitment to provide a gathering place for the national Arab American community, while encouraging people of all backgrounds to explore the boundaries of art in addressing social issues related to Arab Americans and the community at large. View the DIWAN7 schedule below and at www.diwanart.org.
This year, DIWAN7 is part of MOVE 2017, also Nov. 16-18, 2017, an Arab American summit for social change. MOVE 2017 is a first-of-its-kind national conference providing space for artists, activists, scholars, philanthropists, organizations and others from the Arab American community to connect, learn and exchange ideas. Its goal is to Mobilize, Organize, Vocalize and Empower attendees as they explore intersectionality in a safe environment and have critical conversations about a wide range of issues impacting Arab Americans.
“This convening comes at a critical time for the Arab American community as it confronts a new wave of challenges in the United States,” says AANM Director Devon Akmon. “Now, more than ever, the Arab American community needs environments that foster dialogue and creative expression. By integrating DIWAN7 with the inaugural MOVE summit, we are providing space for artists to connect with philanthropists, arts presenters, activists and other members from across our diverse community.” The goal, Akmon says, is that artists leave DIWAN7 and MOVE 2017 with new relationships and connections that will lead to a more comprehensive network that informs and supports their work.
DIWAN7/MOVE 2017 sessions take place at the Museum, 13624 Michigan Ave., and the Dearborn Inn, 20301 Oakwood Blvd., both in Dearborn, Mich., with a special event Friday, Nov. 17 at Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit.
Visit https://www.move2017.org/ to view the full schedule, including the DIWAN7 track, and to register online; the final registration deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, 2017. On-site registration will also be available.
DIWAN7 highlights
7-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16 (At AANM)
Opening Reception features the opening of American Landscape: An Exploration of Art and Humanity by Nabil Mousaincluding a gallery walk with the artist. Using orange as a color representative of fear, Mousa’s mixed-media works take up the fraught politics of LGBTQ rights in America.
1-2:15 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 (At Dearborn Inn)
Participatory Art, Multiple Platforms
Internationally acclaimed Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal will discuss select projects from his extensive body of work including Domestic Tension (aka Shoot an Iraqi), Virtual Jihadi and the 3rdi. Bilal’s work blends technology and performance to pose questions about geopolitical and personal realities. He will narrate the evolution of his work alongside the personal experience of living between two worlds: the zones of conflict in Iraq and of comfort in the U.S. Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-born artist and an associate arts professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is known internationally for his online performative and interactive works provoking dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics.
4-5:15 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 (At Dearborn Inn)
Art, Pedagogy, and Activism
This panel introduces AMCA: The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey and brings together scholars and activists to trace the relationship of art and social justice within the history of modern art of the Arab World.
7:30-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17 (At Detroit Institute of Arts)
The Films of Mohamed Bayoumi
AANM’s Global Fridays series and the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friday Night Live will unite for the first time with the National Arab Orchestra (NAO) for the world premiere of an original score written by NAO founder/director Michael Ibrahim. This performance by the NAO Takht Ensemble is paired with screenings of rarely seen silent films from the 1920s and 1930s by pioneering Egyptian director Mohamed Bayoumi. This event also includes a discussion by Egyptian history and film scholar Mohannad Ghawanmeh. The performance is open to both MOVE 2017 attendees as well as the general public; FREE admission with RSVP at GF-Fall-17.
MOVE 2017 highlights
9-10:15 a.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Opening Plenary: Leading Through Challenging Times
Ilhan Omar is the first Somali American Muslim to become a state legislator; she serves in Minnesota’s House of Representatives. She appeared on the cover of TIME magazine’s Sept. 18, 2017, issue. Omar is also director of policy initiatives at Women Organizing Women, where she empowers East African women to take civic leadership roles in their community.
Jeff Chang is executive director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. He is also a journalist and music critic with several books on hip hop, among other topics. Chang was named by The Utne Reader as one of “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World”. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and the winner of the Asian American Literary Award.
Sara El-Amine, one of the foremost leaders on grassroots and digital advocacy in the world. She is director of advocacy for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; former executive director of Organizing for America, President Obama’s 20-million-person-strong grassroots advocacy arm; and the founding executive director of the Change.org Global Foundation.
Maha Freij is the deputy executive director & chief financial officer at ACCESS, and a leading visionary in the Arab American community with regard to philanthropy and building strong institutions to strengthen the voice of the community in American civil society. Under her leadership, the Center for Arab American Philanthropy has established itself as the only national Arab American community foundation in the U.S.
9-10:15 a.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Activism Track Kickoff
Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian Muslim American, a working woman, a community activist and mother of three. She is the former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York and co-chair of the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., which advocated for just legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues in the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history.
8:30-9:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18
Keynote Address
Alvin Herring, director of racial equity and community engagement at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich. He provides strategic oversight for the Racial Equity and Community Engagement team and grant portfolios related to racial equity, racial healing and community engagement that advance the foundation’s mission to support children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success in school, work and life.
The NAO live score for the Films of Mohamed Bayoumi program is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by AANM, the City of Chicago and NPN, in partnership with the National Arab Orchestra, with additional support from Detroit Institute of Arts.
SCHEDULE: DIWAN7: A FORUM FOR THE ARTS AT MOVE 2017
THURSDAY, Nov. 16, 2017 at Arab American National Museum (AANM)
Welcome Reception (At AANM)
Includes gallery talk by Nabil Mousa, whose work is presented in the AANM exhibition American Landscape: An Exploration of Art and Humanity by Nabil Mousa(Main Floor Gallery).
FRIDAY, Nov. 17, 2017 at Dearborn Inn + Detroit Institute of Arts
10:30-11:30 a.m. (At Dearborn Inn)
Bayoumi Remembered and Reimaged: Live-Scoring a Lecture/Film Presentation of Mohamed Bayoumi’s Films, 1923-1933
Key players in the creation of the Arab American National Museum’s first-ever commissioned piece will discuss the processes and learning that took place in creating a brand new musical score for presentations of the earliest surviving Arab films. A film screening featuring the world premiere of the score by the National Arab Orchestra is set for 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17, at the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts (see The Films of Mohamed Bayoumi listing below).
Michael Ibrahim is the composer of the score and one of the most innovative artists to emerge on the Arab American music circuit. Born in Detroit to Syrian immigrants, he has studied with Simon Shaheen, Johnny Sarweh and Nadim Dlaikan. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Eastern Michigan University and an MA in conducting from Wayne State University. His unique approach to composition and improvisation has led to recordings and film score projects. Ibrahim is also an active music educator who teaches, lectures and demonstrates Arabic music. He founded the NAO in 2009.
Musicians of the National Arab Orchestra, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to creating memorable musical experiences through education, cultural outreach and performance, with emphasis on the musical traditions of the Arab World. The NAO is home to the NAO Orchestra, the NAO Takht Ensemble (the format for which this score was written), and the NAO Community Choir, all comprised of professional musicians from diverse backgrounds.
Mohannad Ghawanmeh is a film scholar and cineaste. He has produced, acted in, curated for, written about and lectured on film. His expertise is centered on Arab cinema, but extends into silent, non-fiction, transnational and religious cinema. A PhD candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at UCLA, Ghawanmeh is recipient of the Teshome Gabriel Memorial Award and the Dr. Jack Shaheen Memorial Scholarship, among others. He is a 2017-18 fellow at the American Research Center in Egypt. His dissertation investigates the political economy of silent cinema in Egypt, 1896–1932.
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (At Dearborn Inn)
Lunch + plenary: Comedy as a Tool for Social Activism
Amer Zahr is an Arab American comedian, speaker, writer and adjunct professor at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He has headlined at New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and is founder/producer of the 1001 Laughs Ramallah Comedy Festival in Palestine, and the annual 1001 Laughs Dearborn Comedy Festival. Zahr is the filmmaker behind We’re Not White, a comedic telling of the Arab American struggle to get a box on the U.S. Census form. Zahr’s blog is The Civil Arab; his first book was Being Palestinian Makes Me Smile. Zahr holds an MA in Middle East Studies and a JD, both from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.
Suzie Afridi was born and raised in Jericho, in the West Bank. When she was 14, her family immigrated to San Jose, Calif. She attended San Jose State University then pretended to be a tax professional until her husband decided to move to Dubai. Afridi lived in Dubai for three years doing random jobs, none of which made her Pakistani in-laws proud. In 2007, she delivered a boy in a government hospital in Dubai. In 2008, the family moved to New York City. In 2013, she started doing stand-up because no one read her blog.
1-2:15 p.m. (At Dearborn Inn)
Participatory Art, Multiple Platforms
Internationally acclaimed Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal will discuss select projects from his extensive body of work including Domestic Tension (aka Shoot an Iraqi), Virtual Jihadi and the 3rdi. Bilal’s work blends technology and performance to pose questions about geopolitical and personal realities, with an emphasis on dynamic encounters and relational antagonism as strategies to engage viewers in dialogue. He will narrate the evolution of his work alongside the personal experience of living between two worlds: the zones of conflict in Iraq and of comfort in the U.S.
Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-born artist and an associate arts professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is known internationally for his online performative and interactive works provoking dialogue about international politics and internal dynamics. He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL; MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; among others.
2:30-3:45 p.m. (At Dearborn Inn)
WORKSHOP: Invention and Iconoclasm: Arab American Nostalgia and Its (Dis)Contents
Nostalgia: for some Arab American artists, it is a form of resistance. For some, a comfort. For a community that has undergone mass displacement and migration, nostalgia can present itself in the form of a loyalty to recurrent symbols, of which reinvention becomes an act of sacrilege. This session is both a conversation and a writing/sketching workshop; attendees will be asked to identify and actively re-imagine long-repeated symbols, encouraging participants to envision and articulate a different kind of future.
Kamelya Youssef is a Detroit-based poet, organizer and graduate student at Wayne State University. Her poems have been published in Mizna and Bird’s Thumb, among others. She is interested in the ecopoetics of immigrant and POC literatures and acts of non-translation. Youssef is a board member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). Her ongoing work is mastering the art of being in multiple places at once.
Leila Abdelrazaq of Bigmouth Comix is a Chicago-born Palestinian author and artist. Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi (Just World Books 2015) was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards and has been translated into three languages. Her drawings and writing have been featured in VICE News, Harper’s, Hyperallergic and The FADER, as well as in several printed anthologies. Her creative work primarily explores issues related to diaspora, refugees, history, memory and borders.
4-5:15 p.m. (At Dearborn Inn)
Art, Pedagogy, and Activism
This panel introduces AMCA: The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (www.amcainternational.org) and brings together scholars and activists to trace the relationship of art and social justice within the history of modern art of the Arab World. It will draw on a series of case studies from modern and contemporary Arab art to consider the successes and failures of art in addressing social issues and the possible role of academia within acts of civic resistance.
Sarah Rogers is an independent scholar and founding member and president-elect of AMCA. She is currently co-editing Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, to be published in Fall 2017 by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She received her PhD in 2008 from the History, Theory and Criticism section of the Dept. of Architecture at MIT.
Dina Ramadan, AMCA, is assistant Professor of Arabic at Bard College. She received her PhD from the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University and is currently working on a manuscript entitled An Education of Taste: Art, Aesthetics, and Subject Formation in Colonial Egypt.
Hanan Toukan is the Adrienne Minassian Visiting Professorship in Honor of Marilyn Jenkins-Madina in the Depts. of Visual Arts and Middle East Studies at Brown University. She received her PhD in 2012 from SOAS University of London, where her dissertation, Intimate Encounters: Globally, Cultural Diplomacy, and Art in Post-War Lebanon, won the 2012 MESA Award for Best PhD in the Social Sciences.
Haytham Bahoora is assistant professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Toronto. He earned his MA and PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University and has published articles on Arab art and literature in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, among others. His book, Aesthetics of Arab Modernity: Literature and Urbanism in Colonial Iraq, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
6-7:15 p.m. (At Detroit Institute of Arts)
Strolling dinner in the Rivera Court at Detroit Institute of Arts
7:30-9 p.m. (At Detroit Institute of Arts)
The Films of Mohamed Bayoumi
AANM’s Global Fridays series and the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (DIA) Friday Night Live will unite for the first time with the National Arab Orchestra (NAO) for the world premiere of an original score written by NAO founder/director Michael Ibrahim. This performance by the NAO Takht Ensemble is paired with screenings of rarely seen silent films from the 1920s and 1930s by pioneering Egyptian director Mohamed Bayoumi. This event includes a discussion by Egyptian history and film scholar Mohannad Ghawanmeh. A National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by AANM, the City of Chicago and NPN, in partnership with the National Arab Orchestra, with additional support from Detroit Institute of Arts.
This performance is open to both MOVE 2017 attendees as well as the general public; FREE admission with RSVP at GF-Fall-17.
SATURDAY, Nov. 18, 2017, at Arab American National Museum
10-11:15 a.m. (At AANM)
Arab American Theater: Voice Without Place?
Arab American theater artists struggle with issues regarding representation, audience reception, community support, and lack of funding and presentation opportunities. This panel attempts to address some of the prevalent questions facing Arab American theater today. Which stories do we tell and what gets produced? What opportunities exist for Arab American actors, writers, directors to tell our stories? What are the implications of non-Arabs performing and producing our work? Do the politics of the stories and the bodies sharing them make the work intrinsically radical and activist? Are we reaching Arab Americans with our works, or are they mainly acts of translation for non-Arab audiences?
Kathryn Haddad is an award-winning writer, teacher and community organizer whose work explores contemporary Arab American experiences and reflects on the political reality of life for Arab and Muslim Americans. She founded the Arab American arts/literary group Mizna and led it for 12 years; she is currently founding executive and artistic director of New Arab American Theater Works.
Dipankar Mukherjee is artistic director of Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis. He first came to the Twin Cities as the resident director at the Guthrie Theater; he has also worked for Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, New World Theater, Alliance Theater and at London’s Young Vic. He has co-curated and designed many programs, including performances and visual art by Andrea Assaf, Charlotte Karim Albrecht, Sarah Ahmed, Kathy Haddad and Ismail Khalidi.
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (At AANM)
Blood Lines: Dissecting the Personal & Political in Our Culture
In a world where the political is hard to separate from the personal, how do creatives choose between commenting on the mundane or creating work the challenges political issues head-on? How do contemporary writers, artists, and creatives navigate this delicate dichotomy between the personal and political? This panel dissects the notion of charged, or “political,” material in one’s creations, as several award-winning artists and activists discuss the ways they address charged material in their work, the craft and content implications behind it, and some approaches used by the creative leaders they admire.
Leila Abdelrazaq of Bigmouth Comix is a Chicago-born Palestinian author and artist. Her debut graphic novel, Baddawi (Just World Books 2015) was shortlisted for the 2015 Palestine Book Awards and has been translated into three languages. She has been featured in VICE News, Harper’s, Hyperallergic and The FADER, as well as in several printed anthologies. Her work primarily explores issues related to diaspora, refugees, history, memory and borders.
Jeremy Allen is an award-winning journalist who has been recognized nationally by the Associated Press and the National Association of Black Journalists for his excellence in writing. A two-time graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Allen serves as a public affairs specialist for the University of Michigan, where he communicates messages to the public about matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Nisa Dang is community organizer, political strategist and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Dang went to Nevada in 2016 to work on Democratic Party campaigns before earning a B.A. in political science. She then worked for an immigration law firm, traveling between New York and Djibouti to advance the immigration causes of the Yemeni community.
Tariq Luthun (moderator) is a Palestinian American data strategist, community organizer and Emmy Award-winning poet from Detroit. He is currently an MFA candidate for poetry in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Amidst other things, Luthun is the social director of Organic Weapon Arts Press and a co-founder of the PoC-dedicated literary arts series FRUIT. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl Poetry, The Offing, Winter Tangerine Review and Button Poetry.
2:15-3:15 p.m. (At AANM)
WORKSHOP: Story as Salve: Arab America Writes Its Own Healing
This community-empowering workshop will explore how to articulate and negotiate the traumatic as a creative path to healing and will offer participants a hands-on opportunity to participate in a listening exchange and short writing exercises.
R. Benedito Ferrão is a writer and academic who has lived and worked in Kuwait, India, the United States, England and Australia. He currently teaches English and Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. An internationally published writer, his work appears in Outlook India, Media Diversified, India Currents and Mizna, among others. He is a member of Goa’s Al-Zulaij Collective.
Dr. Deborah Al-Najjar is a scholar of trauma and war who examined the first Persian Gulf War through the analytical lens of racial/sexual trauma. She received her PhD from the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Al-Najjar practices Mantra-based meditation within the Vedic tradition, and studies/performs a variety of somatic-based healing modalities.
Laila Farah is a Lebanese American feminist performer-scholar and associate professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul University. She attended Lebanese American University and Eastern Michigan University for her BA in Theatre and Communication Arts and her MA in Performance Studies and Communication, and received her Doctorate in Performance Studies at Southern Illinois University. She continues to tour with her production, Living in the Hyphen-Nation.
Shannon O’Neill is a writer whose work addresses the history and identity of Arab Americans and the cultural divide in American society around issues facing Arabs and Muslims in shifting political and cultural landscapes. Her writing has appeared in Glimmer Train, Asian American Literary Review and Mizna, among others. She earned her MFA in Fiction at Virginia Commonwealth University and an MA in Film Studies from University College in Dublin, Ireland. Currently, she teaches Creative Writing at the College of William & Mary.
3:30-4:45 p.m. (At AANM)
هيهوهما // HEYYA/HOWWA/HUMAA
What does it mean to be a woman and Arab in the diaspora? What does it mean to be a man and Arab in the diaspora? What does it mean to be neither or both and Arab in the diaspora? This session explores the multi-layered performance of these identities as a means of shifting social practice through resistance and visibility. It’s a multi-sensory, audience-participatory performance that explores the complexities of the intersection of gender and cultural identities through cloth, text and voice.
Levon Kafafian is a queer-identified Armenian American multimedia artist who creates tactile and sensory works that explore the spaces between people, nature and culture. He is the founder of Fringe Society, a community textile studio that serves as a safe space to create connections between people and textiles.
Noura Ballout is a Detroit-based artist and curator whose work deals with identity, intimacy and gender. Ballout has exhibited their work at the Arab American Museum, 555 Gallery and Wayne State University Gallery. They are the owner of The Bottom Line Cafe, a space that is not only a coffee shop but a hub for artists to connect and showcase their work.
5-6:30 p.m. (At AANM)
Border Stories
A storytelling performance by Leila Buck exploring geographical, cultural and psychological borders: What happens when we cross them, and how do we move, or live, between the lines?
Leila Buck is a Lebanese American writer, performer and intercultural educator who has worked in more than 22 countries. In 2014-15, she was artist-in-residence for Wesleyan University’s Doris Duke Foundation Building Bridges grant, teaching and creating work with students about the misrepresentation of Muslims in the U.S. She earned her MA at New York University, where she is now an adjunct professor in participatory performance and civic engagement.
7:30 p.m. (At AANM)
Surviving: A Reading and Community Project of Mizna
The current political reality has reignited the narrative about Arabs and Muslims as expedient villains. This is nothing new, but there is a fervor and momentum this time around that are especially dangerous. How are we being affected, responding and not responding, surviving? For 18 years, the Minnesota-based Arab American arts organization Mizna has centered Arab and Muslim voices in the literary journal Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America. The most recent issue is called “Surviving.” Two of the writers in the issue, Niebal Atiyeh and Tariq Luthun, along with writers Moheb Soliman and Laila Farah, will read their original work. Emceed by executive editor Lana Barkawi, the event will also include the culmination of a community-participation project from the DIWAN7/MOVE 2017 conference. An open-mic session follows the readings.
Niebal Atiyeh is a Syrian American teacher and writer. She began teaching Arabic theater with Chicago’s Global Voices program. She taught math for three years with Teach for America Detroit and is currently a lead teacher in Okemos. She attended University of Michigan and University of Chicago for her BA and MA in Middle Eastern Studies, focusing on dissident literature and censorship in Syria. She’s published three pieces with Mizna.
Lana Barkawi is executive and artistic director of Mizna, a multidisciplinary Arab arts organization based in St. Paul, Minn. that centers on Arab and Muslim film, literature and art. She serves as executive editor of its literary journal, Mizna: Prose, Poetry, and Art Exploring Arab America. Barkawi also leads Mizna’s Twin Cities Arab Film Festival and Arabic language and drumming classes, as well as literary readings, public art installations, writing workshops and music events.
Laila Farah is a Lebanese American feminist performer-scholar and associate professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at DePaul University. She attended Lebanese American University and Eastern Michigan University for her BA in Theatre and Communication Arts and her MA in Performance Studies and Communication, and received her Doctorate in Performance Studies at Southern Illinois University. She continues to tour with her production, Living in the Hyphen-Nation.
Tariq Luthun is a Palestinian American data strategist, community organizer and Emmy Award-winning poet from Detroit. He is currently an MFA candidate for poetry in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Amidst other things, Luthun is the social director of Organic Weapon Arts Press and a co-founder of the PoC-dedicated literary arts series FRUIT. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Vinyl Poetry, The Offing, Winter Tangerine Review and Button Poetry.
Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest. His work explores issues of nature, modernity, identity and belonging. In 2015, he circled the Great Lakes through a Joyce Foundation fellowship, creating site-specific work and organizational partnerships. At five major Great Lakes national parks, he installed 25 poems disguised as official parks signs which will soon come out as a chapbook (Red Bird Press). Soliman has degrees from the New School for Social Research and University of Toronto and works as program director for Mizna.
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The Arab American National Museum (AANM) documents, preserves and presents Arab American history, culture and contributions.
AANM is an institution of Dearborn, Mich.-based human-services agency ACCESS, the largest Arab American community nonprofit in the U.S. AANM is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums; an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution; and a founding member of the Immigration and Civil Rights Network of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.
The Museum is located at 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI, 48126. Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday, Tuesday; Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Admission is $8 for adults; $4 for students, seniors and children 6-12; ages 5 and under and Museum Members, free.
Visit www.arabamericanmuseum.org or call 313.582.2266 for further information.
Kim Silarski | Communications Manager | Arab American National Museum
13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48126 | Office 313.624.0206 | Cell 313.670.1300
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