Dear friends,
For those of you who observe Easter, Orthodox Easter or Passover, I wish you peace and blessings for your celebrations. Please allow me to share some updates from the month of March with you.
On March 5, The Arab American National Museum (AANM)’s Al-Hadiqa: the Mymonie Elhage Jabara Heritage Garden, hosted the annual Gather and Grow: Seed Swap & Iftar in preparation for the growing season. Unique seeds collected from plants grown in the garden in addition to ones from partners and local community gardeners were shared. The swap also included art activations such as vegetable stamp printmaking and dry flower collage. Community partners included: Metro Swaps, Garden Juju Collective, Garden Club of Dearborn, Dearborn Public Library, and theJOYproject.
On March 25, Pali Potters opened their exhibit, Palestine: Grief & Connection Through Clay, at AANM as part of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) conference. The exhibit Mohammad Omer Khalil: Common Groundalso opened. This satellite exhibit was curated by Jenna Hamad and Amina Ahmed as part of a larger show at the Robert Blackburn Studio in NYC. Both exhibits will be on view through May 31.
The Entrepreneurial team hosted a Customer Experience Workshop on March 26, teaching how to map the customer journey, identify key touchpoints, and create more meaningful interactions that drive loyalty and long-term business growth. The focus was on customer experience directly impacting retention, brand perception, and overall success, and participants learned practical strategies to apply to their businesses.
On March 27 and 28, AANM’s artists-in-residence, Body Watani Dance Project, performed After the Last Red Sky. This new work features Palestinian dancers and musicians Leila Awadallah, Noelle Awadallah, and Tarek Abdelqadar. Their performance calls on the community to gather, move through grief and rage, and find strength together.
On March 28, the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) hosted its 100 Arab American Women Who Care giving circle in Naples, Florida, bringing together the local community to pool their generosity and make a collective impact at this third annual event. Attendees collectively awarded $6,000 to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southwest Florida, an organization that provides healing services, advocacy, and protection to children affected by abuse and neglect.
Due to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, CAAP’s Disaster Relief Fund launched an appeal to provide urgent support to families. We made grants totaling $69,839 to three organizations providing urgent life-saving aid to displaced communities. Although CAAP’s 50% match was fully utilized, we are still accepting donations to support this effort.
Finally, the Center for Arab Narratives (CAN) proudly presented the first-ever guide to conducting equitable research with Arab and MENA communities. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Advancing Research with MENA Communities: A Guide is the product of a two-year collaboration with scholars and community-based organizations from across the country.
Thank you for your continued support of our work. I am so grateful to be able to share these regular updates with you. To learn more about what’s going on at ACCESS, please visit our website: https://www.accesscommunity.org, and follow us online:
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Love,
Maha
Maha Freij
President & CEO
ACCESS
2651 Saulino Ct., Dearborn, MI 48120
Connect with us | ACCESS |Arab American National Museum | Center for Arab American Philanthropy | National Network for Arab American Communities |Center for Arab Narratives
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