The Brickbottom Gallery would like to welcome the Dramatic Association for Artistic Creation, a two-man performing troupe from Somerville’s Moroccan Sister City, Tiznit.
-2 p.m. Theater workshop: Art and culture are the pillars of tolerance
-7 p.m. Performance: “What a Beautiful Life!”
All events are FREE and open to the public!
Jamal Taamart and Yassine Enssimi have been touring France, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Russia with the sponsorship of Royal Air Maroc.
Call for Bi-lingual Volunteers at Boston Children Hospital- Cultural Navigator Program
Cultural Navigator Volunteers – At the Boston Campus, work closely with our International Health Center and Front Line Team to welcome patients and families from around the world and acquaint them with the Boston Children’s Hospital community.
We are seeking bi-lingual and multi-cultural volunteers that are fluent in Arabic.
As a Cultural Navigator Volunteer, expect to:
* Act as a connector between patients and families and hospital services
* Offer tour and introduction to BCH resources and amenities
* Escort families to appointments within BCH or to BCH affiliates
* Engage and play with patients (and/or siblings)
* Support social interpreting situations
Cultural Navigator Volunteers will NEVER:
* Provide medical or clinical interpretation for patients or staff
* Hold patients, babies or children
* Provide “babysitting services” to patients, babies or children
* Bring children that are unaccompanied by an authorized adult to the Center for Families
* Offer to relay medical or psychosocial issues to Care Team (Direct to Interpreter)
* Assist with completing clinical, financial or confidential paperwork (Direct to Interpreter)
What we’re looking for are people who love people. Ideally, we need individuals with rich interpersonal skills typically from a background in customer service, retail, or hospitality.
For More Information please contact us directly at:
The MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering has established an endowed fund in honor of our dear friend Professor Mujid Kazimi to support graduate students. Mujid passed away suddenly in July while on business in China.
Professor Kazimi, a pillar of the Arab-American community in the United States, was a staunch advocate for education and a strong supporter of the Center for Arabic Culture. To read more about the Kazimi Memorial Fund and make a contribution, please click on the following link:
Check our website for the next class date! We will announce it soon!
Cook With CAC! Kunafa Nabulsieh Lesson!
Join the New Cook with CAC session at Union Kitchen on November 13! Enjoy home-style Arabic authentic cooking you cannot find at any culinary school. We’ll learn a popular Arabic dessert “Kunafa”! It is a very famous Arabic dish and an excellent addition to the table during Thanksgiving and the holidays! It is a hands on Class! Learn and Dine!
Location: Union Kitchen 121 Washington St. Somerville, MA 02143
Going beyond the headlines, this story—filmed in the fourteen months leading up to the Revolution— highlights the years of mounting resentment against the ruling regime. Filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young democracy activists as they struggle against extraordinary odds to remove an uncompromising US-backed authoritarian regime determined to stay in power.
Date: Friday October 30, 2015
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Center for Arabic Culture
191 Highland Av. Suit 6B. Somerville, MA 02143
Free and Open to the Public
Followed by an Open Discussion with director Lillie Paquette
“Winner at the Sundance Film Festival, 5 Broken Cameras is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements.”
Date: Friday November 20, 2015
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Center for Arabic Culture
191 Highland Av. Suite 6B. Somerville, MA 02143
Free and Open to the Public
December Film
TUNISIA, YEAR ZERO
“The story of the first democracy in the Arab world.”
A Film by Feriel Ben Mahmoud
On January 14th, 2011, the people of Tunisia took to the streets in mass protest and toppled the government of Ben Ali. The event has a tremendous impact in the region which triggers the Arab Spring. Following the revolution, Tunisians make the radical choice to draft a new state constitution. Called to the urns for the first free elections of their history, the citizens of Tunisia will have to choose which model of society they wish to live in. Islam, secularism and women’s status become the major themes of a campaign under high pressure.
Following the events day by day, TUNISIA, YEAR ZERO tells the story of a difficult birth: that of the first democracy in the Arab world. In 6 months, no less than 110 political parties were created. In this political turmoil, a few of them emerge: the Islamist party Ennhada seduces those disappointed with the revolution. Some other modernist parties, such as Ettakatol and the PDP, are divided on the content of their policies as well as on which strategy to adopt. Leading the polls, Ennahdha will confirm its success in the elections with more than 90 seats out of 217.
How could these results be predicted? TUNISIA, YEAR ZERO gives the reasons for the outcome of the elections.
Going beyond the headlines, this story—filmed in the fourteen months leading up to the Revolution— highlights the years of mounting resentment against the ruling regime. Filmmaker Lillie Paquette follows key opposition figures and young democracy activists as they struggle against extraordinary odds to remove an uncompromising US-backed authoritarian regime determined to stay in power.
Date: Friday October 30, 2015
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Center for Arabic Culture
191 Highland Av. Suit 6B. Somerville, MA 02143
Free and Open to the Public
Followed by an Open Discussion with director Lillie Paquette
Creative Dissent: Arts of the Arab World Uprisings
This exhibit explores the visual arts and other expressive media of the recent Arab World Uprisings.
Art Exhibition September 10 – December 23, 2015
Opening Reception Thursday, September 17, 2015, 5:30-7 pm
The Elliot K. Wolk Gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 9AM – 5PM. The gallery is located in MIT Building 7, Room 338, at 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge.
Images are often used as communicative devices to present politicized messages. During the recent Arab World uprisings, demonstrators created images to express opposition to incumbent governments and members of the ruling elite. Over and again, activists, protesters, artists, and other individuals adopted the expressive media—including videos, photographs, painted and digital images, as well as slogans, music, and even puppets—to create visualized and performed modes of dissent within public space, both in the streets and online.
The Center for Arabic Culture & Karim Nagi Present:
TARABISTS
TWO HUMOROUS ARAB GUYS WITH INSTRUMENTS
BATTLE FOR ATTENTION & COAX YOU INTO SINGING Join the chorus, laugh at the soloists, kill the stereotypes. http://americarab.com/
Featuring: AMER ZAHR (Palestine via Dearborn) – oud, voice KARIM NAGI (Egypt via Boston) – percussion, voice
SATURDAY8 PMSEPTEMBER 26, 2015 YMCA THEATER: 820 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
Co-Sponsored by the Center For Arabic Culture Boston
TICKETS $16 advance online (or $20 at door)
purchase tickets at www.americarab.com
TARABISTS: Two humorous Arab guys with instruments battle for attention & coax you into singing. Join the chorus, laugh at the soloists, kill the stereotypes. Tarabists features musical friends Amer Zahr and Karim Nagi. The event combines “Tarab” (vocal rapture) and a satirical approach to the topic of identity in the diaspora. This impromptu musical comedy will spawn audience laughter & singing, to the point where the two are painfully indistinguishable. Using the Arabic Oud Lute & the Egyptian Tabla Drum, plus an array of famous & fabricated Arab songs, the Tarabists will attack the social questions of the day, and hijack the discussion.
AMER ZAHR : OUD & VOICE
Amer Zahr is an Arab-American comedian, speaker, and writer. Drawing on his experiences growing up as a child of Palestinian parents, he finds the humor in society, culture, and politics. He has produced and headlined in 3 of his own comedy tours, “1001 Laughs Comedy Tour,” “We’re Not White!” and “In 1948.” He is also the producer of the annual “1001 Laughs Dearborn Comedy Festival” in Dearborn, Michigan at the Arab American National Museum. Amer recently completed production on his first documentary film, “We’re Not White,” a comedic and informative approach to the Arab-American struggle to get a box on the United States Census Form.He is also the author of the well-read blog “The Civil Arab,” as well as his first book, “Being Palestinian Makes Me Smile,” a collection of his writings relating to being Palestinian. Amer holds an MA in Middle East Studies and a JD (law degree), both from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He writes and speaks widely on political and social affairs, and has appeared on radio and television, including ABC’s “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.” Some of his writings have been featured in major publications, including Time magazine.
KARIM NAGI : PERCUSSION & VOICE
Karim Nagi is a native Egyptian musician, folk dancer, speaker, and a former faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to performing his education show Arabiqa over the past 13 years in hundreds of schools across the USA, Mr. Nagi is also an international recording artist who has released 12 CDs and 5 DVDs. He has performed in notable places including Tainan University in Taiwan; Republic Theater in Guongzou, China; Theatre de la Ville in Paris; Brooklyn Art Museum; El-Sawi Concert Hall in Cairo; Royce Hall in UCLA; Smithsonian Freer Sackler Gallery in DC; National Theater in Verazdin, Croatia; Jesuit College in Cairo; and the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn Michigan. He is the director of both the Arab Dance Seminar and the Sharq Ensemble. In addition to his expertise in traditional music and folk dance, Mr Nagi is a contemporary artist creating electronic music, multi media, and performance art. His newest recording is a audio book called “Detour Guide” which reimagines Arab music and rhythm into English, facilitating a story-like alternative tour of Arab culture and diaspora.
The Prophet, by celebrated Lebanese author Kahlil Gibran, is among the most popular volumes of poetry ever written, selling over 100 million copies in forty languages since its publication in 1923. Gibran’s timeless verses have been given enchanting new form in this painterly cinematic adventure about freedom and the power of human expression.
This breathtaking animated feature, produced and spearheaded by Salma Hayek, was an official selection at Cannes and made its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Written and directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King), the film intersperses Gibran’s elegant poetry within stunning animated sequences by filmmakers Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea), Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues), Bill Plympton (Guide Dog), and a host of award-winning animators from around the world.
Set in a Mediterranean sea-side village, Kamila (Salma Hayek) cleans house for exiled artist and poet Mustafa (Liam Neeson), but the more difficult job is keeping her free-spirited young daughter, Almitra, (Quvenzhané Wallis) out of trouble. The three embark on a journey meant to end with Mustafa’s return home – but first they must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in his words will incite rebellion.
Featuring music from Damien Rice, Glen Hansard and Yo-Yo Ma.
The film is rated PG and is suitable for ages 10 & up.
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