All panel discussions are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY), 365 Fifth Ave., New York NY; meals are not provided.

Download a pdf of the 2011 DIWAN brochure HERE.

Friday, March 25, 2011

8:30-9 a.m. Registration

9-9:30 a.m. WELCOME (Recital Hall)

Holly Arida, DIWAN coordinator, Arab American National Museum
Anan Ameri, director, Arab American National Museum
Mehdi Bozorgmehr co-director, MEMEAC

9:30 -11 a.m. REFLECTIONS ON ELEVEN SEPTEMBER (Recital Hall)
As we approach the 10-year anniversary, Arab American visual artists and writers grapple with 9/11 in their work

Moderator Lama Mansour
Eleven Reflections on September Andrea Assaf
Explosives Called Words—Arab American Writers Grapple with Terrorism Andrea Shalal-Esa
Quest to Belong Ayad Alkadhi

9:30 -11 a.m. THE STORIES WE TELL (Room C198)
Arab Americans convey their truth through emerging mediums of installation art, film and the graphic novel

Moderator Devon Akmon
The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories Marguerite Dabaie
New York Chronicles Maymanah Farhat
Stories from Studio Haret el Yahoud: An Egyptian-American Artist Meets her Neighbors Nada Shalaby

11:-11:15 a.m. Break

11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. CHANGING THE DIALOGUE (Recital Hall)
Artists use language to redirect discourse on Arab America

Moderator Mike Mosallam
Changing the National and Global Dialogue through Theatre, with Nancy Vitale and Maha Chehlaoui of Noor Theatre
Becoming American, Prose, Poems and Paintings Ibtisam Barakat
Hip Hop and Identity Maytha Alhassen
And It Don’t Stop – Hip Hop as a Means of Criticism of Global Marginalization in Suheir Hammad’s breaking poems Katharina Motyl

11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. EDUCATION AS ART (Room C198)
From public television to high school and university classrooms, artists shape the next generation’s perceptions about Arab Americans

Moderator Dr. Christa Salamandra
Representing Arabs in a Positive Light Though Children’s Entertainment Shabnam Rezaei and Aly Jetha
Teaching Arab American Women’s Literature to College Students Randa Jarrar
Arab American High School Juniors Reflect on their Experience of Arab American Art and Literature in their K-12 Education Taher Dahleh, Rami Benayad-Cherif, Deema Dahleh

12:45-2 p.m. Lunch

2-3:30 p.m. ONE-WOMAN SHOW: FEMALE, FREEDOM, AND FADWA (Recital Hall)
Spotlighting successful shows that Arab American women have brought to the stage to tell their stories across the country

Moderator Leila Buck
Everyone Has Tears Cynthia Sophiea with Zafer Tawil
I Heart Hamas and Other Things I’m Afraid to Tell You Jennifer Jajeh
Lend me an ID Nora Armani

2-3:30 p.m. UNCONFERENCE SESSION (Room C198)
An open dialogue on the democratic revolutions taking place in the Arab World

Moderator Holly Arida

3:30-5 p.m. WE ARE THE EARTH: HOME, HOMELESSNESS AND TERRAIN, A READING (Recital Hall)
Some of our finest poets contemplate frequent themes that frame the Arab American experience

Moderator Khaled Mattawa
Elmaz Abinader
Deema K. Shehabi
Remi Kanazi

Saturday, March 26, 2011

9:30 a.m.-10 a.m. REGISTRATION & WELCOME (Recital Hall)

Anan Ameri, director, Arab American National Museum

10-11:30 a.m. CONVERGING ON ARAB AMERICAN MUSIC (Recital Hall)
How music gives voice to modern and classical Middle Eastern culture

Moderator Taoufik Ben Amor
An Arab American Voice in Film Music Kareem Roustom
On the Convergence Liberation of Maqam, Flamenco, and Jazz Systems Hafez Modrizadeh
The Iraqi Maqam: Musical Structure and Cultural Synthesis Amir ElSaffar

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Lunch

1-2 p.m. PERFORMANCE BY THE PHILADELPHIA ARAB MUSIC ENSEMBLE (Recital Hall)
Led by Music Director Hanna Khoury, featuring Percussion Director Hafez El Ali Kotain and formed by Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, this community ensemble of singers and instrumentalists performs a selection of music from Lebanon and Egypt by composers such as Marcel Khalife, Muhammad Abdel Wahab and Sayyed Darwish.

2-3:30 p.m. ART AS INTERVENTION (Recital Hall)
Artists intervene in the reality of war and conflict through multimedia arts, sculpture and film

Moderator Holly Arida
Mapping: Un/Real Cityscapes The Beyrouth: Baghdad Project Youmna Chlala and Dena Al-Adeeb
Responding to the War on Gaza: From Emotion to Metaphor, from Sentiment to Symbol Reem Gibriel
Wounds of the Heart: An Artist and her Nation John Halaka

3:30-4:30 p.m. 2011 DIWAN KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY PROF. JOSEPH MASSAD (Recital Hall)
Introduction by Ahmed Issawi, ALWAN for the Arts

Joseph Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He is author of Desiring Arabs (2007), which was awarded the Lionel Trilling Book Award; The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinian Question (2006), and Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (2001). Professor Massad is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and is the book review editor for the journal. He is the author of tens of academic articles and is also columnist for the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly and for the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar.

7-11 p.m. 2011 DIWAN AFTER-PARTY

KINAN AZMEH’S CITY BAND
and
AlSarah & The Nubatones
plus
DJ Seif Al-Din

(DROM, 85 Ave. A between 5th & 6th Sts.)
Presented by FEN Magazine

Click HERE to learn more about the performers and to buy advance tickets, $10, online.

Celebrate DIWAN’s New York debut at this festive affair featuring the worldly jazz of Kinan Azmeh’s City Band and the soulful sounds of Alsarah & The Nubatones, with DJ Seif Al-Din spinning in between sets. Experience a never-before-heard collaboration between some of Arab America’s finest artists.

Tickets are $10 in advance; $15 at the door the night of the event.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Noon-2 p.m. IN THE CROSSING, A new play by Leila Buck
The Living Theatre
21 Clinton Street at East Houston
New York, NY 10009
Subway: F to 2nd Avenue; Bus: M21 to Houston, M9 to Avenue B

Click HERE to buy advance tickets, $18, online.

Welcome to the annual gathering of the International Society for Intercultural Dialogue and Education!  Leila, a Lebanese-American writer/performer, and her husband Adam, an artist from a Jewish family, have been invited here by Joan, the president of the board (and Adam’s aunt) to present their experiences in Lebanon during the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war.  But as the evening unfolds in unexpectedly humorous and dangerous ways, the biggest conflict this family must face is the one between them. An interactive dialogue about the personal in the political, and how their intersection shapes who we are.

Written and Performed by Leila Buck
With Adam Green, Kathryn Kates, and Maya Serhan
Directed and developed by Shana Gold