Provocative Arab American movies take center stage at Freep Film Festival next week
April 5th, 20190 DETROIT — Arabs across the world and especially Arab Americans have long found themselves shackled by controversy, whether for practicing their religion or culture, or for simply living in lands where they are misunderstood or vilified. These life experiences have been challenging for those who have lived them, but they have also...
Lebanese Film Festival to be held in Dearborn
April 5th, 20190 DEARBORN – The Consulate General of Lebanon in Detroit announced the first annual Lebanese Film Festival, to be held on April 6 from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn. The festival is the first of its kind in Michigan and will display three films produced, directed and...
Famous kids’ show “Fozi Mozi & Tutti” comes to Dearborn
April 2nd, 20190 DEARBORN – The cast from YouTube’s famous kids’ show "Fozi Mozi & Tutti", an Arabic children's program, will visit Dearborn in April as part of their American tour. There are barely any Arab American programs for kids available. Fozi Mozi & Tutti are characters from an Arabic children’s channel known on YouTube for...
Dearborn and Arab American National Museum celebrate Arab American Heritage month
April 2nd, 20190 DEARBORN – The city of Dearborn, Dearborn Public Schools and other communities across the country have declared April as Arab American Heritage month. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) acknowledged the month in Congress in April 2017. Speaking on the House floor, she recognized the thriving Arab American community in her...
Influential Lebanese American “surf rock” pioneer leaves behind an enduring legacy
March 29th, 20190 Surf guitarist and music legend Dick Dale passed away on Saturday, March 16. Born Richard Anthony Mansour to a Lebanese father and Polish American mother, Dale was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2008. He had been battling the disease while actively touring to pay for medical bills. Dale grew up in Boston. His family soon moved to...
Iraqi American author hopes to debunk stereotypes about arranged marriage
March 25th, 20190 SAN DIEGO, CA — For Huda Al-Marashi, an Iraqi American and Muslim author, wife and mother, the process of writing her memoir, “First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story”, took almost 10 years to finish. The book, which follows her story about her relationship with her husband of 22 years, was released last...
Lebanese illustrator challenges views of Arab women through art
March 9th, 20190 BEIRUT — Lebanese artist Christina Atik has produced a series of digital pictures to illustrate sentences commonly used in Arab countries to criticize women with the aim of empowering Arab women. The project tackles issues of female freedom, beauty and sexuality in societies traditionally dominated by men. Atik, 27, said she...
Egyptian-American actor Rami Malek wins best actor at 2019 Oscars
February 26th, 20190 The Arab American News By Farah Harb Rami Malek, a first generation American and son of Egyptian immigrants to the United States, has won an Academy Award for his lead role in Bohemian Rhapsody, a film about the life of Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. On his way to the Oscar podium, Malek picked up similar wins at the...
Dearborn Heights poet uses writing to heal from trauma
February 22nd, 20190 DEARBORN HEIGHTS— Sara Raad, a Dearborn Heights native and daughter of Lebanese immigrants, said she writes poetry to heal from past trauma. She reads her poetry at local events and posts it on her Instagram blog which has more than 11,000 followers. “I used to just write little poems here and there,” she said, adding...
Songwriter and singer Leila Milki releases new original song Feb. 22
February 13th, 20190 LOS ANGELES — Leila Milki, a first-generation Lebanese American music artist, will release her new original single and video on Friday Feb. 22. In “All That Remains", 25-year-old Milki collaborates with Brian Steckler and String Mob to bring a string quartet to life. “This project is deeply personal to me,” she said, adding...
Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki makes Oscar history
January 25th, 20190 It's definitely a great day for Nadine Labaki, who has made history as the first Arab female filmmaker to ever be nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category. Labaki's film, Capernaum, gives Lebanon back-to-back foreign-language nomination following Ziad Doueiri's The Insult, which was nominated last...
Library of Congress acquires treasure trove of 19th century documents written in Arabic by Muslim slave
January 22nd, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. —The United States Library of Congress announced its acquisition of an extraordinary set of documents last week belonging to Omar ibn Said, who wrote what is believed to be the only surviving slave narrative of its kind in 1831. Also known as “Morro” or “Uncle Moreau” as a slave, he had been enslaved for...
Palestinian American artist exhibits paintings inspired by life
January 14th, 20190 DEARBORN - A Palestinian American immigrant living in Dearborn expresses her passions through her colorful paintings that she said imitate her experiences. 23-year-old Jenin Yaseen said she moved to the United Arab Emirates from Palestine, where she was born, when she was 10. She began studying at Rak International Academy in Dubai,...
Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan makes first visit to Detroit
December 14th, 20180 DETROIT — On Friday, Dec. 7, Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan performed a concert at the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Rivera Court, during her first visit to the city. On the previous day, she visited the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn for a viewing of Jim Jarmusch’s film, “Only Lovers Left Alive”, in which she...
Milwaukee Film Festival explores Arab community fears, hopes and culture
November 20th, 20180 MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The 10th annual Milwaukee Film Festival hosted a range of motion pictures that celebrated the diversity of the Arab and Muslim communities from October 18 to November 1. Films were selected across a range of topics and groups, ranging from Palestinians to Somali Americans and old-age traditions to new-age......
‘FBI’ star Zeeko Zaki on the importance of playing an Arab American protagonist
October 16th, 20180 Reflecting that his résumé leans "toward the terrorist side of things", Egyptian American actor Zeeko Zaki couldn’t be happier with his role as FBI special agent Omar Adom "OA" Zidan on Dick Wolf’s latest crime drama FBI. Seeing someone like himself — Arab American and Muslim — as "a protagonist in law enforcement is definitely...
Looking for Oum Kulthum: An Iranian take on the Arab experience
October 16th, 20180 Shirin Neshat’s “Looking for Oum Kulthum” tells of an Iranian artist’s effort at making a film on the life and career of the late Egyptian legendary singer. Though the project was made with pure intentions, it has been met with distaste and skepticism from the Arab world. A main criticism of the film is Neshat’s role as...
WCCCD celebrates diversity with performance by Syrian opera singer
October 15th, 20181 TAYLOR - Lubana Al Quntar, a Syrian classical Arabic and western opera singer, will perform “A Celebration of Arabic Classical and Folk Music” at Wayne County Community College District’s Heinz C. Prechter Educational and Performing Arts Center on Sunday Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. Al Quntar studied Western opera and became the first...
Artists denied visas to attend Arab Film Festival in Minneapolis
September 29th, 20180 MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. denied visas to two artists planning to attend the Arab Film Festival, while a third encountered a delay which kept her from getting her visa in time to travel. According to a report by City Pages, a fourth still waits to get back his passport after receiving his visa. The festival has never faces visa denials......
YallaPunk: A response to racism
September 24th, 20180 By Marrim Akashi PHILADELPHIA — Rana Fayez’s inaugural YallaPunk festival hit Philadelphia this past month and it has been revolutionary, to say the least. Self-described as “A direct response to negative depictions of populations of Middle Eastern and North African descent in mainstream media”, this is not another effort...
Contemporary Arab Cinema series premiers at Jacob Burns Film Center
September 10th, 20180 PLEASANTVILLE, NY — The Jacob Burns Film Center is premiering its Contemporary Arab Cinema series, in partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Sept. 20-27. This year’s selections reflect the diversity of the multifaceted situations and feelings Arab directors have within their cultural and political environments,......
Documentary: How ‘Brooklyn, Inshallah’ excited Arab voters
September 8th, 20180 BROOKLYN, NY — Ahmed Mansour’s film “Brooklyn, Inshallah” documents Khader El-Yateem’s 2017 campaign for New York City Council. Not only did El-Yateem’s position as a Lutheran pastor make him distinguishable from other candidates, his identity as a Palestinian American immigrant did so as well. From that, he was even...
Arab festivals are popular everywhere, when will Dearborn’s return?
September 8th, 20183 DEARBORN – Between 1995 and 2012, thousands flocked to the capital of Arab America for a taste of their homeland’s culture, where nostalgia for music and food alike would meet their match at the Arab International Festival. It was a kind of celebration one could only experience in a city in which nearly half its residents are of......
