Hayan's Scoop on the Arab American poetry scene

If you are poet who should be including in his anthology,his email is posted.
Give him a shout out.

Mohamad Bazzi, teacher and artist

Congratulations again. MB is from the Other collective

Israel's cluster bombs

"United Nations officials estimate that southern Lebanon is littered with one million unexploded bomblets, far outnumbering the 650,000 people living in the region. They are stuck in the branches of olive trees and the broad leaves of banana trees. They are on rooftops, mixed in with rubble and littered across fields, farms, driveways, roads and outside schools. As of Sept. 28, officials here said cluster bombs had severely wounded 109 people — and killed 18 others." New York Times, October 6, 2006

NO WORDS NO WORDS NO WORDS NO WORDS NO WORDS NO WORDS NO WORDS NO wOrD wwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrdddddddddddddddss
sssssssssssss

Kathryn and Al (Gore)

ACCESS’ Environmental Program Director, Kathryn Savoie was among 50 people selected to attend the Climate Project Training Session led by former Vice President Al Gore.

Congratulations to Kathryn Savoie! only one more piece of evidence that ACCESS rocks this community--Dearborn and Detroit!!

What does Bush owe the world?

An apology won't cut it. Have any creative, vindictive answers to this question? Mixmode gave me this idea to ask political bloggers, radical thinkers, writers, artists:

what does he owe us? what does he owe the world and how do we make him pay?

ANY ANSWERS?

I'll post them here.

I have more than a few words but I'll keep them to myself. I probably will just swear my butt off. I wait for you to say it more eloquently and more strategically. I think we should spend this week blogging the hell out of this question.

Detroit Literary Map

Who's your favorite literary figure from Detroit?
Add to this literary Detroit map.
Send the creator of this project some feedback at the following email.
Explore these sites and you will find Philip Levine, Lawrence Joseph, Joyce Carol Oates, Terry Blackhawk and many others. The piece on Eastern Market is especially well-written and mentions some lesser known writers like Loren Estleman and Lisa Lenzo

WRITE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION OF MY BLOG.

Recommend a writer or artist from Detroit.

My favorites include Lolita Hernandez, Kim Hunter, Kathleen Rashid, Athir Shayota (in New York now), Alise Alousi, Gloria House, Vievee Francis and many others. Detroit's literary life is kicking it. Go to the suburbs and find........lots of shopping plazas, many, many Caribou coffee and Starbuck coffee houses sans poets.

These days, the Detroit scene is vibrant and visual-- the young activists, artists at the Other collective, Ilana/Invincible, and other spoken word artists such as Legacy, Karega, and Omari are grabbing our attention! Katrina Redd, owner of the wonderful ReddApple Gallery (unfortunately no longer open) usually knows what is going on.
Tell me more? whom am I missing?

Iftar dinners in detroit, ann arbor

see solidarityfast for complete information.

UPCOMING IFTAR DINNERS:

• Wednesday, October 11th in Detroit 7-730 p.m.

Detroit solidarity fasters would like to announce the
DETROIT Iftar
Detroit Summer/CCNDC community space
7-8pm @ 3535 Cass
off the corner of MLK Jr blvd
It's a POTLUCK so please bring a dish to pass.
Featuring performances from
HARDCORE DETROIT BREAKERS
JITTERS
DULAB
BIG A
live painting by members of
OTHER collective, and more...
____________________________________________________

• Thursday, October 19th in Ann Arbor 7-7:30 p.m.

Sponsored by Muslims Students' Association and NOWAR committee
If you are attending the Iftar in Ann Arbor, sign up for
this fastathon
The 2006 Fast-A-Thon Iftar dinner will be held in the
WEDGE ROOM at WEST QUAD
on the UM -Ann Arbor campus
approximately 7:00 P.M.
Please sign up so MSA will have an accurate count of attendees.

Nadine Naber: an Arab feminist reading

Professor Naber offers an Arab feminist reading of the suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, and in general a feminist, class-based analysis of the crisis in Palestine. Here's an excerpt from her article, quoted in brownfemipower's blog.
Thanks BFP!!

"What is missing in much of progressive activism in the U.S. is a critique of colonialism that links the Palestinian struggle to other indigenous struggles and all struggles against imperialism. Where then, do radical feminists of color, with our focus on intersections of race, class, gender, sexism, homophobia, colonialism and imperialism locate Wafa Idris? Will we explore the impact of colonization on Wafa’s family? Palestinian families? Palestinian communities? increases in domestic violence? shifts in women’s labor? Will we take interest in Palestinian feminists’ analysis of women’s resistance?"

Defining Detroit series brings J Eugenides

MiddleSex is one of my favorite novels. If you are in Detroit, come to Marygrove College and hear him read. If you have not read his novel, check it out. Moorishgirl has an interesting discussion about Eugenides and multicultural writing.

"Marygrove College hosts the return of Detroit-area native and second-generation Greek-American author Jeffrey Eugenides on Sunday, October 29, 2006, at 4 p.m. in the MadameCadillac Building in Detroit. In a presentation titled “’All Swirl and Hubbub’: Jeffrey Eugenides and Detroit,” he will read from his 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

The novel cannot be reduced to one issue--the complexities of gender and sexuality although Calli's sexual identity is at the center of the novel-- the writer gives us a portrait that is painful, playful, seering, and sly. It is a must read.

Iraqis want U.S. out within one year

Thanks to Saja for the article link. To listen to the alIraqi community forums, one would think that the US is just so welcome and all Iraqis are happy to have them in Iraq. If you ask Iraqis INSIDE Iraqi, there is more fear, anxiety, suspicions --obviously!

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:20 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country.

The Iraqis also have negative views of Osama bin Laden, according to the early September poll of 1,150.

The poll, done for University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, found:

--Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.

--About 61 percent approved of the attacks -- up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. The increase came mostly among Shiite Iraqis.

--An overwhelmingly negative opinion of terror chief bin Laden and more than half, 57 percent, disapproving of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

--Three-fourths say they think the United States plans to keep military bases in Iraq permanently.

--A majority of Iraqis, 72 percent, say they think Iraq will be one state five years from now. Shiite Iraqis were most likely to feel that way, though a majority of Sunnis and Kurds also believed that would be the case.

The PIPA poll, which included an oversample of 150 Sunni Iraqis, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The State Department, meanwhile, has also conducted its own poll, something it does periodically, spokesman Sean McCormack said. The State Department poll found that two-thirds of Iraqis in Baghdad favor an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces, according to The Washington Post. McCormack declined to discuss details of the department's Iraq poll.

''What I hear from government representatives and other anecdotal evidence that you hear from Iraqis that is collected by embassy personnel and military personnel is that Iraqis do appreciate our presence there,'' he said. ''They do understand the reasons for it, they do understand that we don't want to or we don't intend to be there indefinitely.''

Iraqi officials have said Iraq's security was improving and expanding throughout the country, and most U.S. troops might be able to leave eventually.

Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talibani told the United Nations that coalition forces should remain in Iraq until Iraqi security forces are ''capable of putting an end to terrorism and maintaining stability and security.''

Program on International Policy Attitudes: http://www.pipa.org

Doris Bittar exhibit in Chula Vista, California

DORIS BITTAR

Uncle Hanna's Electric Heart and other Stories of Resistance

October 12 - November 2, 2006

Two Opening Receptions:

Thursday, October 12, 11 am - Noon

6:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Southwestern College Art Gallery Patio (Building 710)

900 Otay Lakes Road

Chula Vista, CA. 91910-7299

Information & Directions
(619) 216-6605

Gallery Hours
Monday - Thursday 10:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Wednesday & Thursday 6 - 8:30 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Closed School Holidays

The photo installations Uncle Hanna's Electric Heart and Khaldiyeh's River Rock Story are the centerpieces of the exhibition, along with photographic selections from Kul Shay/All Things and paintings from the Stripes and Stars series. Kul Shay/All Things is a work in progress whose database entails the gathering of nearly 4,000 photographs from a six-month sojourn in Beirut, several visits to Syria and a trip to Iran taken in 2005 The project catalogues and articulates my Arabic heritage and how I negotiate between several locations and contexts within the Middle East. The photographs were culled from a wide array of subjects, places and events taken at the onset of Lebanon's political upheaval in early 2005. Kul Shay means "All Things" in Arabic. It is an apt and convenient phrase that both excuses the inclusion of varied experiences and describes my feeling about Middle Eastern cultures as a mix of decorum, abundance, nurturing and contradiction. The main photo installations, Uncle Hanna's Electric Heart and Khaldiyeh's River Rock Story, are of two individuals who show how private acts of domestic creativity become examples of resistance. Through passionately creative efforts and strength of personality these individuals act as agents of resistance in the face of extreme political circumstances. Doris Bittar 2006

Photo:© Doris Bittar
'Uncle Hanna's Electric Heart' Kfarhoune, Lebanon, 2005

archival pigment print; 11 x 14 inches; ed. 10

Bittar's work is incredible! She was part of the Arab American's first major art exhibit IN/VISIBLE and she also was at the DIWAN arts conference. check out her work if you are in/from that area.

The icon of the Virgin Mary reminds me of all the pictures Chaldeans have in our homes.