filmmaker Shamim Sarif in LA at USC

SCA Events

Oct 21, 2008
Special screening of I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT and THE WORLD UNSEEN
Time: 7:00PM - 10:30PM
Location: George Lucas Building, Room 108, 850 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007
make reservations »

The USC School of Cinematic Arts invites you to a special double-feature showcasing two new films by emerging Indian filmmaker Shamim Sarif:

I Can't Think Straight & The World Unseen

7:00PM on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

George Lucas Building, Room 108
850 W. 34th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Both films will be projected from a DVD.

Free to the public, open to all.


MAKE A RESERVATION

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

7:00PM: I Can't Think Straight (2007), directed by Shamim Sarif, 80min.
8:30PM: Q&A with director Shamim Sarif, producer Hanan Kattan and actress Sheetal Sheth
9:00PM: The World Unseen (2007), directed by Shamim Sarif, 94min., rated PG-13.

ABOUT I CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT

I Can’t Think Straight focuses on the relationship between the spirited Christian Tala (Lisa Ray) and the shy Muslim Leyla (Sheetal Sheth) and the trouble that their love affair causes for them and their families. Tala, a London-based Palestinian, prepares for an elaborate wedding with her fiancé, when she encounters Leyla, a young British Indian woman who is dating her best friend Ali. The two women could not be more different from each other, but the attraction is immediate. Tala’s feisty nature provokes Leyla out of her shell and soon both women reveal their feelings for each other.

I Can't Think Straight will be released by Regent Releasing and here! Films in Los Angeles on Friday, November 24th, 2008.

To learn more about the film, visit www.icantthinkstraightfilm.com

ABOUT THE WORLD UNSEEN

In 1950's South Africa, apartheid is just beginning. Free-spirited Amina (Sheetal Sheth) has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community in South Africa by running a café, a safe haven of laughter, music and home-cooked food; a ‘grey area’ for those who fall outside the strict ‘black and white’ rules of the apartheid-led government.

Miriam (Lisa Ray) is a doting mother to her children and a demure and subservient wife to her chauvinistic, frustrated husband, Omar. Quietly intelligent, Miriam has never assumed that she may have choices in life.

When Miriam meets Amina, their unexpected attraction throws them both off balance. Although Miriam manages to subdue her fascination with unconventional Amina, she finds herself slowly inspired to confront familiar and familial constraints. Shortly after their encounter, Miriam moves to an isolated life in the country, but even here apartheid is placing its cruel footprint on society, and these injustices bring the two women together again, cementing the basis of their growing feelings.

Using the stunning South African landscape and jazz tunes of the time, The World Unseen explores a system that divides white from black and women from men, but one that might just allow an unexpected love to survive.

The World Unseen will be released by Regent Releasing in Los Angeles on Friday, November 7th, 2008.

To learn more about the film, visit www.theworldunseenfilm.com

ABOUT THE GUESTS


From never having been on a film set before to being the driving creative force behind not one, but two full-length motion pictures due for release in the same month, Shamim Sarif and Hanan Kattan have achieved goals beyond their wildest dreams.

Sarif made waves in the literary world when her first novel, The World Unseen, was published to critical acclaim. Sarif subsequently adapted the screenplay for the feature film of The World Unseen, which she also directed, but not before making her directorial debut with I Can’t Think Straight, another of her novels that she adapted for the screen. Both films will be released in the US and Canada during November 2008.

Written, directed, financed and produced almost entirely by women, both films are Enlightenment Productions movies produced by Sarif’s business and life partner Hanan Kattan, starring Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth.

Commenting on the all-female team, Kattan says: “There was a lot of passion, a lot of positive emotions and a lot of multi-tasking and co-operation.

“Both our projects happened to attract a lot of women, from producers to heads of departments, and it is a blessing to work with so many talented and passionate women who have integrity and who deeply understand the messages and stories being told."

With a longstanding business and personal relationship, Sarif and Kattan combine forces as a powerful symbiotic team.

To learn more about Englightenment Productions, visit www.enlightenment-productions.com

Sheetal Sheth burst onto the scene in her debut film, ABCD, a risky and controversial role as a promiscuous young girl struggling with the ties of family and tradition. She paved un-chartered territory by being at the forefront of a film revolution starring in five festival-winning films by and starring first generation South Asian Americans. She broke out as the female lead in Shangri-La Entertainment’s film, Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, starring, written and directed by Albert Brooks. She won the Best Actress Award at the Cinevue Film Festival for her work in Wings of Hope and American Chai won the Audience Award at the Slamdance Film Festival. In addition to I Can’t Think Straight and The World Unseen, Sheth has appeared in Dancing in Twilight, The Trouble with Romance and the forthcoming films First Fear and Why am I Doing This?

ABOUT CHECK-IN & RESERVATIONS

Doors will open at approximately 6:00PM. Guests may check in at the reservations desk under their last name. We kindly ask that you not bring food or drink into the theater.

ABOUT PARKING

The George Lucas Building is located at 850 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $8.00 at USC Entrance Gate #5, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & McClintock Avenue. We recommend parking in outdoor Lot M or V, or Parking Structure D, at the far end of 34th Street. Please note that Parking Structure D cannot accommodate tall vehicles such as SUVs. Street parking is also available along W. Jefferson Boulevard (meters are free after 6:00PM).

For a map of the USC campus (Norris Cinema Theatre, NCT, is N.10 in blue), please access the following website: http://www.usc.edu/assets/maps/upc_map.pdf

CFP: "Serve the People"

The Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California is pleased to announce the call for papers for this year's Crossing Borders Ethnic Studies Conference. Now in its 7th year, Crossing Borders has served as a meeting ground for graduate student conversations across institutional and disciplinary lines in the field of Ethnic Studies.



8th Annual Crossing Borders Ethnic Studies Conference
Serve the People: Ethnic Studies Between Theory and Praxis
University of Southern California, March 6-8, 2009

Call for Proposals

The 8^th annual Crossing Borders Conference, hosted by the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, coincides with the 40-year anniversary of the killings of UCLA students John Huggins and Bunchy Carter. On January 17th, 1969, these two student activists and leaders of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party were shot during an ideological dispute regarding the direction of new Black Studies department. Their life work symbolizes a particular direction and hope for an Ethnic Studies that engaged with the anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and anti-war movements gaining momentum in communities around the world. Huggins and Carter, as participants in the pilot UCLA High Potential program, saw the university as a critical site for enacting their political commitments.

Huggins and Carter were a part of a larger movement rooted in local communities that maintained an internationalist perspective. These analytics emerged within a context of world-wide events which continue to reverberate within Ethnic Studies: the war in Southeast Asia, the decolonization of Africa, world-wide student protests in the late 1960s, people of color power movements, the Non-Aligned Movement comprised of and led mostly by former colonies, the New Left movement, sexual revolutions, the Gay Liberation movement, and women's movements. In this context, the 1968 Third World Liberation Front student strike at San Francisco State University led to the formation of Ethnic Studies. As a rare intellectual tradition whose roots are in confronting and transforming power, this history has deeply informed our trajectory of knowledge production and the questions we continue to ask. Yet, the founding of Ethnic Studies was also met with the inception of new technologies of discipline, an intensified era of state monitored anti-insurgency, and the inability of revolutionary visions to pay attention to issues such as gender and sexuality.

Forty years later, with the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies on university campuses, how do we make sense of our inheritance? How do we radically envision what engaged scholarship means? How do we understand questions of community engagement and commitment to social justice? How do we honor our legacies without positing a binary between theory and practice, nor uncritically glorifying old models of engaged work? With communities increasingly being defined in complex ways, how do we mount effective interventions? What are the ways in which Ethnic Studies scholars can reckon with our history and the contradictions inherent in the multiple interstices of our existences?

Keeping in mind the relationship between theory and praxis of community scholarship, we invite proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables from graduate students who address these questions through one or more of the following broad topics: race, gender, and law, globalization, transnationalism, immigration, diaspora, gender and sexuality, space and spatiality, social movements, community organizing, electoral politics, surveillance and practices of viewing, education, radical pedagogy, and cultural production (music, film, art, literature, etc.).

Submissions

We welcome submissions for panels, individual papers, and roundtable discussion. Panels should consist of 3-4 presenters, and 1 discussant, who may also be a presenter. Roundtables should consist of 4-6 slated participants who will briefly present their material and engage the audience in dialogue, and one chair who will introduce the topic and facilitate discussion. Individual papers will be considered, but priority will be given to prearranged panels.

Submission guidelines: Individual submissions must include: a 1) 250-word paper abstract and 2) a curriculum vitae. Panel presentations must include: 1) a 250-word description of the panel and 2) 250-word abstracts for each paper, and 3) a curriculum vitae for each presenter and the discussant. Roundtable submissions should include: 1) a 1-2 page description of the proposed discussion and 2) curriculum vitae for each slated participant.

Please note that all proposals must be compiled into one Microsoft Word document and sent to crossingborders09@gmail.com.

Deadline for submission: January 2, 2009

WONG fly over the CUCKOO'S NEST

This is the face I make when I read about Sarah Palin...

Friends! Since I last spammed, I covered the REDCAT stage in cat pee (really!), got a big grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation to shoot Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for camera (yay!), and lost my car in a fire (wah!)!
The LA Times article on my “Cat Lady” show (pictured above) last month at the REDCAT is at http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/theguide/la-gd-cover17-2008jul17,0,5336199.story
Two updates in this email!
Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest finally lands in Los Angeles for three weekends! September 19- October 5! Nine shows!
2. My beautiful pink biodiesel Mercedes lives in Car Heaven now after a very dramatic firey death on the 405! More details on this new chapter in my green life below.
WONG FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST in Los Angeles!!!! 9/19- 10/5Tickets are now on sale!

Cancel your vacation! My show comes through Los Angeles one last time! No extensions! No more plans to come back through Los Angeles! Wong is leaving the building!
This is the show I’ve slaved, cried, had multiple breakdowns and breakthroughs creating and touring in the last two years. It is my baby, and has been my life. Please come!
September 19-October 5, 2008Miles Memorial Playhouse1130 Lincoln BlvdSanta Monica, CA 90404
Fridays and Saturdays 8:30pm, Sundays 3pm
Kristina Wong brings her nationally acclaimed show home for its Los Angeles premiere run! Incisive writer and performer Kristina Wong mixes sharp humor and psychology in a swear-to-god-not-autobiographical, serio-comic portrayal of the high incidence of mental illness among Asian American women. Directed by Nurit Siegel
Tickets ($20-$30) are now on sale! Cheap group tickets for groups of 5+! Visit our ticket page at http:// www.teada.org to buy tickets now or call (310) 998-8765
Special Shows (all are regular ticket priced unless stated otherwise...)September 19th: Opening Night with Reception! Sparkling Cider! Snacks! $30September 21st: Obama Fundraiser! We’re turning our proceeds over to his highness!September 28 & October 3: The Pear Spacecraft Fair (a craft fair) is available before and after the show!

And in other news......
CAR FREE IN LOS ANGELES!
RIP Harold (the Car )1981- 2008
Oh these beautiful things, they don’t last forever. After thousands of dollars in repairs, my greatest attempt at green living... my pink Mercedes that ran completely on vegetable oil... burst into flames off the Victory exit on the 405. The car was totaled in the fire and I didn’t have any insurance for fire damage. So it was a total financial loss. I stood in a field off the freeway exit watching Harold die inside 20 foot flames, but I was relieved that nobody was hurt, that I was ALIVE, and that I’d never have to pay for another repair or have to hunt for used vegetable oil ever again. I’ve made my peace with this loss. It was a nice two years but not easy or cheap... Bye bye money pit and failed attempt at green living car!
I’m actually attempting something greener than a biodiesel car. Living in LA without any car! So far, so free with an estimated savings of at least $4000 a year (and that budgets in cabs and car rentals believe it or not)! You may see me on bike, on foot, in car share, in carpool, in taxi, on horse or on bus around town. Feel free to offer me a ride!
I’m tracking my car free adventures on my blog. I’m already working on a new show on “car(e)free living in Los Angeles.” Here is the link to the “Wong Sans Wheels Chronicles”-- http://www.kristinawong.com/frameset.html?http%3A//www.kristinawong.com/labels/The%2520Wong%2520Sans%2520Wheels%2520Chronicles.html


Take care, stay safe, enjoy life, and come to my freaking show!
Love, Kristina http://www.kristinawong.com

Mahmoud Darwish dies

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67August 09, 2008 2:44 PM EDTGAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Mahmoud Darwish, the world's most recognized Palestinian poet, whose prose gave voice to the Palestinian experience of exile, occupation and infighting, died on Saturday in Houston, Texas. He was 67.The predominant Palestinian poet, whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and won numerous international awards, died following open heart surgery at a Houston hospital, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Born to a large Muslim family in historical Palestine - now modern-day Israel - he emerged as a Palestinian cultural icon who eloquently described his people's struggle for independence, and as a vocal critic of both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian leadership. He gave voice to the Palestinian dreams of statehood, crafted their declaration of independence and helped forge a Palestinian national identity."He felt the pulse of Palestinians in beautiful poetry. He was a mirror of the Palestinian society," said Ali Qleibo, a Palestinian anthropologist and lecturer in cultural studies at Al Quds University in Jerusalem.Darwish first gained prominence in the 1960s with the publication of his first poetry collection, "Bird without Wings." It included a poem ("Identity Card") that defiantly spoke in the first person of an Arab man giving his identity number - a common practice among Palestinians when dealing with Israeli authorities and Arab governments - and vowing to return to his land.Many of his poems have been put into music - most notably "Rita," "Birds of Galilee" and "I yearn for my mother's bread" - and have become anthems for at least two generations of Arabs.He wrote another 21 collections, the last in 2008, "The Impression of Butterflies."Qleibo described Darwish's poetry as "the easy impossible," for Darwish's ability to condense the Palestinian narrative into simple, evocative language - breaking away from the more traditional heavy, emotive and rhythmic verse of other Arab poets.Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, read by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he unilaterally declared statehood. The declaration was symbolic and had no concrete significance.Darwish's influence was keenly felt among Palestinians, serving as a powerful voice for many."He started out as a poet of resistance and then he became a poet of conscience," said Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi. "He embodied the best in Palestinians ... even though he became iconic he never lost his sense of humanity. We have lost part of our essence, the essence of the Palestinian being."Last year, Darwish recited a poem damning the deadly infighting between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah, describing it as "a public attempt at suicide in the streets."Darwish was born in the Palestinian village of Birweh near Haifa that was destroyed in the 1948 Mideast war that led to Israel's independence. He joined the Israeli Communist Party after high school and began writing poems for leftist newspapers."When we think of Darwish ... he is our heart, and our tongue," said Issam Makhoul, an Arab lawmaker and veteran member of the Israeli Communist Party,Darwish left Israel in the early 1970s to study in the former Soviet Union, and from there he traveled to Egypt and Lebanon. He joined the Palestine Liberation Organization but resigned in 1993 in protest over the interim peace accords that the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, signed with Israel. Darwish moved to the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1996.His work is widely admired on the Arab and Palestinian street. In Israel, it evokes different feelings.In 2000, Israel's education minister, Yossi Sarid, suggested including some of Darwish's poems in the Israeli high school curriculum. But Prime Minister Ehud Barak overruled him, saying Israel was not ready yet for his ideas in the school system.In 1988, a Darwish poem, "Passing in Passing Words," was read by then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir inside Israel's parliament as an example of the Palestinians' unwillingness to live alongside Jews. The poem suggested that Darwish called for Jews to leave the region.Adel Usta, a specialist on Darwish's poetry, said the poem was misunderstood and mistranslated."He created a national Palestinian identity that no other poet could achieve," Usta said.Darwish married and divorced twice. He does not have any children.Siham Daoud, a fellow poet and longtime friend of Darwish, said he traveled to a hospital in Houston, Texas, ten days ago for the surgery and asked not to be resuscitated if it did not succeed. She said Darwish had a history of heart problems, and has been operated on twice in the past.Akram Haniyeh, Editor-in-Chief of the Al Ayyam newspaper and a close friend of Darwish, was by Darwish's bedside in Houston. He said Darwish underwent an operation on Wednesday and there were complications.Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.© 2008 EarthLink, Inc. All rights reserved.

CNN on Iraqi Gays

As usual, the U.S. is always concerned, first and foremost, about human rights. I wonder why CNN worries about the persecution of Iraqi homosexuals but probably rarely covers a story about an American gay person's dramas living in this country? Could it be imperialist feminisms, liberalisms (as Joseph Massad would argue in Desiring Arabs)? That would be my take. NOTICE the persecution of Iraqi homosexuals INCREASED AFTER OCCUPATION? CNN had to seek this story out and find people willing to go on camera so CNN can, then, protect their identities.

My question: why this story? why now? and how does it fuel the racist fire that "those people" are less advanced, less modern than we are? BEFORE the American invasion, gay folks were safer. The borders of Iraqi sovereignty have become completely weakened, unprotected, so the insurgents INSIDE of Iraq are probably not Iraqis. The daily chaos that includes violent bombings, kidnappings, theft, rape ARE a DIRECT RESULT OF occupation. Targeting of gay individuals is a direct result of occupation.

so irritated by this story but then when is CNN NOT IRRITATING???????

Ragheb Alama-Tauoam Rouhi

you are the twin of my soul. this song has special place in my head/heart/history!!

UCRPROFESSORLINDONBARRETT

OUTFEST

Silk Road Theatre Project

Silk Road Theatre Project joins San Francisco's Golden Thread
Productions and New York City's Lark Play Development Center
in creating a ground breaking tri-coastal initiative.

The first ever national effort to actively cultivate and support the
development of Middle Eastern American playwrights and their plays.

Middle East America will provide to a writer:

· A $10,000 commission to support any play the selected writer wishes to write

· Developmental support from the Lark Play Development Center

· Staged readings and possible productions at Golden Thread Productions and Silk Road Theatre Project

Quotes about Middle East America:
"Middle East America supports with dollars and deeds the stories and perspectives of a still-marginalized community that has the potential to change our national - and global - conversation for the good."
--John Clinton Eisner, Lark Play Development Center Producing Director

"Silk Road Theatre Project was founded in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent backlash against peoples of Middle Eastern and Muslim backgrounds. In establishing Middle East America, we are taking a proactive stance in assuring that playwrights of Middle Eastern backgrounds receive the nurturing and support they deserve. It is high time that Middle Eastern American voices be heard as integral to the mosaic of American storytelling."
--Jamil Khoury, Silk Road Theatre Project Founding Artistic Director

"It is critical in ensuring that Middle Eastern American playwrights continue to be discovered, nurtured, and produced. Not only because their work is worthy of broader audiences, but more importantly because American audiences can no longer afford not to see this work."
--Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread Productions Founding Artistic Director

For more information visit: http://www.middleeastamerica.org.

Silk Road Theatre Project
at The Historic Chicago Temple Building
77 West Washington Street | Pierce Hall | Chicago, IL 60602
info@srtp.org | 312-857-1234 | www.srtp.org

Mizuiro (watercolor) by UA

thanks YUSHI. so lush, lovely. her voice is like the moon.

Inclined to Speak

Midwest Book Review

Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry collects works from a diversity of contemporary Arab American poets. The poems themselves cover a deep range of subjects, from culture and politics to art, language, loss, and the foibles of the human condition. Most poems are free-verse; each author's work is prefaced with a brief biography spanning one-third to one-half of a page. The result is an eclectic and broad-reaching compilation that challenges the reader to rethink his or her perspective concerning what it truly means to be an American. Highly recommended. "Mayfly (for Esme)": You have the right to / be delicate, transparent / yet still / flatten yourself against / the strong current // appear as if / you're caught in mid-swarm / when you are singularly // flying toward the light.
by Detroit poet ALISE ALOUSI

Alise Alousi is an Iraqi-American poet. Her work has been published in the journals Dispatch Detroit, Alternative Press, Graffiti Rag and The Monthly Review among others, as well as in the anthologies: Abandon Automobile, Poets Against War, and I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You. She has worked with children and teens for over fifteen years, most recently as a writer - in - residence in the Detroit Public Schools through the Inside/ Out Literary Arts Project.

Community Services Unlimited INC: South Central LA

Community Services Unlimited Inc.
Serving the People Body and Soul

Announcements

:: CSU new office and number
:: Normandie Elementary Mini Farm Work Day - Sat May 3rd, 11am to 4pm
:: So Cal Library Work Day – Sun May 11th, 9am to 1pm
:: Expo Mini Farm Work Day - Wed May 21st, 4pm to 8pm
:: Simple Summer Sensations Food Party – Fri June 6th, 7pm to 10pm

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CSU New Office and Number

We have achieved our goal of finding and moving into a new office space in the community we serve. This is a huge step for CSU and will greatly increase our capacity and level of organization
Please note the new contact information:
1344 West Martin Luther Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90037
(323) 299 7075
All our email information is still the same and for now so is our fax, though that will be changing soon
Please mark your calendars for an Open House in our new space on Friday June 27th and help us to celebrate with local food and special exhibits from the youth in our various projects; more details will follow. At this time of celebration we would be deeply amiss to forget those who have supported us; for many years we have been housed at the Law Offices of B. Kwaku Duren where we have paid no rent and have only recently contributed in any way to basic operating expenses. Even when working conditions have become cramped with CSU’s gradual growth, Kwaku has never made us feel like we were in the way or unwanted. May we never forget but rather seek to emulate the Panther spirit of brothers and sisters like Kwaku who have contributed to and served our community simply out of love for the people!

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May 3rd – Normandie Mini Farm City Year Work Day – 11am - 4pm

Part of the Mayor’s city wide Big Sunday weekend, this workday on Saturday is in partnership with City Year and will focus on the fruit tree groves. At this time of year we need to once again clear the area around the trees of weeds and grasses and compost and mulch for continued healthy summer growth. So if you can make it for any time please join us.

WHERE: Normandie Growing Healthy Fruit Orchard; Please enter through the school gate on Vernon Avenue just a little east of Normandie Avenue

In partnership with City Year and Normandie Avenue Elementary

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May 11th- So Cal Library Rockcorps Work Day – 9am to 1pm

The So Cal Library is a unique organization that exists to preserve and showcase the history of social justice movements in Los Angeles. A couple of years ago we began to partner with the library to create a garden in an open space next to the main building. On this workday we will be clearing away weeds and grass that have taken over the area, pruning and mulching in order to move forward in the goal of creating a beautiful green space. As always please wear appropriate clothing, all tools, garden gloves and water will be provided.

This day is organized in partnership with Rockcorps and we ask that you please register through their web site; the reward, volunteer for 4 hours and you get a free ticket to an awesome concert, check it out at BMRC.com or call 1888 Rock 889. Also, please let us know that you are planning to attend, rsvp to Neelam@csuinc.org

WHERE: Directly next door to the library which is at 6120 S Vermont, Los Angeles 90044. The major cross street in 60th Street, the library is on Vermont in between Slauson and Cage

In partnership with Rockcorps and the So Cal Library – You gotta give to get!

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Wed May 21st - Expo Mini Farm Rockcorps Work Day – 4pm to 8pm

This event is ideal for those of you who cannot get to the weekend work days, a perfect time to work on a summer day, with the heat cooling off you can be out in the open, get some exercise and help you community. This day is organized in partnership with Rockcorps and we ask that you please register through their web site; the reward, volunteer for 4 hours and you get a free ticket to an awesome concert, check it out at BMRC.com or call 1888 Rock 889. Also, please let us know that you are planning to attend, rsvp to Neelam@csuinc.org

Where: Expo Center Mini Farm
Located on the north east corner of King Blvd. and Menlo Avenue (one street east of Vermont Ave)
Close to the swim stadium at 3980 South Menlo, Los Angeles, 90037

In partnership with Rockcorps and the Expo Center.

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June 6th - Food Party Fundraiser – THEME: Simple Summer Sensations – 7pm to 10pm

Where: In Culver City, Address & Directions will be sent to those who RSVP
How Much: $20.00 (home cooked, beyond organic & served with love!)
RSVP: Neelam@csuinc.org or call 323 296-2038. Space is limited!

IN 2008 CSU is hosting a (mostly) monthly food party as a means of bringing together cool people and great food and also raising some needed resources for our work. Each food party will have a different theme that will be reflected in the food and music (and clothes for the willing). You don’t have to stay the whole evening, in fact the evening is planned so folks on their way elsewhere can stop, eat, chat and move on. The number of attendees will be limited for each event and it will be strictly pay in advance.

Thank you to all of you who joined us for Treats From Trinidad in April (no food party in May, due to staff attending conferences); we had a good time and made over $800.00 to help with our work and once again were full to capacity. So, get your confirmation in early; for you to be confirmed, we must receive your payment in advance. Rsvp as below and send your donation ($20 minimum) payable to CSU to 1344 West Martin Luther King Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90037. Or you can pay at our web site through pay pal; www.csuinc.org

This month’s Food Party will be hosted by our very own Heather Fenney and partner Dewayne Alexander and the theme is simply the very best of early summer produce which will be presented for your eating pleasure in the form of cooling salads, delicious tidbits from the grill, fruit inspired desserts and quenching herb iced teas.
A detailed menu will be sent to those that RSVP, but you can be sure to get home cooked gourmet food, featuring locally grown and beyond organic produce, at an incredible price of $20.00 Spaces are limited, so RSVP soon to neelam@csuinc.org or call 323 299 7075.

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Reminders.........

Farm Stand @ EXPO Every Thursday 3 – 5 pm (inside the reception area, if raining or extremely windy)
On Menlo in front of the pool Stadium 1 block north of King. Check out: http://www.csuinc.org/ for more details


Get Your Veggies on the Run! Sign up for CSU’s Produce Bag Program
Subscribe for CSU’s Farm Fresh Produce Bag program and each week receive a bag filled with seasonal fruits and vegetables from CSU’s urban mini-farms and local farmers. The bag also includes a news sheet with easy recipes using items in your bag! We grow and shop - You Stop - & Pick up your pre-paid bag at the EXPO farm stand on Thursday evenings! Subscribers get first pick of seasonal and limited items before they hit the farm stand and help CSU by paying in advance. Fresh, Local, Beyond Organic – good for you, the earth and the community –
Learn more and sign up @ http://www.csuinc.org/programs/villagemarketplace.htm


Support CSU Everytime You Search or Shop Online.
GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue to charities users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up! GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37% of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause!

How It Works: Just go to http://www.goodsearch.com or http://www.goodshop.com and enter and select “community services unlimited” as your charity of choice! Tip: Most folks will only have to enter CSU the first time they visit. After that your charity preference gets put in your “cookies” and CSU will automatically be selected every time you go to either site! So make GoodSearch your home page and easily support CSU every time you go o

A Jihad for Love

I don't know enough about the filmmakers of this film, but I say we at least check it out. nayj

MOVIE LOVERS UNITE!

Seeking Interns, Volunteers, Street Team for the May 21st theatrical release of A Jihad for Love at the IFC Center.

We are forming a team of interns and volunteers to promote Jihad for Love an internationally acclaimed documentary about gay Muslims around the world.

To ensure that all of NYC comes out to support the A Jihad for Love launch - we will be working the streets, cafes, bars, clubs, events, schools, gyms, parks, religious centers, subway stops with posters and postcards.

We want to reach many communities - especially Muslim, Arab, South Asian, Iranian, GLBT...

Volunteers would assist in promotion, publicity, and special events. Unpaid internships are available with incredible potential to learn the ins and outs of the independent film scene in NY as well as community organizing and outreach.

To be part of a fabulous team working on the release of one of the most exciting films of 2008, please email:

Shaheen, Director of Outreach, NYC Muslim Community, at: teamjihadforlove@ gmail.com

Please include a paragraph stating why you want to come on board. If you have a resume please include.

A JIHAD FOR LOVE

Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Islam today is the world's second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims. Produced by Sandi DuBowski (director of the award-winning Trembling Before G-d), A Jihad for Love was filmed over 5 1/2 years, in 12 countries and 9 languages, "A Jihad for Love" comes from the heart of Islam. Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, this film seeks to reclaim the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, which can mean 'an inner struggle' or 'to strive in the path of God'. In doing so the film and its remarkable subjects move beyond the narrow concept of 'Jihad' as holy war.

************ ********* ********* ******

Mahdis Keshavarz

Principal

The Make Agency

Mahdis@TheMakeAgenc y.com

425.591.8781

The Make Agency

Gordimer and Israel

CR 10: September 26-28

MARK YOUR CALENDARS and plan a road trip to SF...BEFORE THEN, CR needs $$$

Dylan Rodriguez and Setsu Shigematsu are doing a fundraiser for CR10. If you are interested in attending, May 17th, let me know, and I can send Evite. if you want to give a donation, we are trying to raise $3,000 for CR10.

Help us if you can.

Email me at aramaicarpentereel (AT) yahoo.com with questions or where to send a check
nayj

arabs just want to have fun

no comment

shedding light?

Letters Give C.I.A. Tactics a Legal Rationale

By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has told Congress that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law.

The legal interpretation, outlined in recent letters, sheds new light on the still-secret rules for interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency. It shows that the administration is arguing that the boundaries for interrogations should be subject to some latitude, even under an executive order issued last summer that President Bush said meant that the C.I.A. would comply with international strictures against harsh treatment of detainees.

While the Geneva Conventions prohibit “outrages upon personal dignity,” a letter sent by the Justice Department to Congress on March 5 makes clear that the administration has not drawn a precise line in deciding which interrogation methods would violate that standard, and is reserving the right to make case-by-case judgments.

“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in the letter, which had not previously been made public.

Mr. Bush issued the executive order last summer to comply with restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court and Congress. The order spelled out new standards for interrogation techniques, requiring that they comply with international standards for humane treatment, but it did not identify any approved techniques.

It has been clear that the order preserved at least some of the latitude that Mr. Bush has permitted the C.I.A. in using harsher interrogation techniques than those permitted by the military or other agencies. But the new documents provide more details about how the administration intends to determine whether a specific technique would be legal, depending on the circumstances involved.

The letters from the Justice Department to Congress were provided by the staff of Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee and had sought more information from the department.

Some legal experts critical of the Justice Department interpretation said the department seemed to be arguing that the prospect of thwarting a terror attack could be used to justify interrogation methods that would otherwise be illegal.

“What they are saying is that if my intent is to defend the United States rather than to humiliate you, than I have not committed an offense,” said Scott L. Silliman, who teaches national security law at Duke University.

But a senior Justice Department official strongly challenged this interpretation on Friday, saying that the purpose of the interrogation would be just one among many factors weighed in determining whether a specific procedure could be used.

“I certainly don’t want to suggest that if there’s a good purpose you can head off and humiliate and degrade someone,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was describing some legal judgments that remain classified.

“The fact that you are doing something for a legitimate security purpose would be relevant, but there are things that a reasonable observer would deem to be outrageous,” he said.

At the same time, the official said, “there are certainly things that can be insulting that would not raise to the level of an outrage on personal dignity.”

The humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners is prohibited by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions.

Determining the legal boundaries for interrogating terrorism suspects has been a struggle for the Bush administration. Some of those captured in the first two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were subjected to particularly severe methods, including waterboarding, which induces a feeling of drowning.

But the rules for interrogations became more restrictive beginning in 2004, when the Justice Department rescinded a number of classified legal opinions, including a memorandum written in August 2002 that argued that nothing short of the pain associated with organ failure constituted illegal torture. The executive order that Mr. Bush issued in July 2007 was a further restriction, in response to a Supreme Court ruling in 2006 that holding that all prisoners in American captivity must be treated in accordance with Common Article 3.

Mr. Benczkowski’s letters were in response to questions from Mr. Wyden, whose committee had received classified briefings about the executive order.

That order specifies some conduct that it says would be prohibited in any interrogation, including forcing an individual to perform sexual acts, or threatening an individual with sexual mutilation. But it does not say which techniques could still be permitted.

Legislation that was approved this year by the House and the Senate would have imposed further on C.I.A. interrogations, by requiring that they conform to rules spelled out in the Army handbook for military interrogations that bans coercive procedures. But Mr. Bush vetoed that bill, saying that the use of harsh interrogation methods had been effective in preventing terrorist attacks.

The legal reasoning included in the latest Justice Department letters is less expansive than what department lawyers offered as recently as 2005 in defending the use of aggressive techniques. But they show that the Bush administration lawyers are citing the sometimes vague language of the Geneva Conventions to support the idea that interrogators should not be bound by ironclad rules.

In one letter written Sept. 27, 2007, Mr. Benczkowski argued that “to rise to the level of an outrage” and thus be prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, conduct “must be so deplorable that the reasonable observer would recognize it as something that should be universally condemned.”

Mr. Wyden said he was concerned that, under the new rules, the Bush administration had put Geneva Convention restrictions on a “sliding scale.”

If the United States used subjective standards in applying its interrogation rules, he said, then potential enemies might adopt different standards of treatment for American detainees based on an officer’s rank or other factors.

“The cumulative effect in my interpretation is to put American troops at risk,” Mr. Wyden said.

why would there be peace when there is no justice?

this country is fucked up

From NYtimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/nyregion/26BELL.html

April 26, 2008

3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting

By MICHAEL WILSON

Three detectives were found not guilty Friday morning on all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, who died in a hail of 50 police bullets outside a club in Jamaica, Queens.

Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, who delivered the verdict in State Supreme Court, said many of the prosecution's witnesses, including Mr. Bell's friends and the two wounded victims, were simply not believable. "At times, the testimony of those witnesses just didn't make sense," he said.

While his decision prompted several supporters of Mr. Bell to storm out of the courtroom, and there were a few small scuffles outside the courthouse, by late morning there no suggestions of any broader unrest around the city. Mr. Bell's family members made no comment as they left, and they immediately drove to visit his grave at the Nassau Knolls Cemetery and Memorial Park in Port Washington.

The verdict comes 17 months to the day since the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting of Mr. Bell, 23, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, outside the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens, hours before Mr. Bell was to be married.

It was delivered in a packed courtroom and was heard by, among others, the slain man's parents and his fiancée. Mr. Bell's family sat silently as Justice Cooperman spoke from the bench. Behind them, a woman was heard to ask, "Did he just say, 'Not guilty?' " The three detectives — Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were escorted out a side doorway as court adjourned.

The acquittals do not necessarily mean the officers' legal battles are over. Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the three men could still face disciplinary action from the Police Department, and that he had been asked to wait on any internal measures until the United States attorney's office determines whether or not it would pursue federal charges against them.

The seven-week trial, which ended April 14, was heard by Justice Cooperman after the defendants waived their right to a jury, a strategy some lawyers called risky at the time. But it clearly paid off.

Before rendering his verdict, Justice Cooperman ran through a narrative of the chilly November evening when Mr. Bell died, and concluded "the police response with respect to each defendant was not found to be criminal."

"The people have not proved beyond a reasonable doubt" that each defendant was not justified in shooting, the judge said, quickly adding that the men were not guilty of all of the eight counts, five felonies and three misdemeanors against them.

Roughly 30 court officers stood by, around the courtroom and in the aisles. At one point as he read, Justice Cooperman paused to insist that a crying baby be taken from the courtroom. Immediately a young woman who appeared to be among the Bell contingent got up and left with a baby.

"There are no winners in a trial like this," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said later. "An innocent man lost his life, a bride lost her groom, two daughters lost their father, and a mother and a father lost their son."

The mayor continued: "Judge Cooperman's responsibility, however, was to decide the case based on the evidence presented in the courtroom. America is a nation of laws, and though not everyone will agree with the verdicts and opinions issued by the courts, we accept their authority."

He added: "There will be opportunities for peaceful dissent and potentially for further legal recourse — those are the rights we enjoy in a democratic nation. We don't expect violence or law-breaking, nor is there any place for it."

A subdued Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, whose office prosecuted the case, said at a news conference: "Judge Cooperman discharged his responsibilities fairly and consciously under the law. I accept his verdict, and I urge all fair-minded individuals in this city to do the same." Commissioner Kelly, speaking in Brooklyn, would not comment on the verdict itself. But he did say that while there were no reports of unrest in response to the acquittals, the Police Department was ready should it occur.

"We have prepared, we have done some drills and some practice with appropriate units and personnel if there is any violence, but again, we don't anticipate violence," Mr. Kelly said. "There have been no problems. Obviously there will be some people who are disappointed with the verdict. We understand that."

Detectives Isnora and Oliver had faced the most charges: first- and second-degree manslaughter, with a possible sentence of 25 years in prison; felony assault, first and second degree; and a misdemeanor, reckless endangerment, with a possible one-year sentence. Detective Oliver also faced a second count of first-degree assault. Detective Cooper was charged only with two counts of reckless endangerment.

During the 26 days of testimony, the prosecution sought to show, with an array of 50 witnesses, that the shooting was the act of a frightened group of disorganized police officers who began their shift that night hoping to arrest a prostitute or two and, in suspecting Mr. Bell and his friends of possessing a gun, quickly got in over their heads.

"We ask police to risk their lives to protect ours," said an assistant district attorney, Charles A. Testagrossa, in his closing arguments. "Not to risk our lives to protect their own."

The defense, through weeks of often heated cross-examinations, their own witnesses and the words of the detectives themselves, portrayed the shooting as the tragic end to a nonetheless justified confrontation, with Detective Isnora having what it called solid reasons to believe he was the only thing standing between Mr. Bell's car and a drive-by shooting around the corner.

Several witnesses testified that they heard talk of guns in an argument between Mr. Bell and a stranger, Fabio Coicou, outside Kalua, an argument, the defense claimed, that was fueled by bravado and Mr. Bell's intoxicated state. Defense lawyers pointed their fingers at Mr. Guzman, who, they said, in shouting for Mr. Bell to drive away when Detective Isnora approached, may have instigated his death.

Detective Isnora told grand jurors last year that he clipped his badge to his collar and drew his gun, shouting, "Police! Don't move!" as he approached Mr. Bell's Nissan Altima.

Other witnesses, mostly friends of Mr. Bell, said they never heard shouts of "Police!" Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield testified that they had no idea that Detective Isnora was a police officer when he walked up with his gun drawn.

doyle on warhol on fame on Kara walker

In order to get to recuperation, one must travel the paranoid forest:

find one’s own way, out of anguish, insecurity, and anger

Jennifer Doyle tells us in her essay on the rhetoric of prostitution that “If we take him at his word, Andy Warhol was pretty certain that love had a price, that it was a business much like art was a business, that sex was work, and that these could be good things” (Sex Objects 45). I don’t think Kara Walker is operating from exactly this kind of cynical ideology, but close enough. Her access to the elite art world is challenged by older artists. They see Walker’s labor actually doing racial harm when it enters the public sphere? In their estimation, Walker’s success is very much all about her willingness to dis-(splay) black [women’s] bodies. Her sexual narratives are the most hyper visible narratives in the silhouettes and in her short films. Is she pimping out her history for public purchase and artistic fame? This is the easiest and slimiest of accusations. As soon as we accuse someone of the kind of violence that is a prostitution of self, selling one’s integrity and decency in exchange for institutional recognition and accolades, we relegate the accused artist, the intellectual, impotent and assailable. Before we go there, we might want to see what the work is actually doing. What does Walker’s labor actually do when it enters the public sphere?

nice

day-making

i don't vote for warmongers

I am proud to say i never voted for a clinton and i intend to keep up that record

Clinton says US would ‘obliterate’ Iran

By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: April 22 2008 16:28 | Last updated: April 22 2008 22:26

Hillary Clinton warned on Tuesday the US would “obliterate” Iran if it used nuclear weapons against Israel, in comments that could foreshadow a tough new doctrine of deterrence towards the Islamic republic.

“I want the Iranians to know that, if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Mrs Clinton said in response to a question about a possible Iranian nuclear assault on Israel. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them

new shoes and new jeans

thanks to Y&G, i have a new pair of shoes from the fluevog store . i will be wearing them for my presentation on Thursday! i then went near by that store looking for a belt and met an Assyrian guy and we both spoke Aramaic together. not to be nerdy but it was nice. he said he had not spoken it in over a year. he knows greek, kurdish, aramaic, arabic, english. anyway, suffice it to say i bought jeans & shirts w/ that belt (to go w/ those shoes).

can't stop thinking about yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FZ1eX8x0QY

song i was obsessed w/ in 8th grade and now it is stuck in my head.

my x's response to my 8th grad retread:

"That was also Bill Clinton’s campaign theme song—which makes it pretty disgusting.

It’s also a cut from Rumors album—the 1^st or 2^nd most-purchased albums in US history. I remember hearing “You Can Go Your Own Way” (also from Rumors)played over and over in the old McKenzie cafeteria/study hall in the early eighties and I remember borrowing the Rumors tape from you in the summer of ’89 (?) when you were GTAing for Wayne and teaching some business version of intermediate comp at _________

Anyway, I know I kept re-playing that tune—which had a great beat, but absolute teen-nerd lyrics."

Rabih Alameddine: Hakawati

his new website to go with his most excellent new novel. heard excerpts last year at the RAWI conference (Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.). He and Naomi Nye were our key writers and they rocked the house at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

do check out his novel!

nayj

cut and heal: cultural expressions

in thinking about Kara Walker, i could make many "entry points"--affective communities, sex objects, queer temporalities, black abberations, bodies in dissent, scenes of subjection, terrorist assemblages, homonationalisms....

i want to make a kind of Chaldean cultural entry point that has to do with collective linguistic practices and the practice of insincerity as a form of cruelty.

I have in mind what we call "Cut and then heal": in Aramaic = jarhet ew kum daramnet" (you cut and then you put medicine on the wound) or in Arabic -tjrah wit dowee (wound/cut and heal)

another one: T'ma kheit basameer (to throw spears or darts)

Both of these are metaphorically speaking. You could engage in this practice but most people talk about it as having been done TO THEM.

so far example, someone says something insulting about your brother or you, how you look fat or how you are not married or whatever they see as some visible vulnerability. Then after wounding you, they pretend like they were complimenting you and "Switch" the verbiage or even say the opposite as a way of healing the wound and deflecting from their rudeness. It is also a good diversionary tactic. IF you call someone on it, s/he (mostly shes) say they were joking, playing, or "I love you. What do you mean? I did not do that. I was complimenting you. You are just so American. you don't understand our culture."

OUR culture? who owns culture when you are born in the Diaspora? who has rights to cut and wound and heal those wounds?

I never like to participate in these games. They are sick, a sickness. My husband is really good at it and he has tried to teach me these techniques because in belonging to a large community, he wants me to survive these cuts and not keep them on my body. He and I each have like 60+ first cousins + endless second and third cousins. When I lived in Michigan, I saw people all the time: funerals, weddings, birthdays. I would say 1-2-3 events per week was normal. I would say at at least once a week, I found myself subjected to one of these slice/dice/recuperative games. I am not an exception. many/most women have these exchanges. usually older women subject younger women.

example: friend has three girls. Every Sunday in church the same lady (she is not a relative) comes up to her and says. "I am praying for when God blesses your house w/ a boy. I already have a gift for him. When will you have a boy? aren't you sad you have daughters?" This friend who get into such a rage and all through mass would have violent thoughts. The lady always undercuts her rudeness with "how beautiful your girls are. they look just like you" as my friend was about to bust out crying.

another friend: one boy, one girl
"I guess you are not much of a woman. you only had two kids. Your sister is a real woman, she has four."
my friend's response: Silence, dirty look, walk away

When people tell me how they feel sorry for me that I don't have kids and that they are praying for me, I say thanks. "Aren't you lucky, your husband doesn't leave you." Thank you. so nice of you to notice that my husband is very nice. "I feel sorry for him. It must be hard for him to carry that cross". We are good at carrying our cross. That is what God wants. Will you keep us in your prayers? ..... AND THEN I WALK AWAY.......

living in LA is like being away at a spa. no one in my department asked me if I have kids. Academics do not give a shit if you procreate. in fact, they are kind of hostile to "breeding". ASE as a dept is very kid friendly and lots of faculty and students have children. It is a space that is inclusive and sympathetic to those reproductive ruptures. It feels good to be here where it does not matter if i have kids but there is not that academic condescension towards those who decide to have families beyond couples. just because I love Edelman's critique of reproductive futurity does not mean I am anti-kid. I have 17 or maybe 18 nieces and nephews and am close to my brothers' kids (three each) and my sister's daughter who is my goddaugther. It 's fun being the cool aunt. I don't have to yell. I don't ignore them or huff in exasperation every two seconds or tell them to get the hell out of my face. If i had my own kids, i might have been that impatient kind of parent. hard to say.

thinking about community, engagement, belongings, and outsider status. how do they happen? how do we create the communities we want? I feel like it's about finding existing networks of folks and plugging into the ones that make political, personal, aesthetic sense.

off to campus to write more on kara walker. believe it or not, all this cutting and wounds IS TIED TO MY reading of Walker's discursive cuts, wounds, and who is left cut open....

nayj

don't stop thinking about tomorrow: temporal drag

I don't belong to affective communities outside of academe. that is super hilarious.
all my closest ties are to other academics and to life inside of the space(s) I want to implode
LOL. OMG. so KKK. so not cool.

xxxxxx
here are the lines from fleetwood mac song:

if you wake up and don't want to smile, if it takes just a little while
open your eyes and look at the day
you'll see things in a different way
don't stop thinking about tomorrow
it will be better than before

yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone

think what tomorrow will do

it will soon be here

why not think about the things to come and not about the things that you have done

just think about what tomorrow will do

it will be better than before

HERE's my intervention or critical karaoke:

I have always been a positive person
as evidenced by my listening history
i listened to Fleetwood Mac's "just think about what tomorrow will do"
and it alleviated pressure I was feeling about my future in relation to my past

I don't EVER cry over spilled milk
it is superboring to revisit the past and those folks who talk endlessly about shit
that happened to them when they were kids need to shut the fuck up
man up
grow some balls
move on
stop talking
do some yoga
smoke some weed
whatever
it
takes
to
shut up
shut down

I used to tell my sister: your past is not your identity. Things happened TO YOU; they are not WHO you are...don't make trauma into identity. it's really not productive

i need to drink up my milk and see that yesterday's gone, gone like the wind, and how can I find solace in satire? surrealism?
sunny days are my future, Southern California
revisiting the past is a drag
it drags me back to a time I don't remember and have easily forgotten
why not think about the things to come
not reproductive futurity
but a future that is contingent, precarious, lost, maybe refound
no hope
hope creates stagnation, little movement
anger creates discursive freedom and intellectual labor and a future that could end /dead end at any entry point and that is good to know
at 12 I needed hope
at 43 I need to know the future does not matter
the past does not matter

is this critical enough?
i don't think i am enough of anything or any body's anything
don't stop
thinking
about tomorrow
......
that was fun
not so funny but i am working on it

leoscope plus grade school retread

Leo Horoscope for week of April 17, 2008

This would be a perfect time for you to write your ultimate personal manifesto. I'm talking about composing a sweeping statement of the core ideas that fuel your lust for life. To get you in the mood, take a look at the following lyrics from Danny Schmidt's song "Company of Friends." "I believe in restless hunger . . . I believe in private thunder . . . I believe in inspiration . . . I believe in slow creation . . . I believe in lips on ears . . . I believe in being wrong . . . I believe in contradiction . . . I believe in living smitten . . . I believe our book is written by our company of friends."

TWO SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL YOUNG:

in 8th grade, I repeatedly listened to the following songs, among others, of course:

Bob Seiger's Against the Wind

Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop....thinking about tomorrow &

Gypsy

& go your own way!

Al Dhameer Al Arabi

thanks to Kabob Fest.

suheir hammad in bed in july

Rabih on Allah vs "God": It's School, Stupid

great article Rabih!
[cannot wait to read his book. he gave us a taste of the novel at the RAWI conference (May 2007 at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan)

this U.S. tendency always made me insane. I taught in Dearborn and my colleagues kept talking about we should be inclusive of Muslims and their Allah versus the Christian God.
whhhhhhhat? oyyyyy This reminds me of how American idiots say "Madressa" with an ominious tone, butchering the pronunciation badly is enough, but then making is seem like Madressa means Islamic fundamentalist schools. hello, stupid. Madressa means school. neutral like house, dog, whatever. no religion. it should be considered a secular word.
more shit talk,
nayj


"Using English to separate the two has become a dangerous practice."
Los Angeles Times

By Rabih Alameddine
April 6, 2008

All living languages are promiscuous. We promiscuous speakers shamelessly shoplift words, plucking bons mots and phrases from any tempting language. We wear these words when we wish to be more formal, more elegant, more mysterious, worldly, precise, vague. They flash on our fingers like gaudy rings, adorn our hair, warm our necks like rich foreign scarves. They become our favorite trousers, the shoes we cannot live without, our way of describing illness to our doctors, declaring love to our lovers, formulating policies, doing business. We believe we own them and are frequently astonished to discover their original roots in another language.

English, a mongrel from the start, greedily helps itself to foreign words more than any other. The Oxford English Dictionary lists more than 500,000 of them, whereas German has about 185,000 and French fewer than 100,000, according to "The Story of English" by Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil. Give us your tired, your poor, your fabulous words yearning to be free. We'll take them.

English has always had a special fondness for other European languages, a neighborly soft spot -- perhaps because Britain has been invaded by speakers of those languages from the onset of its recorded history.

But not so much fondness for the languages of non-neighbors. Despite huge increases in immigration from Africa and Asia in the last 50 years, English has resisted adopting words from these continents, except for the names of certain foods. Think of Mandarin words that have come into the language. How about from Tagalog? ("Kowtow," "shanghai" and "typhoon" from Mandarin; "boondocks" and "yo-yo" from Tagalog.)

So whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative. Of course, English has pilfered numerous bits of Arabic -- "artichoke," "zero," "genie," "henna," "saffron," "harem," "tariff" -- but the appropriation was so long ago that few English speakers know the words' origin. These dictionary entries were probably introduced by the Moors into Spanish first, and then by the Spaniards into English.

What has Arabic done for us lately?

If we take away the familiar food pilferages ("hummus," "falafel"), words recently adopted from Arabic are all troublesome: "hijab," "intifada," "fatwa" and "jihad." For an English speaker, the first suggest humiliation, the last three violence.

In Arabic, the word "hijab" means any type of veil or cover. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "the head scarf worn by Muslim women, sometimes including a veil that covers the face except for the eyes." In Arabic, "intifada" denotes rebellion, a throwing off of shackles. Merriam-Webster's definition is an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Fatwa" isn't simply a religious decree; it's an Islamic religious decree. Even though a fatwa could be an exhortation by, say, a Moroccan cleric to raise literacy for women, in English, it is used almost exclusively in reference to the ignominious Salman Rushdie affair, in which former Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the death of the novelist because of Rushdie's alleged blasphemy in his novel, "The Satanic Verses."

And "jihad" comes from the word "excel," juhd or ijtihad in Arabic. It means a holy war or righteous struggle. Some schools in the Middle East, religious and secular, will hold jihads -- or special intense programs to get students to accomplish something -- to improve math scores and raise reading levels. Although most English usage I've come across refers only to an Islamic holy war, I have begun to see "jihad" as a synonym for crusade (originally a Christian holy war, broadened now) and a vigorous fight against something. In other words, jihad, this English word, might one day encompass its full Arabic meaning.

English has yet to incorporate these words fully, and history suggests it might never do so. The language is filled with words that are culture specific: "sahib," "coolie," "effendi," "bey." The word "emir" simply means prince in Arabic, but in English it is a prince or ruler of an Islamic state. When my sister in Beirut tells her daughter a bedtime story, the emir kisses the sleeping princess awake. No mother in the U.S. or Britain would let an emir anywhere near a princess' lips. No princess will ever sing "Someday My Emir Will Come."

That in some ways is how it should be. Language, after all, is organic. You can't force words into existence. You can't force new meanings into words. And some words can't or won't or shouldn't be laundered or neutered. Language develops naturally.

I bring all this up, however, to get to the word whose connotation I would love to see changed -- "Allah."

Allah means God.

In Arabic, Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians all pray to Allah. In English, however, Christians and Jews pray to God, and Allah is the Muslim deity. No one would think of using the word "Allah" to talk about any other religion. The two words, "God" and "Allah," do not mean the same thing in English. They should.

This isn't about political correctness; it isn't about language distortion. Altered or incomplete usage of words is natural, even amusing. "Confetti" in its original language means little bonbons or small sweets. And incomplete usage is at times explainable and logical. The words "beef," "pork" and "mutton" arrived with the Norman invasion. They refer solely to the meat, never to the animal, whereas in the original French they refer to both (mouton is both sheep and mutton). That is primarily because French was integrated into the language of the upper classes, which ate the meat, and less so that of the farmers, who raised the animals.

God, however, is a big deal. The word for God matters quite a bit more than what lands on one's table for dinner at night. We never say the French pray to Dieu, or Mexicans pray to Dios. Having Allah be different from God implies that Muslims pray to a special deity. It classifies Muslims as the Other. Separating Allah from God, we only see a vengeful, alarming deity, one responsible for those frightful fatwas and ghastly jihads -- rarely the compassionate God. The opening line of every chapter in the Koran is "Bi Ism Allah, Al Rahman, Al Rahim": In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful. In the name of Allah. One and the same.

The separation is happening on all sides. This year, the Malaysian government issued an edict warning the Herald, a weekly English newspaper, that no religion except Islam can use the word Allah to denote God. No such edict, or fatwa for that matter, is needed for the New York Times: a quick search through the archives shows that Allah is used only as the Muslim God.

In these troubled times, creating more differences, further parsing so to speak, is troubling, even dangerous. I suggest we either not use the word Allah or, better yet, use it in a non-Muslim context.

Otherwise, the terrorists win.

One nation under Allah?

Rabih Alameddine is the author of the novel "The Hakawati," due out this month.