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Diwan, the annual Arab American arts conference, was held in New York this year, which means I had the chance to attend. It was a very exciting conference, driven by artists who want to be politically engaged and reflect critically on what their work means, in a climate of deep and troubling anti Arab bias, as well as the constantly shifting political situation in the Arab world. I both heard very interesting presentations, and got to encounter some new-to-me artists that I'd love to recommend. This post is going to be for writing up presentations; I'll do a separate series of artists to watch for posts.
Friday, I attended all but the poetry reading, and found it to be very exciting. There was a good sized crowd, especially for a Friday; lots of artists, a few academics & teachers, some students, and a bunch of other folks. The conference was co-sponsored by the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, which led to one very funny effect: the majority of the speakers had strong accents (to my ear), either because their first language was Arabic...or because they were from Michigan. Oh, linguistic variation in Arab America...
( Panel on Responses to 9/11 )
( Arts and Education: Novels, K-12 Curriculum, Kids' Cartoons! )
( Unconference session on Arab revolutions; my musing on race and gender dynamics )
On Saturday, I arrived just in time to catch the end of a music performance, and then saw an amazing panel of visual artists, which reduced me to tears at a couple of points. (Again, watch for the artists' posts.) The closing keynote was delivered by Joseph Massad of Columbia University.
( Keynote notes; less than enthused )
The conference sessions will be available via the Arab American National Museum iTunes site (link will try to open in iTunes) in a few months; you can also see their other programming there now. The program is here, with lots more info. Look for the artist profiles over the next week-or-two-or-three...
Friday, I attended all but the poetry reading, and found it to be very exciting. There was a good sized crowd, especially for a Friday; lots of artists, a few academics & teachers, some students, and a bunch of other folks. The conference was co-sponsored by the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, which led to one very funny effect: the majority of the speakers had strong accents (to my ear), either because their first language was Arabic...or because they were from Michigan. Oh, linguistic variation in Arab America...
( Panel on Responses to 9/11 )
( Arts and Education: Novels, K-12 Curriculum, Kids' Cartoons! )
( Unconference session on Arab revolutions; my musing on race and gender dynamics )
On Saturday, I arrived just in time to catch the end of a music performance, and then saw an amazing panel of visual artists, which reduced me to tears at a couple of points. (Again, watch for the artists' posts.) The closing keynote was delivered by Joseph Massad of Columbia University.
( Keynote notes; less than enthused )
The conference sessions will be available via the Arab American National Museum iTunes site (link will try to open in iTunes) in a few months; you can also see their other programming there now. The program is here, with lots more info. Look for the artist profiles over the next week-or-two-or-three...