Dove's Eye View

Not celebrating

Regarding Israel's 60th anniversary and the Palestinian Nakba, British Jews and others write: Letters: We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary | The Guardian.

Hat tip to Philip Weiss, who is running a Nakba watch at his blog. He celebrates Lila Abu-Lughod and her book, Nakba, published last year.

As'ad Abu-Khalil alerts us to this letter to Nadine Gordimer from a professor in Gaza whose students are literally starving while reading her books.

My cold and hungry students have divided themselves into two groups, with one group adamant that you, like many of your courageous characters, will reconsider your participation in an Israeli festival that aims to celebrate the annihilation of Palestine and Palestinians. The other group believes that you have already crossed over to the side of the oppressor, negating every word you have ever written. We all wait for your next action.

Mohja Kahf Appearing in East Bay next week

Syrian-American poet and writer Mohja Kahf (also a professor of comparative literature at U. Arkansas) will be
making several appearances next week in Berkeley and Oakland. I can't guarantee you'll see her posed like this; I took this picture last year when she honored me with a visit. Here is her schedule:

Wednesday March 19, 3 pm; talk/reading at the Poetry for the People, UC Berkeley.

Then an AMILA reading at a cafe (the amila announcement is below) Wednesday at 7pm.

Location: Mudraker's Cafe, 2801 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94701 (510) 649-7315

Thursday, March 20, 12 noon; poetry reading at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, followed by reception

Thursday at 7:30 pm, reading at La Peña in Berkeley, 3105 Shattuck Avenue (just south of Ashby).

More on the AMILA gathering below:

March AMILA Gathering: Poetry Reading with Dr. Mohja
Kahf

Wednesday, March 19th @7pm: Dr. Mohja Kahf was born in Damascus, Syria and was raised in Utah, Indiana, and New Jersey. She received her doctorate from Rutgers University in Comparative Literature and currently teaches at the University of Arkansas. Her first book, 'Western Representations of the Muslim Woman' (UT Press, 1999), explores the image of Muslim women in medieval and Renaissance European literature. Her collection of poems, Emails from Sheherezade is widely read and has become a must-read in courses on Women and Islam. Her novel, 'The Girl in a Tangerine Scarf' (2006) was just announced Book of the Year in Bloomington, Indiana.

Mohja Kahf's poetry has been published in literary anthologies and journals since the early 1990s, recently appearing in The Paris Review and The Atlanta Review. She has competed in the National Poetry Slam Chicago, 1999) and in 2002, she received an Arkansas Arts Council grant for literary achievement.

Bay Area AMILA helped birth one of her first creative projects when Mohja wrote a play called 'The Muhajjaba on the Motorcycle', which was produced and performed by AMILA members in the early 1990s. She has presented other work at AMILA events, including her dissertation on the image of Muslim women in European
literature, as well as her story, 'Lost Pages from Bukhari'. We will continue this tradition and feature her latest work at this upcoming gathering.

March 12, 2008 in My America, Syria, Writing and Literature | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Syrian-American poet and writer Mohja Kahf (also a professor of comparative literature at U. Arkansas) will be
making several appearances next week in Berkeley and Oakland. I can't guarantee you'll see her posed like this; I took this picture last year when she honored me with a visit. Here is her schedule:

Wednesday March 19, 3 pm; talk/reading at the Poetry for the People, UC Berkeley.

Then an AMILA reading at a cafe (the amila announcement is below) Wednesday at 7pm.

Location: Mudraker's Cafe, 2801 Telegraph Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94701 (510) 649-7315

Thursday, March 20, 12 noon; poetry reading at Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, followed by reception

Thursday at 7:30 pm, reading at La Peña in Berkeley, 3105 Shattuck Avenue (just south of Ashby).

More on the AMILA gathering below:

March AMILA Gathering: Poetry Reading with Dr. Mohja
Kahf

Wednesday, March 19th @7pm: Dr. Mohja Kahf was born in Damascus, Syria and was raised in Utah, Indiana, and New Jersey. She received her doctorate from Rutgers University in Comparative Literature and currently teaches at the University of Arkansas. Her first book, 'Western Representations of the Muslim Woman' (UT Press, 1999), explores the image of Muslim women in medieval and Renaissance European literature. Her collection of poems, Emails from Sheherezade is widely read and has become a must-read in courses on Women and Islam. Her novel, 'The Girl in a Tangerine Scarf' (2006) was just announced Book of the Year in Bloomington, Indiana.

Mohja Kahf's poetry has been published in literary anthologies and journals since the early 1990s, recently appearing in The Paris Review and The Atlanta Review. She has competed in the National Poetry Slam Chicago, 1999) and in 2002, she received an Arkansas Arts Council grant for literary achievement.

Bay Area AMILA helped birth one of her first creative projects when Mohja wrote a play called 'The Muhajjaba on the Motorcycle', which was produced and performed by AMILA members in the early 1990s. She has presented other work at AMILA events, including her dissertation on the image of Muslim women in European
literature, as well as her story, 'Lost Pages from Bukhari'. We will continue this tradition and feature her latest work at this upcoming gathering.

I frequently mention the writing group that keeps me going now that graduate school is done. We have been meeting every two or three weeks since June '07, reading a book together and discussing it, then reading our own work in progress aloud. Here are graduation pictures of the posse, from May '07:

Group shot with teacher
Originally uploaded by bedouina

With Micheline Aharonian Marcom (left), our inspiration. From left: Micheline, Carolina De Robertis, me, Will Lynch, and Alison Towata.

From left: Will, Alison, Julia Azar Rubin, me and Scott Hoshida.

Sara Campos

Carolina and Jinky (Jenesha De Rivera, co-editor of the Homelands Anthology).

I think that's everybody. One of these days we'll do a group shot with all of us. I miss my writing group over the holidays - we're meeting in less than two weeks but it doesn't seem soon enough. Their amazing writing and their inspired readings of texts have helped me grow as a writer. I need the group like I need food and sunshine.

My writing group

I frequently mention the writing group that keeps me going now that graduate school is done. We have been meeting every two or three weeks since June '07, reading a book together and discussing it, then reading our own work in progress aloud. Here are graduation pictures of the posse, from May '07:

Group shot with teacher
Originally uploaded by bedouina

With Micheline Aharonian Marcom (left), our inspiration. From left: Micheline, Carolina De Robertis, me, Will Lynch, and Alison Towata.

From left: Will, Alison, Julia Azar Rubin, me and Scott Hoshida.

Sara Campos

Carolina and Jinky (Jenesha De Rivera, co-editor of the Homelands Anthology).

I think that's everybody. One of these days we'll do a group shot with all of us. I miss my writing group over the holidays - we're meeting in less than two weeks but it doesn't seem soon enough. Their amazing writing and their inspired readings of texts have helped me grow as a writer. I need the group like I need food and sunshine.