In 2020 we were fortunate to receive a donation of a piece of Hollywood history from director and proud Arab American Lexi Alexander. She sent us the clapperboard for the 2007 film The Punisher: War Zone, which she directed.
A new report on MENA (Middle East and North African) people in Hollywood shows that MENA characters in prime-time television shows are almost always portrayed in the context of terrorism. The group behind the report, the MENA Arts Advocacy Coalition hopes to educate the general public about the lack of diverse characters and actors from the MENA region.
"Orientalism involves a way of seeing the other (the Arab) that justifies an ongoing system of domination. Edward Said’s landmark analysis of the problem, Orientalism (1978), is now forty years old, and yet the phenomenon it describes feels as entrenched and normalized as it was when he wrote it."
Written by Professor Evelyn Alsultany
My personal experience with Dr. Shaheen is a testament to his generosity and kindness as a scholar and mentor as well as his accomplishments and legacy for the field of Arab American Media Studies.
This narrative itself emerges from a moment during one of two interviews I was fortunate enough to conduct with Dr. Shaheen, once via Skype at an Arab American Civil Rights conference in Dearborn, Michigan, organized by the National Network of Arab American Communities in 2015, and once at the University of Michigan in 2016.
The AANM's Curator of Education and Public Programming, Isra El-beshir has an excellent op-ed in BLAC this month. Being Sudanese American, El-beshir straddles many identities simultaneously.
By Ahlam Abdul-Rahman
Artist Manal Deeb presents a twist to modern art through her combination of digital art and calligraphy. Her art not only portrays the barriers and endless struggles Palestinians experience on a daily basis, but also addresses other social issues. One can say that her art echoes the voice of the people. She shakes the walls and the stiff shackles that society imposes on minorities and gender roles.
The following post is drawn from Soad Nasr’s recent book The Daily Hazards of a Middle Eastern Wife. With her distinct and humorous storytelling, Soad offers her personal account of courtship in the Middle East. Soad is a writer, mother, and wife.
By Amira Jarmakani, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
A few years after the events of September 11, 2001, a spate of articles appeared from sources as varied as Time and the Chicago Tribune to Bitch
