INFORMATION FOR
An arts festival that celebrates the wide range of cultures among countries in the Middle East will be held at William Paterson University in Wayne from March 23 to 28 as part of the University’s inaugural Cross-Cultural Arts Festival.
“The Cross-Cultural Arts Festival–Middle East” will highlight the University’s mission to encourage diversity, community outreach, and multiculturalism. It also seeks to feature the impact of the fine arts, music, and film in facilitating cross-cultural empathy and developing global connections. All events are open to the public. Admission to most events is free.
The festival was developed by the University’s College of the Arts and Communication with assistance from the New Jersey Arab-American Heritage Commission, the New Jersey-Israel Commission, the City of Paterson, and the Muna and Basem Hishmeh Foundation.
“The idea behind the festival is to showcase the arts of other cultures as they relate to our own culture and art, and to find commonalities and differences,” says Raymond Torres-Santos, dean of the College of the Arts and Communication. “That way, our students and audiences will have a better understanding of how people from different cultures communicate with each other, and how the culture of a society demonstrates the shared values, understandings, assumptions, and goals that are learned from earlier generations, embraced by members of the current society, and passed on to the succeeding generations.”
According to Torres-Santos, the Middle East was selected for the first festival because New Jersey is home to a large and diverse Middle Eastern community. More than 100,000 Americans of Middle Eastern heritage reside in Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, and Passaic counties, while the city of Paterson includes a strong community of Circassian, Egyptian, Iranian, Israeli, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Turkish heritage.
A highlight of the week is a musical performance by Simon Shaheen on Saturday, March 27 at 8 p.m. Shaheen is one of the most significant Arab musicians of his generation. He has earned international acclaim as a virtuoso on the oud and violin.
Shaheen’s work incorporates and reflects the legacy of Arabic music and his sound flows from the traditional, to jazz and classical Western style music. He will appear with the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music’s Oriental Music Ensemble (OME) in Shea Center for Performing Arts.
They will perform classical and contemporary Arab music for oud, nay, clarinet, qanun, and percussion. Tickets are $30 and $20 general admission; gold circle tickets are $150 and include VIP seating and an invitation to a private reception with the artists. For tickets go to www.wplive.org or call the Shea Center Box Office at 973-720-2371. Moreover, Shaheen and OME will present a workshop, coordinated by Diane Falk, professor of music, and Carol Frierson-Campbell, associate professor of music, for the general public in Shea Center on Friday, March 26 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. that demonstrates some of the instruments they will use in their concert.
An art exhibit, “One Thousand and One Nights: The Narrative Tradition in Contemporary Middle Eastern Art,” opens on March 23 in the University Galleries in Ben Shahn Center for the Arts on campus. The exhibit features the work of multicultural artists Dahlia Elsayed, Dana Melamed, Nicky Nodjouni, Helen Zughaib and Mahmoud Farchchian. The exhibit is open until April 23 and was curated by Nancy Einreinhofer, director of the University Galleries. In addition, the exhibition, “Bridal Head Scarves of the Arab World,” from a collection of Farah and Hanan Munayyer and presented by the Arab-American Heritage Commission, will be displayed in Shea Center from March 1 to April 1.
The film series, coordinated by Jamsheed Akrami, professor of communication, kicks off with a screening of the Oscar-nominated Children of Heaven by director Majid Majidi, on Tuesday, March 23. This Iranian production examines the themes of the resilience of children and class differences. Bliss, a film from Turkey, by director Abdullah Oguz, explores the clash of modernity and tradition, and will be screened on Wednesday, March 24. The Band’s Visit, a cross-cultural comedy about a group of Egyptian musicians who get lost in Israel, directed by Israeli director Eran Kolirin, will be screened on Thursday, March 25. Caramel, directed by Nadine Labaki, a Lebanese director, follows a group of women working in a beauty shop; it will be shown on Friday, March 26. All films will be shown in the Hobart Hall screening room beginning at 6 p.m. A question and answer period follows each film. Guest speakers are Maboud Ansari, William Paterson professor of sociology; Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine film critic; Samuel Peleg, visiting professor at Rutgers University; and Amal Elrafei and Ginan Rauf, Middle Eastern film specialists.
A children’s event, Ebru Art Experience, coordinated by Margaret Williams, assistant professor of art, and facilitated by artist Bingul Sevimli, will be held on Wednesday, March 24 in the Power Art Center. Ebru is a traditional Turkish medium that involves water marbling that is formed by drawing designs with dyes on top of water and then carefully placing paper on the surface of the water to absorb the dye. The program, suitable for students in elementary school, will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
A panel discussion, “Middle Eastern Arts and Culture in the U.S.A.,” coordinated by Maboud Ansari, professor of sociology, will be held in University Commons Ballroom C from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23. Panelists include David Shapiro, professor of art; John Livingston, associate professor of history; Shabaneh Ghassan, assistant professor of international studies, Marymount Manhattan College; Ginan Rauf, a Middle Eastern film specialist; and Tamara Issak ‘08, a William Paterson University alumna and recipient of a research grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
An arts and crafts fair will be held on Thursday, March 25 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room in the Machuga Student Center. It features a performance by the Circassian Cultural Institute Dance Troupe. Artists and craftsmen from Paterson will offer the artworks for sale, and traditional foods will be available.
For additional information about these events, visit www.wpunj.edu/coac.
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