Arabic program hosts second annual Arabian Night Jan. 22

October 23, 2009

Date: Jan. 22, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Tyler Haynes Commons, Alice Haynes Room

The Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures will host its second annual Arabian Night on Thursday, January 22 at 7 p.m. in the Alice Haynes Room in Tyler Haynes Commons.

Arabian Night features traditional Arabic and Middle Eastern music, poetry, art and everyday culture throughout the evening. A musical group will play traditional music and showcase Jordanian line dancing.

Mohammed Sawaie of the University of Virginia will give a short lecture on the function of poetry in Arabic society and will give a reading in Arabic and English of the poetry of the late Mahmoud Darwish, a revered Palestinian poet who died in the summer of 2008.

Organizers have invited representatives from the embassies of the Middle East to attend and provide information about their countries. In addition, local representatives of the region’s religious groups, including Muslims, Jews, Druze, Baha’is, and both Coptic and Maronite Christians, have been invited to attend and present information about their faiths.

Photographs of Arabic art and architecture will be on display. Attendees can also have their names written in Arabic calligraphy, have henna painted on their hands and sample Middle Eastern cuisine that highlights local cooking traditions as well as the Middle East’s tradition of hospitality.

For more information, contact Martin Sulzer-Reichel.

Posted December 8, 2008