The Other Americans

Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans, out next week, begins as a murder mystery and grows into a larger story about fear, anger and resentment, about the meaning of love and the finding of home, exploring the grey zones of human behaviour and the schisms in society that allow us to mark people as other. The …

A Thousand and One Journeys: The Arab Americans

The documentary film A Thousand and One Journeys: The Arab Americans, to be released this summer, is a series of vignettes intended to capture something of the diversity of Arab American immigrant experiences.  The director Abe Kasbo points out that  Americans are familiar with the narratives of Irish and Italian im­migrants, refugees from World War II, Asia …

Gibran’s The Prophet Adapted

Gibran The Play, based on the life of Gibran Khalil Gibran and written by Nabil Sawalha, is coming to London on November 17. Details here or here. The play - "a mix of drama, comedy and profound self-discovery" - is apparently inspired by Gibran’s most famous book, The Prophet, a book of prose poetry essays …

Arab America: A Bibliography

A working bibliography on being Arab and American, Arab American culture, performance, writing, and negotiating stereotypes in the post 9/11 world, as well as some books on the early history and the immigration narrative of Arabs in America. Who knew that there were three books with the title The Arab Americans? Abdelrazek, Amal Talaat. Contemporary …