Washington Cultural Center to Showcase Artistic Traditions of 22 Arab Nations

February 20, 2009

Lebanese musician/composer Marcel Khalife will pay tribute to Mahmud Darwish

Press Release

"Unprecedented" three-week festival opens February 23 to American audiences at the Kennedy Center"

Washington:  One of America's best known cultural institutions, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, announced last month that it will mount, "the largest presentation of the Arab arts ever in the United States," from February 22 to March 15. The unprecedented celebration, the Center said in a recent press release, will include performances in music, dance and theater, as well as exhibitions featuring art installations, photos, sculpture, cuisine, mosaics, fashion, a souk, soundscape and more. The festival, entitled "Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World," will feature more than 800 artists from across the Arab world.

"The best way to learn about other people," says Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, "is through their culture." He adds, "I believe the arts create peace and provide a window onto understanding people. I hope this festival will act as a catalyst towards achieving both between the Arab and western worlds." Kaiser practices what he preaches. In cooperation with the League of Arab States, Kaiser has spent the past four years shaping the major three-week festival highlighting what he calls, "the rich heritage and beauty of the Arab world."

As the program's schedule reveals, the visiting artists and their presentations largely are specific to a particular culture or country. The creativity of the Palestinian people is well represented: Actors from Al Kasaba Theater and Cinematheque will travel from Ramallah to perform their play, "Alive from Palestine: Stories Under Occupation." Palestinian poets will read from their original works, including Tamim Al Barghouti and Palestinian-American Suheir Hammad, who appeared in the 2008 Palestinian film by Bethlehem director Anne Jacir called "Salt of this Sea." Festival audiences will view the Palestinian film classic "Wedding in Gallilee" by Michel Khleifi and 2008 release, "Pomegranates and Myrrh" by Najwa Najjar. Musician Marcel Khalife will honor the beloved Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish with a concert in tribute to Darwish's influence on Khalife's music and profound influence on generations of Palestinians. Finally, the festival will feature events of contemplation, like the panel discussion on the Palestinian experience entitled, "Migration, Exile and Search for Identity."

The festival's title is a reference to the meaning of the word "arabesque" – a ninth-century Islamic decorative element utilizing intricate floral and geometric patterns. It also describes visual, dance, theater or musical styles that emerge from Arab culture or are influenced strongly by the Arab world. Soon, it will also come to symbolize an extra-ordinary festival that brought the beauty of the Arab world to the American public.