I'm back

Diwan: A Forum for the Arts has come and gone, maybe too soon. What should have been an opportunity for me to network with people who can help my Film career was spent sitting back and marveling at the wealth of amazing Arab artists from across the country sharing their experiences and hanging out as old friends. It was inspiring.

I finally met Jack Shaheen, Malek Akkad, Assad Kaleda and others, but I never talked about film. It was interesting talking to people about their art, their state of mind and of course politics. The art was amazing especially the two exhibits coinciding with the forum.

One of the highlights was the presentation “Brooklyn Beats to Beirut Streets” with Nizar from The Philistines, Omar from N.O.M.A.D.S., Joe Namy and some guy named Mark Gonzales.

Most exciting was just meeting new people and hanging out. There were old friends and some odd new ones.

(images were altered to protect the not-so-innocent)


Then there was the after party hosted by Other. There are still a few people trying to recover from it. (will someone claim the little arab man we found behind the couch this morning). It wasn’t as wild as past parties nor as energetic, but fun none-the-less. Of course no party would be as crazy without the Iron Sheik and the kibab. If you were there, I hope you had fun and thanks for stopping by, hope to see you next year, if Diwan survives (more on that later).

BTW, happy birthday RED.