A letter emailed to performing artist Lana Nasser before she embarked on the "Connecting Daughters" walk from Jordan to Jerusalem, asking her to consider withdrawing from the initiative. Lana Nasser embarked on the "Connecting Daughters" walk on March 12th, 2013. By Thoraya Rayyes Dear Lana, I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to you as an anti-Zionist activist as well as someone who is interested in your artistic message and has enjoyed several of your performances over the past few years. I was disappointed to hear that you will be embarking on a project this week involving a joint trip to Jerusalem with a group of Israeli women. While I understand that your intention is to spread a message about justice and to take a stand against oppression, I would ask you to think again about the way in which you are trying to spread this message. Activities involving "cooperation" between Arabs and Israelis...

[caption id="attachment_11991" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Algerian Director Merzak Allouache"][/caption] The Arab Theater Festival kicks off this week, with 14 plays from different Arab countries, as well as seminars and a specialized book exhibition at the Royal Cultural Center. (Details of the seminars have not been announced yet, keep an eye on this space and we'll update you as soon as we have the info). Two interesting music performances are taking place tomorrow; Jordanian group "Pink Floyd String Quartet" is playing at Canvas, and El Far3i (Tareq Abu Kwaik) along with DJ Sotusoura are performing for the third time at Books@ Cafe before they head off to Beirut for a show next week. The Royal Film Commission is hosting a screening of the award-winning Algerian film "Normal", to be followed by a discussion with the director Merzak Allouache. Read on for details on these...

This week's arts and culture features an exciting number of concerts by local, regional and international artists that cater to different tastes; you have Iraqi Oud player Khyam Allami, German musician Roger Reckless and his band, live Jazz by Yacoub Abu Ghosh Quartet, an evening of poetry and music by Zahi Wehbe and Macadi Nahhas, Arabic Rock with Jordanian band Jadal, a tribute to oriental violin by Yarub Smeirat, a Christmas concert by Dozan wa Awtar, and a festival of sacred music organized by the French Cultural Center in Amman, Madaba, and the Dead Sea. The Goethe Institute is celebrating its 50th anniversary with five days of German films from five different decades. Nabad Gallery is hosting an exhibition on art and design featuring works by some of Jordan's top artists including Sina Ata, Omar Bilbeisi, Yazan Hijazin, Sahel...

Words and photos by Andrea Garcia-Vargas Just when everyone thinks artists have exhausted experimental mediums, Jordanian artist Rawan Kakish takes the art of the collage and gives it a twist in her new exhibition “City|Thirdspace” this month at the Foresight32 Gallery, featuring mostly urban scenes. With a background in architecture from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Kakish, 28, furthered her study of Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York and New York University, and has participated in local and international workshops and exhibitions, such as her 2010 “Voices in the Gallery” and this year’s “a shout out to my city II,” also presented at Foresight. City | Thirdspace is another genius continuation of her artistic sensibilities. Kakish’s technique is different than, say, a collage of an airplane made up of millions bit of paper torn from deodorant advertisements and Red Carpet dresses. Rather, she has collected the...

Photos by John Lillywhite | تصوير جون ليلي وايت ...

تصوير: سييرا وست| Photos by Sierra West

From "Beyond Emptiness" - a solo exhibition by Dina Haddadin, at Zara Gallery/Grand Hyatt. Exhibition continues until March 28.

من معرض "ما وراء الفراغ" للفنانة دينا حدادين، في زارا غاليري/فندق حياة عمان. يستمر المعرض حتى ٢٨ آذار/مارس

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ضمن إقامة حبر في مكان، وقبل انطلاق معرض قاعة انتظار المطار اليوطوبية الذي اشتمل على مداخلات عامة لفنانين في أماكن مختلفة من عمان، خرجنا للشارع وسألنا بعض الأشخاص عما يعنيه لهم الفن في المساحات العامة.

وأنتم، ما رأيكم؟

انضموا اليوم الى جلسة حوارية في مكان/جبل اللويبدة حول موضوع الفن العام، الساعة ٦:٣٠ مساء.

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This week's agenda has a high dosage of local young artists with two collective exhibitions opening; an Urban Art exhibition at Foresight32 featuring works by 22 artists, and a fashion art exhibition at Cafe des Artistes with works by 19 artists. Makan Art Space is screening Banksy's film "Exit through the Gift Shop" on Monday night, and Documentary Film Days kick off on Tuesday in collaboration between the French Cultural Center and the Royal Film Commission. Live Music is back at Canvas after a summer hiatus, this time with Yacoub Abu Ghosh and the Stage Heroes playing a mesh of post funk, post jazz and post modern sounds in a repertoire of original compositions and reinvented jazz and rock standards. There's a lot more: an interesting architectural talk at the Engineers Association, a book launch at Readers, cycling, theater, concerts... so...

This week's agenda is packed, thanks mainly to the the Jordan International Theater Festival, which kicks off tomorrow and features at least four different plays daily from Jordan and abroad. You also have the long-awaited ballet performance of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty in its Russian version, starting on Saturday and showing for a week at the Hussein Cultural Center. Don't miss the photo exhibit "Telling Pictures" at the Jordan Museum tomorrow, organized by 7iber and Darat al-Tasweer and supported by the Canadian International Development Agency, through the Gender Social Fund. It features work by photographers Nabil Khoury, Amer Sweidan, Rasha Amer, Hasan Tahapsim, and Mohammad alQaq, highlighting community work that challenges stereotypes and promotes women as active citizens. On Wednesday the Columbia University Middle East Research Center hosts the forum: a Free Press for a Global Society, which will start by a...

Join 7iber at Makan this Wednesday for a screening and discussion of the film "10 Tactics for Turning Information into Action," which documents stories from around the world on original and artful ways for rights advocates to capture attention and communicate a cause. [caption id="attachment_7249" align="alignright" width="210" caption="By Iraqi Artist Rafa Nasiri"][/caption] This week also features two film festivals, Korean films at the Hussein Cultural Center and Chilean Films at the Royal Film Commission. We also have three new exhibitions opening, at the National Gallery of Fine Arts, Nabad Gallery, and Karim Gallery. On Saturday, al-Balad Theater hosts "Al-Ittijah al-Mushakes," a forum for young people to critically examine initiatives by NGOs and donor-driven programs and suggest creative alternatives. It's, in the organizers' word, "a virtual space for ideas we're passionate about, and things that disturb us that we'd like to see...