Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) is presenting a number of interesting lectures and discussions this week. American economist and professor at Columbia University, Joseph Stiglitz is giving a lecture titled “The Imperative of Shared Posprerity: How Inequality Holds Back the Economies of the Middle East and the World.” Stiglitz is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the John Bates Clark Medal. (Sunday at 6:30 pm).
Jumana Manna’s short-film A Sketch of Manners will be screened at CUMERC, followed by a discussion with director/producer and Lina Attel, director of the National Center for Culture and Arts.
Inspired by an old black and white archival photo, A Sketch of Manners recreates an unconventional aspect of Palestinian urban life before 1948. Co-scripted with cultural critic Norman M. Klein, A Sketch of Manners is the first in a series in progress, Imagined Cities, which explores the idea of promised lands. (Monday at 6:30 pm)
In remembrance of Edward Said on the tenth anniversary of his passing, Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian-American historian and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, will be giving a lecture titled “Preconditions for a Just Resolution of the Palestine Question” also at CUMERC this week. (Wednesday at 6:30 pm)
The five-day alternative Arabic music festival, Dum Tak, will kick off this week with a lineup of 15 bands from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, including Cairokee, Wust Al Balad, Salalem and Masar Egbari from Egypt, Toot Ard and DAM from Palestine, Maii Waleed and Zeid Hamdan (collaboration between Egyptian and Lebanese artists) and Mashrou’ Leila from Lebanon, among others. Foresight32 Gallery is opening Ayyad Al Nimir’s solo exhibition, Music and Colors of Life, this Tuesday. Al Nimir moved to Jordan after receiving his education at the Fine Arts Academy in Cairo, where he taught art and worked as a professional artist for more than 10 years. He moved to the US in 1989 but maintained his relationship with the Middle East, holding exhibitions in Jordan at galleries such as Darat al-Funun and Dar Al Anda.
Other new exhibitions opening this week include “Freedom Prevails”; paintings and sculptures by Salameh Nematt at Zara Center (Sunday 7pm), and the first solo exhibition of acrylic and oil paintings by Iraqi scholar, writer and political advocate Nibras Kazimi, also at Zara Center (Sunday at 7pm). Another artist exhibiting solo for the first time is Jordanian Randa Kawar, whose paintings will be shown at Ras al Ain Gallery from June 1 until June 4. (Opening Saturday at 6:00 pm).
The Rainbow Theater has dedicated three show times to the screening of NO, 2013 Cannes Film Festival Winner and Academy Award nominee. The Chilean feature film based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito tells the story of how an ad executive uses advertising tactics to mobilize people to overthrow a dictator by voting NO in a referendum on whether he should stay in office for eight more years. (Wednesday, 5:15, 7:15, and 9:15 pm).
NO (movie) – Official Trailer – English subtitles from Gabriel Díaz. on Vimeo.
Also screening at the Rainbow Cinema this week is the documentary film Side by Side, which investigates the history of digital cameras in revolutionizing filmmaking and the film industry.
Rainbow brings back its Classic Nights this Saturday by screening three movies from three decades, On the Waterfront (1958), The Apartment (1960) and Chinatown (1974).
For details on these events and many more, check out 7iber’s calendar.