Lebanese filmmaker, Roy Khalil wrote to tell us that his short movie entitled "All Birds Whistle" has been chosen this year to be in the Official Selection of the Palm Springs International Shortfest! 
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Dr. Joanna Medawar Nachef, Director of Choral Activities at El Camino College has been very busy lately.  In June, she was the Artistic Director of the Los Cancioneros Master Chorale Spring Concert East Meets West was held on June 20th.  Dr.Nachef told us "this is a new publication of Arabic and American choral music." The audience was able to hear how the cultures of America and the Middle East share a common humanity and the potential to rekindle the flickering flame of peace.
 
Our friend, Her Excellency Honorary Ambassador Graziella Seif, wrote to tell us about her new appointment of Honorary Ambassador. She continues to say, "I'm working now with many International organizations, as the Amnesty International, Transparency International, Organization of Francophonie, World Cultural Lebanese Union, Unesco, Unicef.... And after the successful tours I've accomplished around the world last year, especially to USA & Africa, I'll be honored in Beirut by those organizations."
 
Multi-media and House of Lebanon artist, Doris Bittar and poet Diane Gage are collaborating to create "Tec-Tang-Tarab," a relief wall piece that combines sound, sight and language with changeable/interactive components.  "Tec-Tang-Tarab" references the diverse cultures that populate California and the Americas, as well as the process of people rooted in one culture encountering aspects of others.  It layers patterns, words, phrases and sounds from the local indigenous culture of the Aztecs (tec), ancient Chinese poetry (tang), and improvisational Middle Eastern music synthesized from African, Byzantine, and Indo-European sources (tarab).  These three sources embrace a large array of ethnicities and subcultures.  Each of them grew to be substantial, dominant and fecund, giving birth to other forms within their regions and creating spinoffs for two thirds of the world.