The Department of World Languages and Cultures and the Middle East Studies Program at The University of Toledo are celebrating Arab American Heritage Month with a virtual event Thursday, April 21, to be hosted by a pair of Arab American artists.
Scheduled at 6 p.m., the event, titled “Navigating Homeland: Research Meets Art and Poetry,” will feature poet Adele Ne Jame and oil and mixed media artist Melissa Chimera, and will include poetry reading and present related artwork, which is grounded in research.
Arab American poet Adele Ne Jame, left, and Arab American artist Melissa Chimera will host Thursday’s virtual event.
The event is in collaboration with the Department of World Languages and Literatures and The Center for the Study of Muslim and Arab Worlds at California State University San Bernardino.
“It is a celebration of Arab American Heritage Month and thus a celebration of diversity that exists in our universities and communities,” said Dr. Gaby Semaan, associate professor of Arabic and director of Middle East Studies. “The event will benefit students and attendees as it will provide them with a learning opportunity not only of the contribution of Arab Americans to different scholarly disciplines — specifically poetry and art in this case — it will also help raise awareness of the relationship between research, art and poetry as Chimera’s work is research-based and investigates species extinction, globalization and human migration.”
Semaan collaborated on the event with Dr. Dany Doueiri at California State University San Bernardino.
“Such events help highlight the importance of research collaboration between UToledo faculty and faculty at other universities,” she said.
For more information about “Navigating Homeland: Research Meets Art and Poetry” including the Zoom link, visit the virtual event’s webpage.
