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BOOK LAUNCH AND PHOTO EXHIBITION
SEPTEMBER 11, 2010, 4 - 6 p.m.
Pilgrimage in Al Andalus - photos by Nahid Massoud
Red Star, Crescent Moon: A Muslim - Jewish Love Story
Novel by Robert A. Rosenstone - Presentation at 5 p.m.
Cover Photo by Nahid Massoud
- Cordoba and Great Mosque From South Bank of the Guadalquivir
[Red
Star, Crescent Moon: A Muslim - Jewish Love Story is available in hardback or paper from Amazon, any bookstore
or directly from the publisher, NAP at www.newacademia.com]
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RED STAR, CRESCENT
MOON
For those of us who have followed Robert Rosenstone's
writing career, Red Star, Crescent Moon hits a new peak: a novel with deep historical roots that is also filled with
action, romance, and intricate plotting. The book is a mediation on the meaning of the past, filled with suspense, a profound
love story, and humor, all brought out in Rosenstone's highly readable and elegant writing style.
--Louis Breger, author, Freud: Darkness in the
Midst of Vision
Red Star, Crescent Moon is not
just about the kaleidoscope of history and politics and pop culture: it’s about what being human means in the face of
terror. The novel’s historian hero says he got into history for the stories. And the one true (as in universal and eternal)
story, it turns out, is about love.
--Leslie Brody, author, Red Star Sister, and The Life and Times Jessica Mitford
Muslim versus Jew; East versus West. The weight of the past vs. the promise of the present. It is no small feat to
build a bridge, but in Red Star, Crescent Moon, Robert Rosenstone has done just
that. Playful, fast-moving, yet deep, this novel is a love story for our times.
–Aris Janigian, author, Bloodvine and Riverbig
Like all great love stories, Red Star, Crescent Moon takes place at the dangerous
intersection of passion and all that threatens to destroy it: not just the religions of the subtitle but also ethnicity, culture,
family, politics, ideals, ambitions, individual memory, collective experience, and the stranger than fiction course of current
events. Rosenstone's fiction--inventive, even mischievous, harrowing, and yet utterly charming--is true in a way history rarely
is. It is also engrossing from beginning to end. Pick it up only if you have the time not to put it down.
-- James Goodman, author, Stories of Scottsboro and Blackout
I
laughed! I cried! Part travel writing, part history lesson, part slow-burn romance, this fictional memoir of improbable convergence
makes you ponder the intersection not only of different cultures, but also of art and life, Hollywood and reality, autobiography
and embellishment. Funny and intense, suspenseful and satisfying, it's ultimately a story of true love. Really.
--Martha Hodes, author of The Sea Captain’s Wife
Medina al Zahara (10th Century) - partial reconstruction - photo by Nahid Massoud
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Women in Diaspora: May
17, 2008 3-7pm
This exhibit featured the following artists:
Doris Bittar
Lidia Shaddow
Nuha Sinno
Palestine
Israel
Lebanon
| Doris Bittar |
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| Baghdad Bride 12x12 |
DORIS BITTAR’s series "Stripes and Stars" represents the American flag, the most profusely
patterned flag in the world, as it encounters the most profusely patterned cultures in the world, those from Islamic lands
as seen in matrix, floral, or calligraphic designs. September 11 created in her not only a deep sense of morning and loss,
but a feeling that American and Arabic cultures were jarringly merged within her. Bitar’s loyalty, alienation, and anger
began to emerge as symbols and patterns layered in her mind. The resulting works embody a dichotomy that is both oppositional
and ambiguous, one that seeks an alternate reality or narrative without the use of figuration. "Stripes and Stars" marries
seemingly oppositional icons to probe intertwined concepts of loyalty, identity, nationalism, and power.
DORIS was born in Baghdad of Lebanese and Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United
States when she was a child. She received an MFA from UC San Diego, and has exhibited her work in numerous shows across the
United States and in Italy. She is active in Jewish-Palestinian dialogue groups and has written for such publications as Al
Jadid. She is a lecturer at UC San Diego and has taught at the American University in Beirut.
| Lidia Shaddow |
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| Drive to Studio 4'x5 ' |
LIDIA SHADDOW is influenced by Islamic, Indian, and Western abstract
art. Her canvases undergo many changes, manipulations and layers until finally the elements settle into harmony much like
the Eastern and Western cultures in which she grew up. She works intuitively from memory and imagination, and thrives on the
unknown and spontaneity. Her recent paintings are inspired by the drive to her studio in Santa Monica through Topanga Canyon
and along Pacific Coast Highway. The heavy textured mountains, plants, flowers and weeds attract her attention, creating magical
scenes that inspire her to experiment with textures and lines.
LIDIA was born in Israel to a Tunisian mother and an Iraqi father,
and immigrated to the United States at the age of 14. She trained as an illustrator and designer, and earned a BFA from Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her works have been exhibited widely in Southern California and most recently at Pomegranate
gallery in New York.
| Nuha Sinno |
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| Untitled 24"x24" |
NUHA SINNO is taken by the notion of the Arabic language as art. Her work pays tribute to
her love of the language and for the rich legacy of beauty and elegance that is the Arabic alphabet. Her paintings consist
of intricate lines and colors that coalesce into abstract renditions of Arabic words and their meanings. She feels that these
rich constructions reflect and speak of her life as an Arab woman.
NUHA was born in Beirut and graduated in 1980 from the Lebanese University of fine Arts in
Beirut. She worked in Lebanon as an interior designer until she immigrated to the United States in 1984. Her art work has
been shown in a number group shows in Lebanon and the United States.
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