Etching Our Own Image: Voices from Within the Arab American Art Movement

Anan Ameri · Holly Arida

Mas 2009 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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Etching Our Own Image: Voices From Within the Arab American Art Movement is a celebration of Arab American art and identity. In the wake of 9/11, the need for Arab Americans to define themselves, rather than be defined by others has galvanized an artistic movement. This collection of writers includes poets, musicians, playwrights, creative writers, painters, conceptual artists, comedians and scholars of the arts who have gathered to assert for themselves what it means to be Arab American and an artist.

Arab American artists use their art both to resist and to embrace their past, present and future. Through their art they retain their origins, while creating something new. They collaborate and come together. The artists included here are above all artists and the artistic renderings in this collection demonstrate their commitment to craft, innovation, and expression. They take on the task of etching their own image willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously. By telling their own stories through their own artistic mediums, these voices from within the Arab American art movement reclaim their own image and tell the world who they are.

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Dr. Anan Ameri is the Director of ACCESS’ Arab American National Museum. She has been with the agency since 1997 as the Director of ACCESS’ Cultural Arts Program, which has led the project plans for the Museum. Dr. Ameri holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Wayne State University, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies in 1996. Dr. Ameri has over thirty years of experience in promoting Arab and Arab American humanities and arts programming. She is an author of several books and articles.

Holly Arida is an educator and writer who has developed a new method to teach Middle East Studies and authored several articles about global education. She received her M.A. from the Center for Modern Middle East and North African Studies at the University of Michigan and serves as advisor to the Arab American National Museum. Holly Arida teaches at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.