In the Media

Camp Counselors in Haverford College News

Chloe Tucker '07, Musa Hamideh '09 and Samee Sulaiman '10 at Al-Bustan Camp. Photo by Peter Tobia.

Bringing Arab Culture to Area Youth
by Brenna McBride, Haverford College News

Published July 29, 2010

Three Haverford College alumni were interviewed about their role as senior counselors at Al-Bustan Camp.

“Chloe Tucker ’07, Musa Hamideh ’09 and Samee Sulaiman ’10 all work for Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, a Philadelphia organization that provides education in Arabic language, arts and culture to young people from diverse backgrounds. This year, Al-Bustan’s three-week summer camp focused on the traditions of the United Arab Emirates.

As the young participants in the Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture summer camp performed during their end-of-camp celebration, senior counselor Chloe Tucker ’07 glanced at the faces of their guests of honor—representatives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) embassy—to gauge their reactions.

“They were all smiles,” she says.”

Click here to read full article.

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Chloe Tucker | Also posted in Camp | Comments (0)

Swarthmore Phoenix Highlights Al-Bustan Music

The Phoenix, the student paper at Swarthmore college, highlighted Al-Bustan’s March 2010 visit to Arabic language classrooms on campus.

Musicians Showcase Arabic Music
By Nina Pelaez
Published March 25, 2010

“This past Monday evening, a symphony of rich and beautiful sounds emerged from a small, crowded classroom in Kohlberg. The modern languages and literature department, in partnership with the music department and Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, hosted an Arabic music workshop. Renowned modern Arabic musicians Hanna Khoury and Hafez El Ali Kotain led the workshop. The tiny classroom in Kohlberg was filled with a diverse group of musicians, students and professors all sharing an interest in Arabic culture and music.”

Click here to read the entire article by Nina Pelaez.

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Chloe Tucker | Comments (0)

Al-Bustan featured in BreakMyRoutine.com

Al-Bustan was featured in West Philadelphia’s University City BreakMyRoutine.com, a neighborhood blog.

“Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is a West Philly nonprofit arts organization dedicated to advocating the appreciation of Arabic arts and culture. That may seem like a mouthful, but try saying it in Arabic! Actually, that’s one of the things they’ll help you do – in addition to programs about art, music, literature, geography, and other elements of Arab culture, they also offer language instruction.”

Click here to see blogger Samantha Lazar’s entire post on February 19, 2010.

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Hazami Sayed | Comments (0)

Shaheen Visit Profiled by Philadelphia Inquirer

Shaheen teaching the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble - photo by Charles Fox.

Shaheen teaches the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble - photo by Charles Fox.

Local Teen Musicians Learn Arabic Music

by Tirdad Derakshani, Philadelphia Inquirer
published February 8, 2010

‘. . . Violin in hand, Shaheen strained to demonstrate one of the key musical differences between Western and Arabic music, the quarter tone. His directions were tailored to his audience, very technical and demanding.

“One of the reasons the melody is so rich in Arabic music is because of this quality called microtonality,” Shaheen, 54, explained in an interview.

“Look at the white and black keys on a piano. The distance between them is a halftone,” he said. “Now, imagine there’s another key between the white and black keys, maybe a red one. That helps you create quarter tones, which can be hard for Westerners to hear, unless they’ve been accustomed to it. In Arabic music we don’t really have harmony because of microtonality and the melodic richness we can produce.”. . .’

Click here for the full article and see slideshow of photos taken by Inquirer photographer Charles Fox.

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Chloe Tucker | Comments (0)

Concert Featured in the University City Review

Al-Bustan Music Ensemble Performs at Penn, December 4

Al-Bustan Music Ensemble Performs at U-Penn on December 4

An Evening of Arab Music at the University of Pennsylvania – Comprised of performers from all different ages & backgrounds

by Nicole Contosta, University City Review
published December 9, 2009

‘Al Bustan-Seeds of Culture performed a free concert of Arab music at Houston Hall last Friday, December 4th. Directed by violinist Hanna Khoury, the ensemble, which is comprised of elementary, high school, college students and beyond, performed music deemed, by its very structure, foreign to Western ears.

According to Khoury, that’s because “there are two components that make up Arab music: melody and rhythm. ?The different interpretations of melody create the textured Arab sound that we listen for, which is called heterophony.”. . .’

Click here to read the full article

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Comments (0)

Ibtisam Barakat Profiled in the Chestnut Hill Local

Ibtisam Barakat in Chestnut Hill Local

On July 22 and 23, Al-Bustan was pleased to host noted author Ibtisam Barakat to conduct poetry workshops with our campers. See her interview with Len Lear of the Chestnut Hill Local. . .

Working Tirelessly to heal social injustice Palestinian Author brings tales of war to Hill

by Len Lear, Chestnut Hill Local
Published: July 30, 2009

[...]“Barakat, who spent two days with students at Springside last week, is on a peripatetic mission of peace and justice. Born in Beit Hanina, East Jerusalem, she spent most of her formative years in Ramallah, Palestine (generally referred to in news stories as the West Bank). After earning a degree in English literature from Birzeit University on the West Bank, she came to the U.S. in 1986 for an internship with The Nation magazine. She later earned two M.A. degrees — in journalism and in human development and family studies – at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Just before coming to Springside, Barakat had attended a world poetry conference in Caracas, Venezuela, as the Palestinian representative. Prior to that, she was in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman for one month as “author in residence” working with middle school and high school students. Her memoir, Tasting the Sky; a Palestinian Childhood, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, was named by Booklist as one of the top 10 biographies for youth and in 2008 won the International Reading Association’s Best Non-Fiction Book Award for Children and Young Adults.”

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on July 25, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Also posted in Camp, News | Tagged Camp, Iraq, poetry | Comments (0)

South Philly Review features Concert of Arab Music

The GAMP High School Jazz Band Performs

Cross Cultural Concert

by Amanda Snyder, South Philly Review
published May 28, 2009

‘With a growing Lebanese population around 10th and Federal streets, and pockets of Arabs in the North and Northeast, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is using the universal language of music to bridge the potential gap between younger generations and the understanding of countries such as Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The communications lesson hit a high note May 19 at Girard Academic Music Program, 22nd and Ritner streets, with three jazz bands, a choir, as well as Al-Bustan’s percussion and music ensembles, performing classical and jazz fusion Arabic music for an audience that may have been hearing the cultural strains for the very first time.’

Click here for the full article and review of Al-Bustan’s concert of Arab Music, co-presented by GAMP School in their beautiful new auditorium located at 22nd and Ritner Streets.

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Tagged arab music, concert, interview, Media, shaheen, youth | Comments (0)

The Bulletin highlights Arab Arts & Heritage Celebration

Students from John Moffet Elementary School prepare for a percussion performance at the Arab Arts and Heritage Celebration last year.

A View of the Arab World Through Art

by Erin Maguire, The Bulletin
published May 19, 2009

More than 200 students from seven city schools will showcase Arab culture in the form of dance, poetry, music and art Thursday, at the School District of Philadelphia’s atrium on 440 N. Broad St. from 11:15 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. The program is the second annual Arab Arts and Heritage Celebration, presented by Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture and the School District of Philadelphia. It is free and open to the public, and attendees will have the chance to drink Arab coffee and meet with students in sessions following the event.

Dennis Creedon, the administrator of the School District’s Office of Comprehensive Arts Education, and Hazami Sayed, Al-Bustan’s executive director, will open the event, which will begin with a 4-minute video highlighting Palestinian poet Naomi Shihab Nye’s February visit to Philadelphia schools. Students were encouraged through reading Ms. Nye’s poetry to explore their own heritages and express themselves through art. Ms. Nye’s work — which served as the catalyst for this year’s Arab Arts and Heritage Celebration — has a diverse intended audience, from children to adults, and centers on the universal themes of heritage and peace.

Click here for the full article.

Posted on May 19, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Tagged al-bustan, arab arts, concert, Drama, Media, Naomi Shihab Nye, school, youth | Comments (0)

Al-Bustan Profiled by International Press

Cultivating Arab Culture

by Lee Bailey
published August, 3, 2008 in The National, a leading English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi

Al-Bustan Campers making Palestinian embroidery, photographed by Jessica Kourkounis

‘. . .During the past three weeks, 55 children aged six to 16 have come every weekday to Springside to participate in Al Bustan (“the garden” in Arabic). A tour of the building can be an assault on the ears, but a pleasant one: a chorus of children counting aloud in Arabic gives way to the giggling of teenagers shooting a video dispelling ethnic stereotypes, their chatter then drowned out by the impressive thunder of traditional Arab drumming. Embroidery stitched by tiny hands adorns the hallways, and everyday objects ranging from blackboards to toilets are colourfully labelled in both English and Arabic.

“My favourites are art class and dabke,” says Keira Norford, age 12. “Dabke is a dance they do in some Middle Eastern countries,” she adds helpfully, as an afterthought. If the children of Al Bustan are consciously informative in conversation, then the camp’s organisers have achieved their primary objective. “We want kids to leave here loving Arabic language and culture, and to be able to share that with others,” says Hazami Sayed, Al Bustan’s founder and director. She estimates that the camp is split evenly between children with two Arab parents, children with partial Arab heritage, and children with no Arab background whatsoever. Campers’ families practice a variety of religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.’

Click here to read the full article.

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Also posted in News | Tagged Camp, interview, Media | Comments (0)

Philadelphia Inquirer profiles Shaheen Concert

Simon Shaheen playing the 'oud

Simon Shaheen’s concert at the Kimmel Center on February 1, 2009 garnered attention from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Click here for the article

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Chloe Tucker | Tagged arab music, concert, shaheen | Comments (0)

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture