Knight/PNC Announce $3.7 Million in Local Arts Grants
by Stephan Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer
Published May 10, 2011

“. . . For Hazami Sayed, executive director of al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, a West Philadelphia organization devoted to Arab culture, the $50,000 from the Knight Foundation is a major step in realizing a concert series of Arabic music. The series will feature a guest instrumentalist at every performance as well as al-Bustan’s resident ensemble of classically trained musicians,
led by violinist Hanna Khoury, the organization’s director of music programs.

“It is a way of making Arabic music accessible to a broad audience,” said Sayed. “Nobody has a series like this available on a regular basis with a resident ensemble.”

Click here to read full article.

Click here for press release from Knight Foundation.

Peter Crimmins interviews NEHS students backstage

Poetry Unites International Teens
by Peter Crimmins
Published online and aired on radio on November 19, 2010

“Some poems seem to just appear on the page, but most are laboriously built, one word at a time. This week, students at one of the more internationally diverse high schools in Philadelphia have come together over poetry. Northeast High School students – hailing from Haiti to Belarus to Iraq – joined with a renowned Palestinian poet for a week-long workshop.

Anna Rystem, 17, was born in Albania, and is now a student in Northeast Philadelphia High. She says she got over her fear of poetry.

“You think the poem has to make sense – but sometimes you just have to pull them together, like a story. And if you read it later it makes sense.”

. . . “The surprise is to see what images they come up with,” says Handal. “On day one they are not sure what they are going to do, but on day five they’ve built a country on the page – a little world on their page.”"

Click here to read full article.

Watch the full episode. See more Friday Arts.

Watch WHYY’s 6.5-minute segment produced by Karen Smyles about Al-Bustan Camp 2010:

* * * * * * *

Al-Bustan programs are featured on WHYY TV’s Friday Arts in November 2010!

In two nicely produced segments, Karen Smyles showcases our program in Spring 2010 with acclaimed musician/composer Simon Shaheen, and our summer camp program in July 2010.

Have a look on Friday Arts website and on WHYY TV – see schedule of November TV screenings.

Thanks to the WHYY team for their interest and wonderful presentation!

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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

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