Welcoming Al-Bustan's Incoming Executive Director

The Board of Directors of Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture is pleased to announce the appointment of Mohannad Ghawanmeh as the next Executive Director. He will succeed Executive Director Hazami Sayed who will step down at the end of December 2020, 18 years after founding the organization in 2002.

Mohannad Ghawanmeh is a scholar, cineaste, educator, and culturist intimately at large. A teacher of communication and media for twenty-five years, Mohannad’s instruction has centered on the cinema, for which he has also written, produced, acted, consulted, programmed, and curated. He is co-founder of the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival produced by Mizna. Mohannad curated the first editions of the Arab American National Museum’s film festival and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Italian Film Festival, as well as the series Melnitz Movies at University of California, Los Angeles. Mohannad is well awarded and published, having earned in 2020 his PhD from UCLA in Cinema and Media Studies. His research of the cinema decidedly examines such intersecting fields as governmentality, migration, nativity, religion, theater, music, literature, industrialization, and modernity typically in the mold of cultural history. Born to Palestinian refugees and an immigrant to the United States, Mohannad has also lived in Egypt, Japan, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Mohannad thrives on conjoining education and cultural production, connecting people and places, enriching and inspiring.

Mohannad moved with his spouse and son to Philadelphia last week.  We are thrilled to welcome them to the "Al-Bustan Family" - Ahlan Wa Sahlan!أهلا وسهلا في البستان

I don’t believe in signs, but I did gaze at the recent Halloween night blue moon as I drove from Ohio into Pennsylvania, on my way to Philadelphia. Enormous and splendorous, the moon looked as if digitally enhanced, only it wasn’t. My second day at Al-Bustan was Election Day and for the rest of my first week as Incoming Executive Director, the country’s eyes turned to Philadelphia, the city I had elected to serve. It is an honor to bring all of my energies and devices to the leadership of such a venerated organization as Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture. It is moreover a humbling privilege to succeed Hazami Sayed, the organization’s brilliant founder and leader for nearly two decades, whose own inestimable efforts and myriad expertise have grown Al-Bustan into a powerhouse organization. It is a joy to have been invited to join such a marvelous team—talented, committed, and enterprising—together we will continue to do our utmost to work for Al-Bustan’s community and constituents by offering artistic and educational programming that enriches cross-cultural understanding and celebrates diversity.