AASA: Marching into the Millennium Speaker list
Panels:
Literature, Arts, and Activism
Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhran -
He was born in 1974 on El Dia de la Madre in the South Bronx. An award-winning mixed blood Moroccan Arab/Sefardm artista, activista, y acadimica, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including Mizna, maganda, LUNA, Frontera Literary Review, Evergreen Chronicles, and Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review. A member of both RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.) and NASAWI (The New Association of Sephardi/Mizrahi Artists and Writers International), he received his BA in Women Studies from San Francisco State University. Currently a graduate student in Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, his first book,Yerbabuena/Mala yerba, All My Roots Need Rain: mixed blood poetry & prose, is forthcoming. His work focuses on Arab/Middle Eastern cultural production, multiracial identity and politics, comparative womanisms, queer people of color liberation thealogies, and the use of ancestrally-based art forms as healing tools in the decolonization of the nation-self.
Kathryn Haddad -
Kathryn Haddad is the cofounder and executive director of Mizna--a journalofArab American literature. She is a published playwright and essayist and has received writing awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Playwright's Center, and the Loft. Kathryn is a past chapter president of ADC-Minnesota and is currently completing her master's degree in liberal studies with an emphasis on women, literature and the Middle East at the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities.
Nasri Zeckari -
Molding Media for the Millennium
Ali Abunimah -
The vice-president of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), a Chicago-based social service and advocacy organization, and an activist for peace with justice in the Middle East. In recent years he has focused on the US media's portrayal of the Middle East, and on pursuing more balanced coverage. He has written over 300 letters to NPR, CNN, and others. He has been featured on CNN, NPR, and on local radio stations nationwide. Abunimah has a Masters degree in political science from the University of Chicago, and in politics from Princeton University. He has lived in the UK, Belgium, Italy, and first visited his parents homeland, Palestine, in 1996. He was the keynote speaker at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Central Pennsylvania annual banquet.
Abunimah is a full-time researcher at a social policy research center at the University of Chicago.Ray Hanania -
A veteran Chicago Political Reporter, Ray Hanania is an established writer and recent author of the humor books, I'm Glad I Look Like a Terrorist: Growing Up Arab in America (USG Publishing, Orland Park, 1996,1997), and Deir Yassin: Arab & Jewish Tragedy in Palestine (Published on the web, 1998). A longtime advocate of Middle East Peace and a Palestinian American activist, Hanania's writings also include weekly columns published in newspapers throughout the Middle East.
Impacting US Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Khaled Elgindi -
Is National Coordinator for Political Action at the Arab-American Institute in Washington DC. Khaled represents AAI on a number of national coalitions, including the National Iraq Network, and is responsible for mobilizing Arab-American action on various legislative issues. In May 1998, he joined a delegation of Arab-American activists on a humanitarian mission to Iraq and to observe the effects of sanctions first hand. Khaled previously served as Press Secretary to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). He has a master's degree from Georgetown University's school of Foreign service and a bachelors's degree in Political Science from Indiana University.
Workshops:
Iraq Activism Workshop
Rania Masri -
She is the coordinator of the Iraq Action Coalition, an informational-network dedicated to distributing information on sanctions and the continuingwar against Iraq. Ms. Masri is a national board member of Peace Action, chair of the national board of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC), and the moderator of the ADC-Iraq Task Force's electronic discussion list. Locally, she works with the North Carolina Triangle Chapter of the Global Movement to End the War against Iraq. Ms. Masri has spoken about the situation in Iraq across North America.Community/Grassroots Activism
Inter-group Coalition Building
Deana Rabiah
Earned a bachelors degree in Environmental Policy and Behavior from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, Ann Arbor. During the 1998-1999 school year, Deana was the current events co-chair for the University of Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In addition to playing a key role in organizing the National Organizing Conference on Iraq, she has organized numerous events and conferences, such as the Environmental Justice Conference on the U of M campus. She is currently the Environmental Programs Coordinator for the Arab Cultural Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS).William Youmans
A senior at the University of Michigan majoring in Political Science. He serves as the President of the ADC chapter on campus and is a representative of the Michigan Student Assembly. Will was the leader in the Michigan Student Assembly to pass the first university resolution condemning the sanctions in Iraq. He is currently working on the Ethnic and Black Studies Initiative (ESB), a coalition that seeks to improve the University's pathetic Ethnic and Black Studies programs.
Maintaining Arab Identity
Gender-Based Dialogue for Arab-Americans
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