Arab American Heritage Gala

You are cordially invited to the 2022 Arab American Heritage Gala on Saturday, May 7, 2022 at the Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove. This special occasion gives us the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on our many achievements as a community, while honoring the inspirational work of our special guests. Don’t miss out on this landmark event.

Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is an internationally-known scholar and a distinguished professor and researcher who continuously supports community development and student engagement alongside her extensive academic work and publication and teaching schedule. She is the Director and Senior Scholar in the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas and Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies at the historic College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University. Before joining SFSU, she served as the first director of the Center for Arab American Studies at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Mohammed El-Kurd is an internationally-touring and award-winning writer from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, occupied Palestine. His work has been featured in numerous international outlets and he is currently the Palestine Correspondent for The Nation magazine. RIFQA, his debut collection of poetry, was published by Haymarket Books. His poetry-oud album, Bellydancing On Wounds, was released in collaboration with Palestinian musical artist Clarissa Bitar. Mohammed and his twin sister Muna El-Kurd were featured in TIME Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people of 2021.
Clarissa Bitar is an award winning Palestinian oud musician and composer born, raised, and based in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Music and an emphasis in Ethnomusicology. To furher her studies, Clarissa sought out and learned from prominent Arab oudists including Simon Shaheen, Charbel Rouhana, and Bassam Saba. She has incorporated oud with a multitued of genres ranging from R&B to Pop to Hip Hop and Rap. Her latest album titled ‘Hassan Sabi’ is out now on all streaming platforms. She released a joint poetry-oud EP with Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd in January of 2019 titled Bellydancing on Wounds as well as a her solo EP Bayati.

This event is sponsored by: