The Levant means ‘where the sun rises’: the eastern Mediterranean Levant is a geographical word, free from associations with race or religion. It is defined not by frontiers but by the sea.
Author: Philip Mansel
Was Salonica a Levantine City?
The conference reflected on the Levantine identity, as captured throughout history, art, architecture, music and cuisine, as well as the history of cosmopolitanism and commerce that enabled this vibrant culture to thrive. Panelists who share Levantine heritage examined its influence on their careers and lives as well as gave testimony to the uniqueness of the Levantine identity.
The program was followed by an evening concert performance with the original composition, Levantine Symphony N°1, by Ibrahim Maalouf.
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September 15
The New Levant Initiative was honored to present distinguished trumpeter and composer Ibrahim Maalouf in the world premiere of his impassioned composition, Levantine Symphony N°1.
NLI is proud to support projects and institutions that bring about initiatives, tools, and experiences to further educate the public about Levantine arts, culture, and history.
NLI supports the Humanities Research Center (HRC) at Rice University and their sustainable, multi-tiered, and data-driven Levant Carta initiative. The Levant Carta is dedicated to the production of a cartographic platform that will bring together scholarly networks and enable the production of temporally accurate and illustrated maps of Levantine cities. For this initiative, the HRC will interconnect a series of activities, meant to act as bridges across disciplines, schools, and universities both in the US and abroad.
September 5, 2018 Rupert Hawksley / National
The Egyptian installation, Modernist Indignation, was curated by Cairo-based architect Mohamed Elshahed and is described by the London Design Biennale as “an elegy for a rapidly disappearing culture, seen through the prism of the first Arabic design magazine”.
September 4, 2018 Joshua Levkowitz / Al-Monitor
Lebanon’s ecosystem is a regional anomaly. Unlike most of the Arab world, there is no desert, and cedar trees grow along dewy mountaintops. Talal Nassereddine, an agro-businessman who hails from the same fertile mountains as Lebanon’s famed cedars, has introduced another anomaly to the area: the North American highbush blueberry.
August 31, 2018 Rebecca Bradshaw / Al-Monitor
The Idlib museum, whose collections rival those in Aleppo and Damascus, reopened last month, despite having lost an unknown number of its treasures to looters.
August 29, 2018 Jihad Abaza / Middle East Eye
Mohamed Bakkar’s passion is not about pulling strings: he connects with his creations and hopes to bring the traditional art back to the fore.
August 21, 2018 Giuseppe Mancini / Al-Monitor
Gazoz, a light, fizzy and delicious drink that symbolized the recklessness of Turkish youth in the post-World War II era, is making a comeback.
August 10, 2018 Victoria Yan / Middle East Eye
The ancient port city of Byblos has made an ambitious decision to ban single-use plastic bags by the end of 2018.