A literary salon was held on Sunday, November 14, 1999 at 7pm, in Berkeley, California. Ammiel Alcalay spoke on a variety of topics, including

Arab and Hebrew poetics

Bosnia

Israel and the Levant

Exploding identities

Sephardic culture

Ammiel Alcalay is the author of a seminal book in Jewish/Middle East studies, After Jews and Arabs, Remaking Levantine Culture.  He is also the editor of Keys to the Garden, New Israeli Writing-the first collection in any language to bring together the poetry, fiction and nonfiction of Middle Eastern (Mizrahi) and Sephardic Jews writing in Hebrew and Arabic.  A respected translator, poet and professor at Queens and CUNY, Alcalay will read from and sign copies of his new book, Memories of Our Future, Selected Essays 1982-1999 (City Lights).

For information on this program, or others like it in the Bay Area, contact Ivri-NASAWI SF Bay Area  Board of Directors member, Myra Lappin, (415) 338-1706.