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Suheir Hammad to perform at 11th Annual Diversity Conference April 10

Palestinian Poet Suheir Hammad will be among the many speakers and performers at the 11th Annual Images and Perceptions Conference to be held Thursday, April 10 at Byblos Banquet Hall, 7258 Chase Road, Dearborn, Michigan.

The conference, organized by Siham Awada Jaafar, will also feature headline speaker and Hollywood Actors Edward James Olmos, “Stand and Deliver” and “Selena,” and Egyptian American actor Sayed Badreya, “Iron Man” and “Chicago Mirage.” Jaafar also produces a similar conference that is in its 3rd year in Chicago in the Fall.

Speakers will also include former NAACP President and Assistant Wayne County CEO Heaster L. Wheeler, WSU Dean of Fine Performing and Communications Arts Dr. Matthew Seeger, and University of Michigan Professor and writer Frances Wang. Also performing is Palestinian American writer and standup comedian Ray Hanania, who will offer insight into ethnic diversity, humor and conflict resolution. Hanania was kicked off of a comedy stage at Zanies Comedy Club in Chicago in 2002 by comedian Jackie Mason when Mason discovered Hanania was “not just an Arab” but also Palestinian.

Jaafar said there is still time to register for the conference which runs Thursday from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. Click here to register.

Hammad, who was born in Jordan, has performed in hip hop music entrepreneur Russell Simmons’ and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Click for more info. Hammad performed in two of the show’s six seasons, launched in 2002.

Olmos has achieved extraordinary success as an actor, producer and humanitarian. The Tony, Emmy and Academy Award® Nominated actor, is probably best known to young audiences for his work on the SYFY television series “Battlestar Galatica” as Admiral William Adama. Although the series kept the actor busy during its run from 2003 through 2009, it didn’t stop him from directing the HBO movie “Walkout” in 2007, for which he earned a DGA Nomination in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television category.

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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

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