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

Ray Hanania is an award-winning columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today

Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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