“The World is three days: As for yesterday, it has vanished, along with all that was in it. As for tomorrow, you may never see it. As for today, it is yours, so work in it.”
– Hasan of Basra
April is Arab American Heritage Month. The theme for 2024 is Celebrating Arab American Resilience and Diversity. See below for select VSCS Libraries that celebrate the Arab American community’s rich heritage and numerous contributions to society.
A sampling of books by Arab American authors or highlighting the Arab American experience. All electronic titles are available to read online and our physical titles may be requested for pick-up at a VSCS library or sent to your home.
This book examines the implications of discrimination in Arab American youth with a focus on K-12 school systems.
Arabic Glitch explores an alternative origin story of twenty-first century technological innovation in digital politics—one centered on the Middle East and the 2011 Arab uprisings. Developed from an archive of social media data collected over the decades following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, this book interrogates how the logic of programming technology influences and shapes social movements.
Black-Arab political and cultural solidarity has had a long and rich history in the United States. That alliance is once again exerting a powerful influence on American society as Black American and Arab American activists and cultural workers are joining forces in formations like the Movement for Black Lives and Black for Palestine to address social justice issues
A short story collection about the inhabitants of a Palestinian West Bank village, Tel al-Hilou, spans generations and continents to explore ideas of memory, belonging, connection, and, ultimately, the deepest and richest meaning of home.
In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.
Ground Zero Narratives: Islam and Muslims in Post-9/11 American Narratives and Arab American Counter-Narratives presents a dissection of American narratives to understand how 9/11 stories reflect both geopolitical relations and conflicts of our collective present regarding terrorism and counter-terrorism.
A memoir about restoring the health of our people, and our democracy, from a physician and “one of the brightest young stars” of the progressive movement (Sen. Bernie Sanders).
History of Arab Graphic Design traces the people and events that were integral to the shaping of a field of graphic design in the Arab world.
In this laugh-out-loud funny sequel to the graphic novel Huda F Are You?, the Fahmys are off to Disney World, but self-conscious Huda worries her family will stand out too much.
In Imperfect Strangers, Salim Yaqub argues that the 1970s were a pivotal decade for U.S.-Arab relations, whether at the upper levels of diplomacy, in street-level interactions, or in the realm of the imagination.
Textiles and clothing are interwoven with Islamic culture. In Islamicate Textiles, readers are taken on a journey from Central Asia to Tanzania to uncover the central roles that textiles play within Muslim-majority communities.
This book is published for readers to gain exposure and knowledge related to entrepreneurship according to Islamic perspectives.
A visionary leader's powerful personal story and a blueprint for change that will inspire schools and communities across America.
This distinctive anthology imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation.
Mass Communication in the Modern Arab World: Ongoing Agents of Change following the Arab Spring introduces, explains, and explores how unceasing growth of media and communication technologies has acted as an ongoing agent of change in the modern Arab world.
Mainstream superheroes are becoming more and more diverse, with new identities for Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. Though the Marvel-verse is becoming much more racially, ethnically, and gender diverse, many of these comics remain shy about religion. The new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, is a notable exception, not only because she is written and conceived by two women, Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson, but also because both of these women bring their own experiences as Muslim Americans to her character.
he American Midwest is often thought of as uniformly white, and shaped exclusively by Christian values. However, this view of the region as an unvarying landscape fails to consider a significant community at its very heart. Muslims of the Heartland uncovers the long history of Muslims in a part of the country where many readers would not expect to find them.
A timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.
The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Media and Communication in the Middle East and North Africa stands as an authoritative and up-to-date resource on the critical debates, research methods and ongoing reflections on how gender and communication intersect with the economic, social, political, and cultural fabrics of the countries in the MENA region.
Music has the universal power to move individuals, peoples and societies. Music is one of the most important signifiers of cultural change. It is also most significant for youth movements and youth cultures. While Islam has a historically and traditionally rich culture of music, religious controversy on the topic of music is still ongoing. However, young Muslims in today's globalised world seek pop cultural tools such as music, and particularly hip hop music, as way of exploring and expressing their manifold identities, whilst challenging Islamophobia, stigma and racism on the one hand and traditional and religious challenges on the other hand.
This handbook provides the first comprehensive reference book in English about the development of mass and social media in all Arab countries. Capturing the historical as well as current developments in the media scene, this collection maps the role of media in social and political movements.
In a beautifully written, science-packed, and inspirational memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares how she boldly carved out a place in the field of astrophysics, grounding herself in a lifelong love of the stars to face life's inevitable challenges and embrace the unknown.
We'll Play till We Die dives into the revolutionary music cultures of the Middle East and larger Muslim world before, during, and beyond the waves of resistance that shook the region from Morocco to Pakistan.
The stunning debut of a brilliant nonfiction writer whose vivid account of his grandparents'lives in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Los Angeles reclaims his family's Jewish Arab identity
Tells the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community.
An exploration of gender, the Arab Spring, and women's experiences of revolution, including firsthand accounts. In Women of the Midan, Sherine Hafez demonstrates how women were a central part of revolutionary process of the Arab Spring. Women not only protested in the streets of Cairo, they demanded democracy, social justice, and renegotiation of a variety of sociocultural structures.
A selection of films from the library streaming video databases by Arab-American directors or that highlight the Arab American experience
Includes titles from Kanopy and Films on Demand. If you haven't accessed Kanopy before, learn how to set up your account in this FAQ.
2012 1hr 20min
In this 80-minute documentary, three 10-year-old children leave their native countries to participate in one of the Islamic world’s most famous competitions, a test of memory and recitation known as The International Holy Koran Competition.
2013 1hr 39min
May Brennan has it all - intelligence, looks, rave reviews for her recently published book and a loving fiancé. But immediately upon returning to her hometown of Amman, Jordan for the wedding, the cracks in her seemingly perfect life begin to show.
2014 27 min.
Moving to a new country was challenging for Faiza Almontaser, a 17-year-old from New York City, who immigrated with her family to the US from Yemen when she was in middle school. Mentored by the legendary pioneer of direct cinema, Albert Maysles, Faiza’s film documents her courageous and inspiring journey from victim to activist.
2015 1hr 19min
For a gay filmmaker, filming in Saudi Arabia presents two serious challenges: filming is forbidden in the country and homosexuality is punishable by death. For filmmaker Parvez Sharma, however, these were risks he had to assume as he embarked on his Hajj pilgrimage, a journey considered the greatest accomplishment and aspiration within Islam, his religion.
2015 1hr 18min
The Speed Sisters are the first all-woman race car driving team in the Middle East. Grabbing headlines and turning heads at improvised tracks across the West Bank, these five women have sped their way into the heart of the gritty, male-dominated Palestinian street car-racing scene.
2013 1 hr 45min
The people demand the downfall of the regime! The Square is an in-depth firsthand look at the Egyptian Revolution, chronicling the fall of two presidents in a row.
2023 three 1 hr episodes
When a devastating hate crime reduces the local mosque to ashes, the community of
Victoria, Texas, faces the daunting task of bridging longstanding political, racial, and economic rifts in order to discover a unified path towards healing and progress.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0