Battle of Karbala – Painting – Brooklyn Museum

LUMA Loyola University Museum of Art. Saturday, May 21  Everyday Art: The Islamic Impact on American Arts  3:00 p.m.  Free with museum admission  American popular culture reflects the cultural diversity of the American people and helps to shape the way Americans understand themselves. Perhaps the least understood of these influences is the cultural impact of the various Muslim communities that have settled in the United States. The tapestry of influences that converge in popular music, architecture, and literature-the arts we engage with every day-bears witness to the presence of Muslims in America. In this richly illustrated talk, Dr. Hussein Rashid…

Muslim American Artists Strive to Bridge a Chasm – NYTimes.com. When Wajahat Ali, a young Muslim American playwright from Fremont, needed to build an audience for his work, he produced his plays in cramped Pakistani restaurants in the East Bay and used Facebook to get the word out.  His play “The Domestic Crusaders” went on to open at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in 2005, and then moved to Off Broadway.   … Mr. Ali is one of a growing number of Bay Area artists who are reimagining one of the country’s most complicated compound identities: Muslim American.  At a time…