Video: @MetMuseum and Why I like it

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…

Iranian Comic-Book Artists Seek a Unique, Local Identity – NYTimes.com. Many young Iranian artists admit to a passion for comic books from the United States and Europe. They can be purchased in Tehran, though they are expensive and often covered with the censors’ black ink. But local artists say they are trying to stamp their work with an Iranian identity.

New Muslim comic book superhero on the way. Comic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new superhero – a Muslim boy in a wheelchair with superpowers.  The new superhero is the brainchild of a group of disabled young Americans and Syrians who were brought together last month in Damascus by the Open Hands Intiative, a non-profit organization founded by U.S. philanthropist and businessman Jay T. Snyder.