Metropolitan Detroit is home to one of the largest; most diverse Arab communities outside the Middle East; yet the complex world Arabic-speaking immigrants have created there is barely visible on the landscape of ethnic America. In this volume; Nabeel Abraham and Andrew Shryock bring together the work of twenty-five contributors to create a richly detailed portrait of Arab Detroit. The book goes behind the bulletproof glass in Iraqi Chaldean liquor stores. It explores the role of women in a Sunni mosque and the place of nationalist politics in a Coptic church. It follows the careers of wedding singers; Arabic calligraphers;restaurant owners; and pastry chefs. It examines the agendas of Shia Muslim activists and Washington-based lobbyists and looks at the intimate politics of marriage; family honor; and adolescent rebellion. Memoirs and poems by Lebanese; Chaldean; Yemeni; and Palestinian writers anchor the book in personal experience; while over fiftyphotographs provide a backdrop of vivid; often unexpected; images. In their efforts to represent an ethnic/immigrant community that is flourishing on the margins of pluralist discourse; the contributors to this book break new ground in the study of identity politics; transnationalism; and diaspora cultures.
#3353999 in Books University of Virginia Press 2007-03-06Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 6.25 x .75l; 1.16 #File Name: 0813925975272 pages
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