Hanna Khoury (violin); Kinan Abou-afach (cello); Kinan Idnawi (oud) and Hafez El Ali Kotain (percussion)

Al-Bustan Music presents an ensemble of musicians performing Arab classical and contemporary instrumental music. Al-Bustan Music is a program of Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, a West Philadelphia-based organization that presents and teaches the Arabic language, arts, and culture.

Al-Bustan’s Music Program is directed by Hanna Khoury, a recipient of the prestigious 2010 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Khoury is an Arab-Israeli violinist trained in the classical traditions of both Arab and Western music. He established Al-Bustan’s Arab Music Concert Series which presents a resident music ensemble in performance with six renowned guest artists during the 2011-12 season, providing opportunities to hear exemplary live Arab music on a regular basis in Philadelphia.

For group purchases, please contact Christina Rockwell at 215.895.6528, or by email at crockwell@ihphilly.org

This month International House Philadelphia is proud to welcome Ms. Charisse R. Lillie, Vice President of Community Investment of Comcast Corporation and President of the Comcast Foundation, as she presents “My Civil Rights Journey – Lessons on Leadership and Mentorship.” A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

This event is free. Please RSVP to let us know you plan to attend.

Charisse R. Lillie is Vice President of Community Investment of Comcast Corporation and President of the Comcast Foundation. She joined Comcast in 2005 as Vice President, Human Resources-Comcast Corporation, and Senior Vice-President, Human Resources-Comcast Cable. She was a partner in the law firm of Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, in Philadelphia from January, 1992 to February, 2005. She was Chair of the Litigation Department from 2002 to 2005, and was a member of the Employment and Labor Law Group of the firm. She also served as an advisor to clients on diversity and anti discrimination issues. She is a frequent lecturer regarding diversity, community investment and corporate social responsibility.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Lillie’s legal experience included positions as Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, General Counsel to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia and City Solicitor of the City of Philadelphia. In addition, Ms. Lillie has been a member of many civic commissions. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Howard University, NBCUniversal Foundation, The Franklin Institute, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Philadelphia Electric Company, an Exelon Company. She has been honored by CableFAX Magazine as one of the top minorities and top women in cable.

The Houston, Texas native received her B.A. in 1973 from Wesleyan University – cum laude; her J.D. in 1976 from Temple Law School – Dean’s Honor List; and her LL.M. in 1982 from Yale Law School. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA, in 2005. In 2011, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Peirce College in Philadelphia, PA. She worked as a research assistant to the Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. from 1975 to 1976 on his first book, In The Matter of Color. Ms. Lillie was law clerk to the Honorable Clifford Scott Green, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1976-1978.

Kuroneko (Black Cat)
dir. Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1968, 35mm, 99 mins, b/w, Japanese w/ English subtitles

In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well. Kuroneko is a spectacularly eerie twilight tale with a shocking feminist angle, evoked through ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.

Organized by Sean Stoops; presented by InLiquid Art + Design in cooperation with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

Paul Santoleri and a select group of mural artists will collaborate on a “live painting” to be documented through time-lapse video. Following the live painting event, join us for a reception with the participating artists and VIPs from the Mural Arts Program. Please stay for IHP + EuroCircle wine reception preceding our screening of Wings of Desire at 7pm.

Murals Set in Motion is an exhibition of videos and visual art related to recent mural video art / “motion painting” projects created in Philadelphia and other cities. The highlighted videos are: Cosmic Terrarium (2010) and Muralmorphosis (2009) – two digital shorts directed by curator Sean Stoops (in collaboration with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program); Finnstump featuring the mural art of Paul Santoleri; Room by the Japanese art collective, Rinpa Eshidan; and The Favela Painting Project, a short documentary by Haas&Hahn (Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn) – Mural Arts Program visiting artists from the Netherlands.

This event is free. Please RSVP to let us know you plan to attend.

Money
dir. Rudy Burckhardt, US, 1968, 16mm, 45 mins, b/w

A silent screen-style comedy starring Edwin Denby as Hemlock Stinge. “It deals with old Mr Stinge, the unlovable billionaire, and many other characters, rich and poor. It shows the luxury and degradation of New York City and the simple fresh air of Maine. The story can’t resist slowing up to look at a girl; it skips a few logical links when it gets too complicated. It is being told by a hard-drinking farmer to his son to inspire him to become a billionaire too. The photography is masterful and draws no attention to itself. The text by Joe Brainard, ditto. The documentary sequences show people and buildings on the kind of real life day when you keep finding comedy wherever you look. Special to Burckhardt is the light touch. The jokes – small touching ones, others outright gags – are left unexploited and unexplained. The characters are all pretty bad, money is the root of all evil, and they ought not to enjoy themselves but they do anyway. The film is clearly unpretentious, free-wheeling and imaginative.” – Edwin Denby

preceded by
Indelible, Inedible
dir. Rudy Burckhardt, US, 1981, 16mm, 8 mins, color

Images accompany the lines of a poem by John Ashbery. “Rudy Burckhardt’s film is a brilliant extension of my poem, perhaps the film I might have made myself if I were a filmmaker.” – Poet John Ashbery

What it is Not, a new LUX touring program curated by Gil Leung, brings together a selection of new works by UK-based artists. Against the new as a merely contemporary form of visibility, the works in this program consistently interrogate these terms, their own guises, structures and language. This presentation of their means of representation acts to displace the works’ own logic. Here reference is reflexive, a sort contrapuntal relation between form and deformation, past and present. Both product of labor and autonomous object, the new work is and is not the thing-in-itself. The new is, in this sense, negative, a duplicitous and illusory new, gone as soon as it is discerned.

Death Mask 2: The Scent
dir. Ed Atkins, UK, 2010, 8 mins, video, color, sound

Conroy Ramon Requilman Live
dir. David Raymond, UK, 2010, 6 mins, video, color, sound

Concrete Vache
dir. Mark Leckey, UK, 2010, 25 mins, video, color, sound

The Artist
dir. Laure Prouvost, UK, 2010, 10 mins, video, color, sound

Misty Suite
dir. James Richards, UK, 2009, 6 mins, video, color, sound

Phantom Avantgarde
dir. Mark Aerial Waller, UK, 2010, 8 mins, 16mm transferred to video, b&w, sound

followed by
Slow Action
dir. Ben Rivers, UK, 2011, 40 mins, 16mm, color, sound

Filmed at islands across the globe, including Lanzarote (Spain), Gunkanjima (Japan), Somerset (Canada)and Tuvalu, Slow Action is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film which exists somewhere between documentary, ethnographic study and fiction. Slow Action applies the idea of island biogeography – the study of how species and eco-systems evolve differently when isolated and surrounded by unsuitable habitat – to a conception of the Earth in a few hundred years; the sea level rising to absurd heights, creating hyperbolic utopias that appear as possible future mini-societies.

Slow Action has been commissioned by Picture This and Animate Projects. Supported by Bristol City Council, Elephant Trust, Arts Council England, Daiwa Japan Foundation and the British Council.

Abid Raja, born in Oslo, is a Norwegian lawyer and politician of Pakistani descent. Since 2008, has served as Board Leader of Norwegian Immigration Appeals Board. Currently he is on leave and serving as Police Presecutor at National Police Immigration Service. Previously he has worked as a criminal defense lawyer and a civil case litigator. He has also written two books – Spokesman i (Aschehoug 2008) and Dialogue (CappelenDamm 2010).

In 2010, Raja received the Fritt Ord Award. Translated as The Freedom of Expression Foundation, Fritt Ord is a Norwegian foundation, whose self-proclaimed aim is to support freedom of expression and a free press.

Suhail Khan, born in Boulder, Colorado to parents who emigrated to the United States from southern India. Khan is a Washington, DC based attorney and has previously held many government positions and is the Senior Fellow for Christian-Muslim Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement. He has written opinion pieces for various publications including the Washington Post/Newsweek Forum On Faith.

While at the Department of Transportation, Khan was awarded the Secretary’s Team Award in 2005 and the Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 2007.

The Vision Awards Program includes cocktails, food and entertainment.

General admission ticket to this event also includes admission to our http://ihousephilly.org/?p=5490 Where in the World: Scandinavia
Scandinavian Business Values

Participate in discussion on the business practices of Scandinavian corporations. Panelists will discuss the unique methods and values of some of the most successful businesses in the region, and will include discussion of multinational businesses. The event will be followed by a business networking cocktail party featuring the presentation of the International Vision Award.

Moderated by Jan Campbell-Westlind, Honorary Consul of Sweden in Philadelphia. Panelists include Margareta Ozolins, Swedish General Manager for Production at AstraZeneca; Poul Jeppesen, President and Gunilla Nilsson, CFO of SKF USA, Inc; Kevin Gorman, General Counsel for SCA Americans; Minna Mars, Partner at EarthRate and Lars Bjork, President and CEO of QlikTech Inc.