UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) presents the fourth installment of L.A. Omnibus, with Omar Offendum and Thanks Joey. Omar Offendum is a Syrian-American rapper / spoken word artist. Known for his unique blend of Hip-Hop & Arabic poetry, he’s been featured on prominent world news outlets, lectured at a number of prestigious academic institutions, collaborated with major museums and cultural organizations, and helped raise millions of dollars for various humanitarian relief groups. Offendum was recently named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, as well as a member of both the Pillars Fund cohort for Muslim narrative change and the RaceForward Butterfly Lab cohort for immigrant narrative strategy.
Thanks Joey is a music producer and independent multimedia arts label owner from Brooklyn, New York by way of Orlando, Florida. Born to Syrian immigrants and having a classical Arabic musician as a grandfather set the palette for what Joey would be exposed to musically: Fairouz, Om Kalthoum, Abdel-Halim Hafez with a little bit of Jay Z, Biggie Smalls and Nas. Joey released his first instrumental album, inspired by the works of Khalil Gibran, entitled On Beats in 2018. Currently based in L.A., he is working on multiple projects set to be released on his multimedia arts label, Colours Of The Culture.
Journey through the Syrian-Pacific with your own personal dragoman Omar Offendum, along with his partner-in-thyme Thanks Joey. This Shamreeki sonic saga is equal parts nostalgic and futuristic. Featuring samples from some iconic Syrian films and a dizzying dose of Damascene bilingualism, Lost In Translation is a celebratory love-letter to this very merry & hairy Arabian way of life in the California Califate of Los Shamgeles.
The talk will be available for the premiere on Thursday, January 28th at 7 pm and then a video on demand period from 7 pm Saturday, January 30th – Monday, February 1st.
What: L.A. Omnibus
Where: The conversation will be livestreamed on CAP UCLA Online
When: January 28, 2021, 7:00pm
Website: https://cap.ucla.edu/
