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Ethiopia - Building Community: Reflections on Ethiopian Life in Los Angeles

A multimedia presentation and panel discussion entitled "Building Community: Reflections on Ethiopian Life in Los Angeles" will be held on Sunday, March 9, 2008, at 3pm at Messob Ethiopian Restaurant in Los Angeles.

The presentation is the brainchild of photographer Ara Oshagan and writer Rebecca Haile who collaborated to create this engaging look at the Los Angeles based Ethiopian community. Taking Compton’s Virgin Mary Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as their starting point, Oshagan and Haile explore the significance and challenges of rebuilding community, defining identify and preserving culture. The resulting work, a multimedia presentation that combines Oshagan’s striking images with carefully edited clips from a series of interviews conducted by Haile, is a thoughtful reflection on universal questions of self and community as they are shaped by the specific context of the Ethiopian American experience. In particular, the photographs and interviews focus on the experiences of parents and children and the different perspectives from which they come.

Oshagan and Haile will debut their work on Sunday, March 9, 2008, at 3pm at Messob Restaurant, 1041 S. Fairfax, Los Angeles, 90019. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion that will feature Dr. Getatchew Haile of St. John’s University, Ato Mesai Haileleul, founder and director of Addis Art Gallery, Dr. Don Miller, professor of religion and sociology at USC and Ato Elias Wondimu, journalist and founder of Tsehai Publishers. Ms. Haile, author of Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia, will moderate the discussion.

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
The project is sponsored by USC and supported by the California Council for the Humanities.

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