The Cultural Program
The Cultural Program consists of various projects established by the Committee, primarily focused on cultural presentation and historical documentation.
We have secured a historic partnership with North Carolina State University at Raleigh. The Khayrallah Center at the University will curate, archive, and preserve the Federation's archives and records. This initiative ensures that our cherished values—heritage, history, philanthropy, and education—will be preserved for future generations.
New Orleans, a city with a rich history of Federation Conventions, introduced the Southern Federation to the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). In 2019, a roundtable discussion highlighted the Federation’s founding history, the creation of the Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden, and the significance of oral histories and archiving in preserving our community's legacy.
Two key oral history collections feature stories from Federation members:
- Family History Archive of Syrian & Lebanese Families in the American South, digitally housed on the Arab American National Museum’s website.
- Interviews by Rose Esber, housed in the Oral History Collection at Baylor Institute for Oral History in Waco, Texas.
Additionally, Dr. Maria Curtis’s work on Archiving Arab American Families and Communities in Houston, Texas features Federation families. The compelling story of novelist Afifa Karam was also introduced during the Baton Rouge Mid-Winter Conference, symbolizing her journey from Lebanon to Shreveport, Louisiana.
“There is some literature about the histories of Arabic-speaking communities on the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast. However, very little is known about the Middle Eastern/Syrian Lebanese communities in the American South, especially Arabic-speaking Christians.”
Greg Gormanous and Ruth Ann Skaff, along with others, conceptualized a ‘roundtable discussion’ at last year’s MESA conference in San Antonio, focusing on the little-known topic of Arab-Americans in the South.