Amal will present an “encounter" that happened in Etel Adnan: in her experience, in life, in her talent as a writer and a painter artist, an encounter between her intuitive perception and her philosophical mind, between the East and West, between herself as an individual and the universe, between truth and beauty, between commitment and freedom . . . .
Etel Adnan is a prolific writer mostly known by her book Sitt Marie Rose (Amal will distribute a list of books by Etel). Amal chose to present a book by Etel Adnan which she translated into Arabic: Journey to Mount Tamalpais. In that book, paintings and poetry meet. A slide show will accompany the readings, where Amal encountered Etel Adnan and recognized in her what an encounter of civilization, language, in openness and existentialist values can do. Amal recognized herself in Etel and that is how she could handle translating Etel’s writings without betraying her. As Andre Makine said: The translator of the prose is the slave of the writer, the translator of poetry is the rival of the poet.
Amal is a trilingual Lebanese. Her high school was completed in a French Nun’s school: the Besançon. She graduated from AUB with a BA in Political Sciences and Public Administration and in the same year from the USJ in Comparative Literature. In 1974 she pursued her MA and obtained it in 1982. Her specialization was Arabic Literature and her thesis was on “Badr Shaker as-Sayyab and commitment in Literature”. From 1981 till 1998 she was an officer at the UNITED Nations, UNICEF in Beirut and in Baghdad and in the ILO in Geneva and in various Arab Countries. In 1998 she started teaching Civilization courses in the Civilization program and French Language at AUB. Later on, she did the same in Haigazian College.
During the war she was an activist for Peace committed to the support NGOs, for Human Rights and Women Rights and Children Rights to non-violence which she practiced in Lebanon during the war against the War . She wrote two songs against the War that were taught in the Education for Peace in 1989.