by Joseph Nahas Edited By Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem  On numerous evenings, Gibran and I sat on a bench in Battery Park listening to musical renditions by one of New York’s civic clubs’ bands, and, with newspapers rolled up in our hands (when punk sticks were not available), we swatted, or deflected the swarming, dive-bombing mosquitoes.

The Gibran Chair is holding a Symposium on Wedesday the 27th of March titled: Reshaping the Landscapes of Arab Thought: The Legacies of Kahlil Gibran, Ameen Rihani, and Mikhail Naimy. If you wish to attend please RSVP Here:         ...

by Francesco Medici * This article is based on an excerpt from the paper "Tracing Gibran’s Footsteps: Unpublished and Rare Material", in "Gibran in the 21th Century: Lebanon’s Message to the World", edited by H. Zoghaib and M. Rihani, Beirut: Center for Lebanese Heritage, LAU, 2018, pp. 93-145.

WHEN THE ITALIAN MONKS SOLD THE MONASTERY OF MAR SARKIS by Francesco Medici and Charles Malouf Samaha In his later years, Kahlil Gibran repeatedly expressed his will to return to Lebanon and settle in his desired final resting-place, Mar Sarkis (Saint Sergius). This ancient monastery-hermitage overlooks the Kadisha Valley where he had spent his childhood, and is now known as the Gibran Museum. He once confessed to his intimate friend Mikhail ‘Mischa’ Naimy:

 Story by Glen Kalem.  January 1st 2019.  After 95 years and a 188 consecutive print runs - the longest in publishing history, Kahlil Gibran's much-loved and admired book The Prophet enters the public domain today.  

The Kahlil Gibran Collective attended the opening of Kahlil Gibran: The Garden of the Prophet celebrating the life and work of literary genius Kahlil Gibran.  The moving space created by the team at Immigration Museum Victoria set out to reflect Gibran’s world, by gaining insight into his key relationships and rediscover the power and relevance of his work today. 50 original paintings and drawings plus some of Gibran's New York studio furniture make up the current exhibition on loan from the Gibran Museum of Lebanon.  Kahlil Gibran: The Garden of the Prophet is proudly presented by the Bank of Sydney, supported by the Gibran National Committee, and has ...

By Francesco Medici Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (1886-1967), well known as a highly decorated English soldier and writer, was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His verse, that described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic spirit, greatly influenced Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), who was the most famous poet-soldier of English literature and to whom Sassoon was mentor.  On 28 January 1920, Sassoon arrived in New York for a lecture tour and Gibran, eager to draw him for his “Temple of Art,” got an appointment with him on 10 Feburary. On that cold and snowy Tuesday, the two lunched together and Sassoon accepted to sit for a portrait. After coming back to the S...

PRESS RELEASE: October 26, 2018.  Museums Victoria is partnering with the Gibran National Committee and the Gibran Museum in Lebanon to present an exhibition of the artworks and manuscripts of Kahlil Gibran. Kahlil Gibran’s seminal book, The Prophet, has been translated into 100 languages and his poetry and philosophy are much loved around the world. Born in 1883 in Bsharri, Lebanon, Gibran migrated to America with his mother and three siblings in 1895. From his early years he was passionate about creating art through painting and writing and went on to study art in Boston, where he was inspired ...

By: Warren David, President, Arab America Wedesday 17 October 2018   With all the media reports this past week regarding Jamal Khashoggi, I can’t help but reflect on my relationship with him as a colleague in the media and a man of principle and integrity.... ...Jamal looked me in the eye and seriously asked: “Did you know the impact Kahlil Gibran had at the turn of the last century on the literary movement in the Arab world?”    Read full article here...  https://www.arabamerica.com/was-jamal-khashoggi-inspired-by-kahlil-gibran/    ...

By Francesco Medici * This article is based on an excerpt from the paper  Tracing Gibran’s Footsteps: Unpublished and Rare Material, in Gibran in the 21th Century: Lebanon's Message to the World, edited by H. Zoghaib and M. Rihani, Beirut: Center for Lebanese Heritage, LAU, 2018, pp. 93-145.   While his masterpiece The Prophet– originally published in ...

   ON THE THIRD MOST POPULARPOET OF ALL TIME By Philip Meters  "A few years ago, in a review of Gibran biographies in The New Yorker, Joan Acocella notes that Gibran’s publishing numbers for his ubiquitous Th...

Update: Four new translations of The Prophet found.                                   Since the release of their first study which accounted for 104 language translations of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, researchers Kalem and Medici have added an additional four to "the list" revising the total number to 108. The new languages are as follows:  Cebuan: Origins Philippines Basque: Origins France/Spain Berber: Origins North Africa Bokmål: Norwegian  For the complete list click here...

By Arab News Denise Marray LONDON: What is it about the work of the famed Lebanese poet, writer and artist Kahlil Gibran that touches the hearts of so many people across the world today, decades on from his death in 1931? An exhibition of art inspired by his writings held this month at Sotheby’s in London provided an opportunity to consider that question “Kahlil Gibran: A Guide for our Times” was organized by the peace building movement, Caravan, and co-curated by Janet Rady and Marion Fromlet Baecker. It featured work by 38 artists from across the Middle East. The vision for the exhibition grew out of a recent book on Gibran titled “In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahl...

New Translation Found: Cebuan (Philippines) Following on from their global study (the first of its kind) on the official number of first edition translations of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet;Research historians Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem have added yet another first-edition language translation (Cebuan, of the Philippines) to the official list, making the total number of translations now 105.The Cebuano or Cebuan language, also often colloquially referred to by most of its speakers simply as Bisaya, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 21 million people in Central Visayas, western parts of ...

This week and next sees separate events in London celebrating the life and work of one of Lebanon’s most famous sons, Kahlil Gibran, an artist and author whose enduring reputation rests on his most famous work, The Prophet

Exibition Preview :    Kahlil Gibran: A Universal Philosophy Timel...

THIS SUMMER... put a little "Kahlil Gibran" in your day!Plan to attend CARAVAN ART's exhibition at Sotheby's in London is on between August 6-10 featuring 38 premier Middle Eastern artists inspired by the message of peace and harmony found in Kahlil Gibran's poetry, writings and art, celebrating the authors 95th anniversary year of his best-selling book "The Prophet". All the artwork will be for sale with proceeds going to charity for peacebuilding between the Middle East and West. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

A New Musical based on KAHLIL GIBRAN'S "BROKEN WINGS" The West End Premiere from 1st - 4th August 2018 @ Theatre Royal Haymarket. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "The songs are hauntingly beautiful, powerful, moving and superbly performed" by Nick Wakeham from the MusicalTheatreReview.com  ABOUT An autobiographical account of Gibran's first love, Broken Wings is a musical adaptatio...

The Chinese Translation of Kahlil Gibran: His Life and World (China Social Science Publishing House, 2016)   The Chinese translation of Kahlil Gibran’s English biography Kahlil Gibran;His Life and World was published by China Social Science Publishing House in July, 2016.   The translator Dr. Zheng Ma is a researcher of Kahlil Gibran. In 2006, she completed  “The Literary Study of Kahlil Gibran in the Western Context” which was the first doctoral thesis on Kahlil Gibran in China and challenged the dominant notion of China’s academia and readers that “Kahlil Gibran is an ...

Caption By Glen Kalem [1] “I have come to say a word...but if death prevents my word the book of eternity will not leave a word unspoken. What I do toda...

COMING SOON! “Love is a quenchless thirst”  The Kahlil Gibran International Speakers Tour COMING SOON! Introduction:  Poet and painter Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), best known for his most prized work “The Prophet,” has left an undeniable legacy that places him in the upper echelons of world literature, a champion of human rights, and a forerunner of peace and reconciliation.     A painter who became a poet, his short life was often driven by a “quenchless thirst” to create artistic expression as a mouthpiece to foray subjects that highlighted the cries of humanity, the oneness in being, and the understanding of our collective journey as not separate, but unified by the path of the spirit.     Reading between the lines of...

“The World Day of Social Justice: Celebrating Equality and Justice in the Work of Gibran Khalil Gibran” 20 February 2018, UN-House, Beirut  Roula Moawad, Alexandre Najjar; Francesco Medici; Henri Zgheib; Tarek Chidiac; Centre stage at World Day of Social Justice ESCWA Beirut Feb 2018 February 20th marks “World Day of Social Justice”, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) held a special event in Be...

“The World Day of Social Justice: Celebrating Equality and Justice in the Work of Gibran Khalil Gibran” 20 February 2018, UN-House, Beirut  Roula Moawad, Alexandre Najjar; Francesco Medici; Henri Zgheib; Tarek Chidiac; Centre stage at World Day of Social Justice ESCWA Beirut Feb 2018 February 20th marks “World Day of Social Justice”, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) held a special event in Be...

“The World Day of Social Justice: Celebrating Equality and Justice in the Work of Gibran Khalil Gibran” 20 February 2018, UN-House, Beirut  Roula Moawad, Alexandre Najjar; Francesco Medici; Henri Zgheib; Tarek Chidiac; Centre stage at World Day of Social Justice ESCWA Beirut Feb 2018 February 20th marks “World Day of Social Justice”, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) held a special event in Be...

At Table with Kahlil Gibran   by Francesco Medici   Contrary to popular belief, Khalil Gibran, Lebanese artist, poet and philosopher, best known the world over as author of The Prophet, did not lead a properly ascetic life. He had a sober life-style, to be sure, and used to spend most of his time writing, painting and drawing by himself in his studio.

By Hilda de Windt-Ayoubi Translating The Prophet started in an almost mystical way. Someone I know, asked me 6 years ago, if I knew Kahlil Gibran. Despite the fact that I wrote him that I did not, he kept mentioning Kahlil’s name once in a while. He wrote me that some aspects of my poems remembered him of this writer.  One day he told me that Kahlil, like my parents, hailed from Lebanon. It was then that I could not close my heart any more. So I went in google-search of this Lebanese writer. When I saw his oeuvre I was really startled. In 2011 my son Faried, bought me The Prophet as a birthday present. I was really touched by this wonderful book. A few months later, I got the second present, a translation into Dutch, De Profeet. While reading...

The Prophet of War by Glen Kalem Picture this; you’re a combat soldier in WWII a few thousand miles away from home, hunched down in a murky bunker waiting for your orders to leap out onto the frontline of Normandy. Moreover, you’re the co-pilot flying a United States aircraft loaded with an atomic bomb en route to the Japanese city of Hiroshima… or further still, you’re one of the sixty-eight American servicewomen captured as a POW in the Philippines. Packed in your uniform sits an oblong-shaped paperback – the front cover reads “Armed Services Edition” Next to it, a distinguished catchphrase “This is the complete book – not a digest”; in between ...

Francesco Medici is a well accomplished scholar and translator of the works of Kahlil Gibran. A native of Bari, Italy he has translated many of Gibran’s work including the plays, “Lazarus and his beloved” and “The Blind Man” and not to mention the critically acclaimed “The Prophet” in Italian. Francesco is also a research assistant on the film Kahlil Gibran The Reluctant Visionary who has contributed immensely items of research and priceless articles towards the film’s story and treatment. He has a couple of new books out in Italian that are well worth looking into. The first book is titled: “Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet and the Child”

Writer/curator Tania Sammons will teach an eight-week course exploring how Mary Haskell Minis, The Prophet’s “muse,” transcended her southern roots, cultivated New England lifestyle, and gender limitations to influence world history. As patron, educator, and traveler Mary Haskell Minis engaged the lofty goal “to make or mar the cosmos” through financial and editorial support of artist-writer Kahlil Gibran whose work “The Prophet” became one of the most influential texts of the twentieth century. Using Mary Haskell Minis as our muse, this course will survey major American history events from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement, including Reconstruction, women’s rights, and immigration, as well as the social history of travel, philanthropy, and education. The course...

Republished  from Huffington Post (Religion) Article By Layli Miron Bahá’í grad student Recently, my husband and I sat spellbound by The Prophet, a gorgeous film adaptation of the 1923 book of poems by Kahlil Gibran. In the film, the prophetic writer and artist, Almustafa (aka Mustafa), is a prisoner of an oppressive government, confined on a Mediterranean island called Orphalese. While the government is not named, various clues point to the Ottoman Empire. The only crime Almustafa has committed is using his faculty for words to...

NEWS The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland has appointed May Rihani as the director of the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace.

A Publisher Is Known By the Company He Keeps Reaps.  by Glen Kalem  “[B]ut it was Blanche’s peculiar astuteness that led to the 1923 publication of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, whose modest initial sales would metastasize 40 years later, in the woo-woo ’60s, helping to lift Knopf into the commercial big-time” A new biography on Blanche Knop...

  A New Book by Francesco Medici brings into focus an anthology of the Pen Bond.  New York, April 28th 1920 in Kahlil Gibran’s studio a dozen of Syrian-Lebanese writers who emigrated to the United States founded officially a political literary circle known as the 

The Pictorial Universe of Kahlil Gibran by Eva María Ayala Canseco The Bohemian Club of Boston When Gibran Kahlil Gibran and his family arrived in the United States from Lebanon, they e...

Gibran gets a Crater named after him on planet Mercury.   July 2009 ~ The International Astronomical Union (IAU) names 16 impact craters on Mercury. The newly named craters were imaged during the mission’s first two flybys of Mercury in January and October last year. Naming the craters helps to identify and improve communication among those studying the planet’s geology says; MESSENGER Participating Scientist Dave Blewett, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md. The IAU has been the overseers of planetary and satellite nomenclature since its inception in 1919. In keeping ...

by Glen Kalem May 21, 2014 ~ at NAAM The National Anthropological – Archaeological Museum in Pietermaai Curaçao While most of the international (Gibran) focus this past week has been about the pre-launch of Salma Hayek’s inspired animation of The Prophet  held at the illustrious Cannes Film Festival in France, a small island in the Caribbean – probably internationally-known by its citrus-infused 

What do Elvis Presley, the richest man in the world, and Guantanamo Bay prisons all have in common? They all read and admired the work of Kahlil Gibran. On the 14th and 15th of May 2014, via an invitation from the Lebanese American University of Lebanon and sponsored by the Departments of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Communication Arts, Mr. Glen Kalem, international Kahlil Gibran researcher and historian, presented a lecture to faculty and students highlighting 16 years of research unearthing the “Global Gibran and His Readership.” The lecture focused on who has read 

A passionate Salma Hayek was at the Cannes Film Festival to present a work-in-progress screening of The Prophet, based on Kahlil Gibran’s philosophical novel. Turning this 1923 best-seller into an animated feature was always going to be a challenge, but casting some of the best in the business gave her the confidence to meet such a feat. This powerhouse list has Hayek producing along side  Clark Peterson, Jose Tamez and Ron Senkowski. Head director Roger Allers was chosen to lead the helm of A-list animators from across the globe, including the likes of Tomm Moore, Joan C. Gratz, Joann Sfar, Bill Plympton, Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, Michal Socha, Nina Paley

Participant Media and the Doha Film Institute’s animated adaption of Kahlil Gibran’s book “The Prophet” will premiere at Cannes 2014. This animated feature film brings together many celebrated animators from around the globe, with each one capturing a chapter in “The Prophet” with their own signature style.

The Essential Rihani, a unique volume containing some of the most important works of Ameen Rihani as edited by Suheil Bushrui and May Rihani and published by The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace was released in May 2014. Summary: “Ameen Rihani was a Lebanese-American essayist, novelist, philosopher, and poet who believed passionately in the oneness of the world’s religions and the brotherhood of all nations. He was a formidable intellectual force in shaping and revitalizing the modern Arab intellectual renaissance, and has contributed significantly to the enlightened views that remain an important legacy for Lebanon, the Arab world, and for the world at...

Gibran Khalil Gibran, who became known as Kahlil Gibran, was born in the far north of Lebanon on 6 January 1883. The village of his birth, Bisharri, is perched on a small plateau at the edge of one of the cliffs of Wadi Qadisha, known as the sacred valley. Towering above is Mount Lebanon.   P1020009 from Elucidate Pictures on Vimeo....

A new book by Irish philosopher and poet Richard McSweeney examining the beloved Lebanese writer and poet Kahlil Gibran was released in January 2014. ‘Bradawn Yeats – A Khalil Gibran Tribute to W.B. Yeats’ serves as an enlightening resource that shows Gibran’s appreciation for one of the foremost literary figures. About Richard McSweeney A self-originating lyrical philosopher of Éire (Ireland), McSweeney is happily married and has a son and a daughter. He lived in the Republic of Korea for thirteen years, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for three, and a further three in the United Arab Emirates. Since 2001, he has been living and writing back home in Ireland. McSweeney holds a BA in Korean Language & Literature, and an MA in Classical...

Media Release Tuesday, 4 February 14 The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland, and the International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran have selected Ms. Tania Sammons to receive the 2014 Kahlil Gibran International Award for the outstanding services she has rendered in fostering the Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell heritage, superbly represented in the exclusive collection of artworks at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia.

On November 24, 2013, as part of their annual Middle Eastern Literature conference, the Peking University celebrated the 130th anniversary of Kahlil Gibran by bringing together academics from across China. Mr. Glen Kalem, an executive member of the newly-founded Kahlil Gibran Global Forum, also made the journey from Sydney, Australia, to be part of this celebrated event. Mr. Kalem’s visit marks the first-ever to China by any Western scholar of Gibran. His aim was to bridge the cultural and academic gap that has been in place since the earliest of Gibran’s translations in the 1920s, whilst also promoting a healthy and on-going dialogue between Gibran scholars of China and the West, where most of the study and research has been the focus over the last 90 years. ...

RARE PHOTOGRAPH OF KAHLIL GIBRAN FOUND Francesco Medici an international Gibran scholar and research producer for The Documentary film Kahlil Gibran The Reluctant Visionary has unearth a rare photograph of Gibran lost in a private collection, held at the National Museum of American History. This photograph ‘Silver gelatin on paper 1 item, 5.8″ x 9.6″ may have eluded scholars and researchers due to the incorrect spelling of Gibran’s surname. “Giran” The Craft Studios photo taken in October 1924 captures an event hosted by The Progressive Syrian American Club; the evening was held to honour Gibran for his community and literary work. Men and women can be see...

MEDIA RELEASE  April 3rd 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  By Kahlil Gibran International Forum and News Written by Glen Kalem Contact: info@gibranfilm.com 

Fantastic Blog by Emily Jane O’Dell ~ Writer & Assistant Professor of History & Archaeology at the American University of Beirut Snippet: 

“a seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchid invisible” We’re up and running. Welcome to gibrankahlilgibran.net blog site. The worlds first independently run and dedicated website bringing you global news and events concerning the late poet and artist Kahlil Gibran. This site is a work in development, so please make sure to visit time and again for continuous updates and don’t forget to Like our Facebook Site. We’re also open to sugges...