By Glen Kalem-Habib and Francesco Medici all rights reserved Glen Kalem-Habib copyright © 2023 As The Prophet celebrates its 100th year of publication this year, many will once again acknowledge its well-deserved accolades and records. However, the enigma surrounding its enduring popularity still persists, and even after a century of readership and publishing, we continue to uncover its secrets. This article was inspired by Francdesco Medici's earlier research, which led to the publication of the insightful article
On June 2, The Drawing Centre New York opened "A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran" exhibit.This important exhibition features an exceptional collection of more than 100 drawings by the renowned Lebanese-American poet, artist, and writer Kahlil Gibran. This exhibition, which coincides with the historic 100th anniversary of Gibran's well-known work "The Prophet," gives a visceral voyage into the world of an incredible creative mind. Kahlil Gibran is well known for his poetry and prose, but his strong self-identification as a visual artist gives his artistic legacy even more depth. Along with his literary works, Gibran also created a wide range o...
"Aatini al-Nay wa-Ghanni" (Bring Me the Flute and Sing). Fairuz sings Gibran. By Francesco Medici all rights reserved © copyright 2023 Aatini al-Nay wa-Ghanni is among the greatest interrupted songs of any artist, and the 'artist' who needs no introduction in the Arab and wider world is Nouhad Haddad. Born on November 21, 1935, in Beirut, Haddad is the epitome of a Lebanese diva, affectionately referred to by her countrymen as "our ambassador to the stars." Globally, she's better known by her stage name, Fairuz, which translates to 'turquoise' in Arabic.
By Francesco Medici all rights reserved copyright © 2023 In the month of May 1903, Ameen Goryeb (Amīn al-Ġurayyib, 1880-1971), editor and owner of «al-Mohajer» (‘The Emigrant’), a daily Arabic newspaper published in New York, visited the city of Boston. Among the people who received him was the young Kahlil Gibran (Ǧubrān Ḫalīl Ǧubrān, 1883-1931), who captured the journalist’s regard with his kind manner and intelligence. The following day, Gibran invited Ameen to his home. He showed him his paintings and presented him with an old notebook in which he had set down his thoughts and meditations. When Ameen saw the paintings and read the poems in the notebook, he realized he had discovered a genius artist, poet, an...
In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran Author: Paul-Gordon Chandler
Event News: For the first time in history Kahlil Gibran's life and work will be on exhbit for a short time only at the UN headquarters. In collaboration with the University of Balamand in Lebanon, The National Committee, the Museum of Gibran in Lebanon, and The World Lebanese Cultural Union-US Council, the Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations Headquarters is hosting this extraordinary event. Event details: Date: ...
By Francesco Medici copyright all rights reserved © 2023 The famed Abbasid-era poet Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (915-965), who is today recognised as the most significant and influential in the Arabic language, had some of his Rub'ayyat (Quatrains) translated into English, and they first appeared in «The Syrian World»1 in 1931. Amin Georges Beder, the translator (1876–1955), was a merchant of Lebanese descent who had fled ...
Exhibition: April 7 - May 27, 2023St. Matthew's Cathedral • Laramie, Wyoming Opening on Good Friday, the highly anticipated "Dying Sorrow" exhibition is set to captivate art enthusiasts and admirers of the Lebanese-American poet, writer, and artist Kahlil Gibran. Hosted by the renowned arts organization, CARAVAN, this one-of-a-kind showcase features the mesmerizing works of contemporary sacred artist Daniel Bonnell, who masterfully brings to life Gibran's profound insights on human suffering and spirituality. Visit www.oncaravan.org/dyingsorrow to explore this incredible exhibition. Inspiration from Kahlil Gibran...
The year 2023 provides a unique opportunity to celebrate Kahlil Gibran’s beloved masterpiece, The Prophet: this is the year the book ends its first century of publication and begins its next one hundred years in the hearts of its readers. Two new books arrive in time to help the world treasure and appreciate Gibran. The Prophet was originally conceived in 1899 when Kahlil was a sixteen-year-old student in Beirut. The motif and content ripened in Gibran in the United States until 1918, when he was ready to start writing, which began at the farm estate of a friend on ...
By Glen Kalem-Habib © all rights reserved copyright 2023 Almost a decade ago, I wrote about a newly discovered publication I found of The Prophet which I had purchased for our collections, whose relatively unknown history, was surprisingly linked to World War II. The article entitled The Prophet of War spoke of a small paperback edition of The Prophet that was not for “public sale” but was a complete copy, no larger than your average smartphone. The book came about via a joint initiative between the US government, and the newly formed not-for-profit Council on Books in Wartime, which published pre-chosen titles under the - Armed Services Inc. The result was the birth of the ...
by Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem-Habib American publisher Alfred Abraham Knopf (1892-1984) along with his wife Blanche Wolf (1894-1966), both born to a Jewish family, founded Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in New York City in 1915. The publishing house, which would bring out the best of North and Latin American, European, and Russian literature, soon became famous all over the world for its special attention to the quality of content, presentation, printing, binding, and design in his books.
by Francesco Medici Kahlil Gibran wrote his longest book, Jesus the Son of Man: His Words and His Deeds as Told and Recorded by Those Who Knew Him, in a little over a year between 1926 and 1927 and New York publisher Alfred Knopf published it in the fall of 1928. Actually, the figure of Jesus had already appeared in Gibran’s writings and art in various forms. He also often told his patroness Mary Haskell that he had recurring dreams of him and mentioned wanting to write a life of Jesus in a 1909 letter to her.
by Francesco Medici and Glen Kalem-Habib Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet was not written in some faraway mysterious land, as one might assume from reading it. Almustafa, Almitra, and the people of Orphalese did not emanate to life in some lonely hermitage on the top of a mountain, but – unbelievable as it may seem – in a bustling and sometimes "lively and festive” estate in the countryside of Massachusetts, USA. In the spring of 1918, Gib...
By Glen Kalem-Habib and Francesco Medici all rights reserved copyright 2022 © When Kahlil Gibran died on April 10, 1931, he had been living for almost twenty years in a one-room studio apartment on the third story of 51 West Tenth Street, NYC. During the latter part of his life, he’d often refer to his studio as ‘The Hermitage’ (al-Sawma‘ah, in Arabic), perhaps wanting to invoke feelings of solitude and refuge away from the sprawling city of New York. Another reason might have been to arouse thoughts and memories of his birthplace in Bisharri, Mt Lebanon, a place he longed to go bac...
Hilda, the Woman Who Fell in Love with Kahlil Gibran and Mikhail Naimy by Francesco Medici One of Gibran’s pencil drawings that was relatively unknown was recently brought to my attention: a portrait of a woman signed and inscribed by the author: “For Anna Hilda from her friend Kahlil Gibran – 1928”. During his life, Gibran carried out hundreds of portraits and “heads”, both of famous people and of common men and women. And it was not rare that friends and acquaintances asked him for portraits of themselves or their relatives. Mainly for this reason, after almost a century after Gibran’s dea...
'Kahlil Gibran Collective'-founder, filmmaker and researcher Glen Kalem is joining the Levant News “Work is love made visible” is one of Glen Kalem’s favorite quotes from Kahlil Gibran’s iconic work, The Prophet. The Lebanese-Australian is an award-winning documentary film producer and research historian of the late poet and artist Kahlil Gibran. His research into the creation of Kahlil Gibran and much more is now available on this platform.By
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, translator of Kahlil Gibran and contributor to the Kahlil Gibran Collective. Arlon, Belgium, July 29, 2022. "The Eye of the Prophet" by American country music singer-songwriter Johnny Cash John R. Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than ninety million records worldwide. His genre-spanning music embraced country, rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk, and gospel sounds. This crossover appeal earned him the rare honour of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame. His music career was dramatized in the 2005 biopic Walk...
AL-MAWAKIB, The Processions - Lost in Translation. by Nicholas Martin[1] On the dust cover of many of Alfred Knopf’s publications of Gibran’s work, we find a quote of Claude Bragdon, saying of Gibran that: "His power came from some great reservoir of spiritual life else it could not have been so universal and potent, but the majesty of the language with which he clothed it were all his own." This, I believe, is unquestionably true. However, the language being “all his own” was not necessarily true when his words were translated, as of course they have had to be so that his works could be more widely shared.
Mikhail Naimy: When Gibran Found "a New Michelangelo" An Excerpt from His Autobiography Introduced and Annotated by Francesco Medici Kahlil Gibran was not the only writer of New York's "Little Syria" who devoted himself to figurative arts. Although amateurish, Ameen Rihani (1876-1940) made several drawings, sketches and paintings (all of which are held at the Ameen Rihani Museum, in his native Freike, Lebanon), and he published some of them in his travel books. For a short while, Mikhail Naimy (1889-1988) also took on the art of pencil and brush, with incurious conviction. In the second volume of his autobiography Seventy: Story of a Lifetime (Sab‘un: Hikayat ‘umr, Beirut, 1959-1960), the "Hermit of al-Shakhroob"[1] Naimy, notes a time when he submitted his "artworks" for ...
by Philippe Maryssael, retired translator and terminologist, translator of Kahlil Gibran and contributor to the Kahlil Gibran Collective. Arlon, Belgium, May 21, 2022. Illustrator Pete Katz adapting The Prophet as a graphic novel Khalil Gibran’s all-time favourite The Prophet (link 1 & link 2) got a fresh treatment by illustrator Pete Katz as a graphic novel adaptation.
