Event Videos

Videos of events organized by the African & Middle Eastern Division are freely available online. The full collection of the AMED's event videos include book talks, lectures, symposia, and signature event series such as Conversations with African Poets and Writers. Videos can be viewed with the section links or below sorted by title and date.

African Section event videos  |   Hebraic Section event videos    | Near East Section event videos

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    Film, Video
    Joel ben Simeon, the Washington Haggadah and the Ambivalent Feminine The Talmud tells us "because of the merit of righteous women, our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt." Thus women are often prominently featured in the illustrations of medieval haddagot -- illuminated texts for the Seder, the home service for Passover. The Library's magnificent Washington Haggadah, written and illuminated in 1478 by the well-known Jewish scribe and artist Joel ben Simeon, is no exception. The…
    • Contributor: Horowitz, Sharon - Epstein, Marc Michael
    • Date: 2024-03-28
  • Film, Video
    Swahili Resources at Library of Congress This video provides a dynamic overview and orientation to Swahili-language materials found at the Library of Congress, offered in Swahili by reference specialist Melanie Zeck. The video comes out of an ongoing collaboration that Zeck has pursued with CHAUKIDU (Global Association for the Promotion of Swahili) leadership and Swahili language scholars/learners that serves to engage Swahili speakers with the Library's collections and resources.
    • Contributor: Zeck, Melanie
    • Date: 2023-11-29
  • Film, Video
    Qohelet-Ecclesiastes: Searching for a Life Worth Living The event celebrated and shared the book, "Qohelet: Searching for a Life Worth Living," with illuminations and commentary by Debra Band and philosophical commentary by Menahem Fisch. The book provides an artistic and philosophical re-interpretation of the Book of Ecclesiastes.
    • Contributor: Fisch, Menahem - Band, Debra
    • Date: 2023-11-15
  • Film, Video
    Armenian Print Tradition in the Early Modern Period From 1512, when the first Armenian printed codex appeared in Venice, to the end of the early modern period in 1800, Armenian presses operated in 19 locations across the Armenian diaspora. Sebouh Aslanian explores why certain books were published at certain times, how books were sold across the diaspora, who read them, and how the printed word helped fashion a new collective identity for…
    • Contributor: Aslania, Sebouh
    • Date: 2023-11-08
  • Film, Video
    Chris Beckett & Alemu Tebeje UK-based poets and translators Chris Beckett and Alemu Tebeje (in conversation with Ethiopica area specialist Fentahun Tiruneh and African section head Edward Miner) discuss their recently published edited anthology, "Songs We Learn From Trees: An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry." The first anthology of Amharic poetry in English translation, "Songs" was shortlisted for the 2021 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.
    • Contributor: Miner, Edward - Tiruneh, Fentahun - Tebeje, Alemu - Beckett, Chris
    • Date: 2023-11-03
  • Film, Video
    Kebedech Takleab Poet, translator and artist Kebedech Tekleab joins the Library's Ethiopic specialist Fentahun Tiruneh for a conversation on her work. Tekleab's most recent poetry can be found in the anthologies "Songs We Learn from Trees: An Anthology of Ethiopian Amharic Poetry" and "Soul Spaces: Poems on Cities, Towns and Villages."
    • Contributor: Takleab, Kebedech - Tiruneh, Fentahun
    • Date: 2023-10-12
  • Film, Video
    The Life of a Medieval Armenian Manuscript: Transmission of Sacred Texts Across Space, Time & Communities Today the Library of Congress holds in its collection a medieval Armenian manuscript, originally copied in Jerusalem in 1321 A.D. at the Armenian monastery of Holy Archangels by a scribe named Nerses Abela. This is the oldest Armenian manuscript held at the Library. It was donated by Henry Foster from Clifton Springs, New York. This manuscript tells the fascinating story of the transmission of…
    • Contributor: Shahinian, Ani
    • Date: 2023-09-22
  • Film, Video
    Treasures of the Ethiopic Manuscript Collection Dawit Muluneh, a Howard University PhD candidate in African Studies, spent a month working at as a Lilly Scholar-in-Residence working on a comprehensive description of the Ethiopic Manuscript Collection. The Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora communities in the United States; the Ethiopic Studies research community.
    • Contributor: Muluneh, Dawit
    • Date: 2023-09-08
  • Film, Video
    Writers, Radicals and Rugelach: Yiddish Culture in America This illustrated lecture journeys into the world and flavors of East European Jewish culture, as it was recreated in America. Lauren Strauss, professor at American University, will illustrate the world and flavors of East European Jewish culture and how it was recreated in the United States.
    • Contributor: Horowitz, Sharon - Strauss, Lauren
    • Date: 2023-05-11
  • Film, Video
    The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19 Watch a special event featuring Jeremy Brown, author of "The Eleventh Plague: Jews and Pandemics from the Bible." In his book, Brown investigates the relation between Judaism and infectious diseases throughout the ages, from premodern and early-modern plagues, to rabbinic responses to smallpox and cholera, to the special vulnerabilities Jewish immigrants faced in the U.S. as result of prejudice, and to the curious practice…
    • Contributor: Horowitz, Sharon - Cuffia, Ashley - Brown, Jeremy
    • Date: 2023-03-29
  • Film, Video
    Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori, an African Prince Enslaved in the American South Watch the creators of "Prince Among Slaves" (Best Documentary American Black Film Festival, 2008) for a special Juneteenth screening and discussion.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    Secular Africa? Making Sense of the Interplay Between Secular Constitutions and Religious Citizens On July 19 and 20, 2022, the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) hosted a symposium, "Religious Practices, Transmission, and Literacies in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia." The symposium featured the presentations of seven scholars who conducted two-week research residencies in the AMED Reading Room between June 1 and July 15. The residencies and symposium are part of the Exploring Challenging Conversations…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    Repatriates, Recaptives and African Abolitionists: The Untold Story of Liberia's Founding in 1822 C. Patrick Burrowes, Ph. D. was born in Liberia and he is called "the people's professor" because of his willingness to share his deep knowledge of Liberian history freely with others. Before returning to Liberia in 2017, he was a tenured professor of communications and humanities at Penn State University. Recently, in August 2021, he uncovered a handwritten document missing since 1835, that sheds…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    A Conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Join us for an interview with award-winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the Conversations with African Poets and Writers Series. Through this series we have introduced the Library's rich resources on African studies to a broad but targeted audience, as well as a treasure trove of archives of interviews with leading thinkers and writers in this subject field.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    Damon Galgut, Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize Watch a conversation with South African novelist and playwright Damon Galgut in celebration of Africa Month. Galgut won the 2021 Booker Prize for his ninth novel "The Promise," a fictional account of a white South African family living on a farm outside Pretoria during the waning days of apartheid. Using humor to broach difficult subjects, the novel was praised by the Booker Prize judges…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    A Conversation with Peter Balakian The Vardanants Day Armenian Lecture series was created soon after Mrs. Dadian's bequest (1991) to the Library for the health and maintenance of the Armenian collections and is one of the longest running lecture series in the Library. For the 2022 iteration of the series, the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division proposes a poetry reading and discussion on erasure,…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    A Conversation with Abdulrazak Gurnah, Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2021 Join us for a conversation with Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tanzanian-born novelist and academic, and also the Nobel Prize winner in Literature 2021. Administered by the African Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), the Conversations with African Poets and Writers series presents interviews with current African diaspora writers committed to the literature of continental and diasporic Africa and readings from their written works.…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2022
  • Film, Video
    Navigating Society: Challenges and Female Agency in Africana Children's Literature Join the Library of Congress for a panel discussion that explores representations of female agency in new Africana children's literature, featuring authors Tricia Elam Walker (Nana Akua goes to School), Aya Khalil (The Arabic Quilt) and Ekiuwa Aire (Idia of the Benin Kingdom).
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    Conversation with Irenosen Iseghohi-Okojie Nigerian-born short story writer and novelist Irenosen Iseghohi-Okojie discusses her work as "weird experimental fiction" rooted in but pushing the boundaries of African diasporic literature. Her recently published short story "Grace Jones," winner of the 2020 AKO Caine Prize, follows the journey through grief of a young émigré from Martinique in London who loses her family in a house fire and finds psychic escape…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    New Technologies for Ancient Hebrew Texts New Technologies for Ancient Hebrew Texts 2021 Junior Fellow Shlomit Menashe increased the discoverability of 1,200 uncatalogued Hebrew prayer books by creating a detailed spreadsheet of information transformable into ILS records for the Library's online catalog. During the course of her work with prayer books from just about every corner of the world, Shlomit came across a Hebrew prayer book printed in 1823 in…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    African Section Poster Collection The African Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress holds a rich and vast collection of pamphlets and posters amassed over the last six decades from across Sub-Saharan Africa. The division's pamphlet collection, including ephemera such as non-published materials, documents, government reports, press clippings, calendars, postcards, and memorabilia from elections and various campaigns on the African continent, was…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    Accidental American: From Proud Ethiopian to "Naturalized US-ian" Yonnas Kefle wrote his autobiography as part of the huge Ethiopian history hitherto unknown and aspired to present it to the world. The outcome is a 630-page compendium beginning with his personal ethnological link with royalty, of his ethnic lineages, the beginning of the unity of Ethiopia continuing to the period of student rebellion in which he himself participated, and finally to the 1974…
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    The Spirit of Nowruz: Marking the Start of Spring Filmmaker Farzin Rezaeian introduces his film, "The Spirit of Nowruz: Marking the Start of Spring," and discusses his other projects. This film is followed by a live Q&A session with the filmmaker.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2021
  • Film, Video
    Ascending to Heaven: Ancient Churches and Monasteries of Ethiopia Esubalew Meaza discussed his book "Ascending to Heaven: Ancient Churches and Monasteries of Ethiopia," a resource to the study of the arts, art history and treasures of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Meaza used the Library's Marilyn Heldman Archives of Ethiopian Church Art and other Library Ethiopian Orthodox Church collections in his research.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2020
  • Film, Video
    Lesley Nneka Arimah Lesley Nneka Arimah, Nigerian author and 2019 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, spoke about her life and work.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Library of Congress
    • Date: 2020