Dept. of "Ann Arbor Events I Can't Wait to Attend"

(At left, photo of Anton Shammas's father's Palestinian passport)

A Passport for an Internal Diaspora

Anton Shammas: After many deliberations, I want to do a very personal piece on my father's Palestinian passport, issued in 1932. He used it primarily in order to court my mother in Beirut, Lebanon, in the late 1930s. There's something so tragic about it--the document that was supposed to establish his identity and take him places became obsolete 16 years later. Come 1948 he needed a special permit, from the Israeli military authorities, in order to leave his village in northern Palestine and move around in his own homeland.

Date: October 31, 2006, noon-1:30 p.m.

Cost: Free

Location: Rackham Building, Osterman Common Room 1022