BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:33606@arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20241005T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20241005T200000 DTSTAMP:20241002T004507Z URL:https://www.arabamerica.com/events/celebrating-the-life-of-dr-mohammed -baqir-alwan-post-mortem/ SUMMARY:Celebrating the life of Dr. Mohammed Baqir Alwan (Post Mortem) DESCRIPTION:Cambridge\, MA\n\n\n\nMohammed Baqir Hassan Alwan was born at h is home in Karrada\, Baghdad in 1930.  Baqir\, Baq\, Khalo\, Ustaz as we called him\, had with no birth certificate and chose his birthdate\, May 6 th\, many decades ago.  Baqir passed peacefully surrounded by family May 6th\, 2024.  This date that was random is now so significant.\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBaqir had a sweet childhood\, studying hard an d playing hard. His family home\, a classic sunbaked mud brick courtyard h ome was just a block or two off the Tigris.  He told stories of fashionin g life preservers out of palm fronds\, and swimming\, fishing\, and playin g hooky along the riverbanks.  Baqir also often helped with his brothers at their father’s shop and then in 1948 everything changed.\nBaqir was 1 8 \, a  star student and impassioned.  That year\, the year of the Nakb a\, protests broke out across Baghdad as a popular demand against the Iraq i government treaty with the British.  Baqir was picked up at a demonstra tion and sentenced to years in prison and set on a path that would last hi s lifetime.  In the end\, Baqir spent two years in a stark prison with ga llows that were used often.  There\, he learned to organize and teach. He and his comrades in prison created a kitchen and a school.  Baqir taught reading\, writing\, history\, and math.  He also taught and learned abou t communism\, working across class to share ideas\, food packages\, and cr eate a collective kitchen that fed everyone.\nUpon release\, Baqir fled hi s beloved Iraq and studied in Manchester England.  Soon after\, he lost h is Iraqi scholarship due to his activism and was removed from the state ro ster of Iraq\, becoming stateless.  Baqir earned multiple degrees in engi neering and comparative literature\, eventually studying in the United Sta tes.  Baqir married in the U.S. and had two children\, Dunya and Rami.  Baqir continued his academic pursuits\, earning a PhD in Arabic Literature and conducting research and teaching at Indiana University\, American Uni versity in Cairo\, Georgetown University\, Harvard University and Tufts Un iversity.\nBaqir was interested in many areas of study including the works of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq\, an Ottoman scholar\, writer and journalist w ho grew up in what is now present-day Lebanon\, the Jin and how pantheism evolved towards monotheism in the Arab world and the evolution of languag e itself.\nEarly in his career and soon after arriving in the United State s\, Baqir saw how colloquial English was being used in American literature and poetry of the day.  This was not something he\, an expert in Fusha\, classical Arabic\, had experienced in the Arab world.  When Baqir first read Langston Hughes\, he was so moved by the language\, ideas\, and artis try in his work that he read every one of his books.  Soon after\, he rea ched out to Mr. Hughes and received the author’s permission to publish a collection of his poems translated into Arabic.  In 1972\, in partnershi p with the Iraqi government\, the collection was first published\; that co llection was re-issued only a few years ago\, and a third bilingual re-pub lication is in the planning stages.\nBaqir’s love of Arabic language\, c ulture\, and community was boundless.  His home institution was Tufts Uni versity where he taught for decades and where he was a professor emeritus.   As a colleague wrote recently\, “Put briefly\, Professor Alwan estab lished the Arabic program at Tufts and was a beloved teacher to students a nd a cherished colleague to many faculty during the 25 years he was at Tuf ts. Aside from his role as a professor\, he was also an antiquarian and bi bliophile\, and amassed a world-class collection of Arabic books\, photogr aphs\, and related materials.”  Baqir’s 19th Century Middle Eastern p hotography collection features all facets of daily life\, architecture\, t echnology\, and so on.  Selected photographs are published under the titl e Eyes Like Lamps.  Baqir started a treasured Arabic book group decades a go to create space for people to share meals and deeply read Arabic litera ture together.\nBaqir found great joy in his extended family\, his Iraqi a nd Arab communities\, his students\, a wide network of friends and colleag ues\, and in the world itself.  He often had a glint in his eye and was a lways poised to explore ideas.  Though a person who’d experienced some of the ugliness the world has to offer\, he was still sanguine and quick t o smile.  Baqir continued to publish short books and engage community wit h ideas\, friendship and scholarly works until the day before his passing.   On May 5th\, Baqir cooked the food of his homeland and entertained a sm all group in his home.  He even had a few more writing projects up his sl eeve when he passed on his 94th birthday!\n\n\n Saturday\, October 5\, 20 24\n 6:00 PM  8:00 PM EDT\n\n\n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2 024/10/CC61928F-3D6F-4CE6-AA88-F17C6DA96491.jpeg LOCATION:MIT (Room 4-237)\, 77 Massachusetts Avenue\, Cambridge \, MA\, 021 39\, United States GEO:42.359265;-71.093167 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=77 Massachusetts Avenue\, C ambridge \, MA\, 02139\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=MIT (Roo m 4-237):geo:42.359265,-71.093167 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20240310T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR