Book Discussion: “Beirut on the Bayou: Alfred Nicola, Louisiana, and the Making of Modern Lebanon”

LAU NY Headquarters & Academic Center, 211 East 46th Street, New York

LAU’s New York Academic Center is organizing a book discussion evening where Linda K. Jacobs will sit down with author Raif Shwayri to discuss his new book, “Beirut on the Bayou: Alfred Nicola, Louisiana, and the Making of Modern Lebanon,”  which weaves a people’s history of Lebanon with the personal storytelling of a family saga. The book reflects the experiences of those Lebanese who walked the path of immigration to the United States, as well as those who stayed behind, or returned to help forge a nation. 

Raif Shwayri is a graduate of King’s College London and the University of Wales, a recipient of the John W. Ryan Fellowship for International Education awarded by the State University of New York, and has served as the CEO of Al-Kafaàt Foundation and a trustee of Al Kafaat University in Lebanon.

Linda K. Jacobs is a New York-based scholar and author of “Strangers in the West: The Syrian Colony of New York City”, 1880 – 1900.  All four of her grandparents were members of the Syrian colony. Jacobs also founded KalimahPress and the Violet Jabara Charitable Trust.