Join us for an intimate dinner in honor of The Stolen Dove, an artist project by Jon Rubin about Arab-American and Palestinian poet, teacher and civil-rights leader Alex Odeh. At Clockshop we are partnering with artist Jon Rubin and Grand Central Arts Center in Santa Ana to have Alex’s story circulate among leaders in Los Angeles. Food will be provided by Mid East Eats.

Alex Odeh was assassinated in Santa Ana in 1985, and the sculpture in front of the Santa Ana Public Library created by Khalil Bendib remains the only public monument of an Arab American in the U.S. In 2020 the sculpture’s dove of peace, held in Odeh’s outstretched hand, was stolen, later recovered by police, and eventually reattached to the monument. This act of vandalism is one of many that the sculpture has endured over the last 30 years. 

This year, working with the city, Alex’s family and Bendib’s permission, the dove was removed once more, this time with intention and care, so it can circulate as a messenger carrying forward the story of Odeh’s life and work and the justice still yet to be delivered in his case. The Stolen Dove aims to gather groups of people together and tell Alex’s story so it can be carried forward by more messengers.

ABOUT OUR COLLABORATORS
Mid East Eats is a Palestinian-American micro-restaurant and the first legally permitted home kitchen restaurant in Watts, Los Angeles. Founded by chef Sumer Durkee and her husband Andrew, it offers homestyle Palestinian cuisine fused with iconic Los Angeles flavors. Mid East Eats cooks to survive, remember, and resist, serving ancestral foods like falafel, hummus, fatayer, and manoushe.