EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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SALAH D. HASSAN

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Salah D. Hassan was born and raised in London, Ontario. He graduated from H.B. Beal Secondary School located in London’s east end, just two blocks from the Embassy Hotel. From 1977 until 1984, he worked in several restaurants in London, including the Café du Midi, the Black Swan Bakery, and the Auberge de Petit Prince.

In 1981, Salah traveled with Ron Benner to Mexico and spent several months in the village of Ajijic, the hometown of a family friend Jesus Higuera. A few years later, in the summer of 1984, he worked as a cook and server at El Sombrero, a restaurant that Jesus had established in the Embassy Cultural House.
 
Salah lived in Quebec City from Sept 1984 until June 1985. He studied French at Universite Laval and was affiliated with the artist-run centre, La Chambre Blanche Gallery. In 1985, he moved to Montreal and had many close friendships in the arts community, established through connections to Oboro art centre. He received an MA in Arabic literature from McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies in 1988. From 1988 to 1992, during the years of the first Palestinian Intifada, he was the program director for Medical Aid for Palestine in Montreal and travelled extensively in the Middle East. In Fall 1992, he relocated to Austin, Texas to do his doctoral studies at the University of Texas under the direction of Barbara Harlow (1948-2017), completing his degree in 1998.
 
He has contributed to several art projects initiated by Canadian artists, including Jamelie Hassan’sTrespassers and Captives (2000) and Orientalism and Ephemera (2010) and Isabelle Bernier’s collective online art project Rashid and Rosetta (launched at Oboro in 2009). He has long been involved in anti-war, anti-racist, and anti-colonial activism, and has worked with numerous groups organizing Palestine solidarity activities, opposing the Iraq war, and challenging anti-immigrant racism.
 
He is currently an associate professor in the Department of English and  Director of Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program at Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan, USA. His recent publications include “Radical Revisions: Barbara Harlow and Criticism Beyond Partition” (Race & Class January-March 2019), “Mapping anti-Muslim Politics in the US” in Muslims and Contemporary US Politics (2019), and  “Passing Away: Despair, Eulogies, and Millennial Palestine” in The Edinburgh Companion to the Postcolonial Middle East (2020).

In 2023, Salah received the Excellence in Diversity Award from Michigan State University.

Banner image: view of corniche from Hamra, Beirut, 2013.
​Photo credit: Salah D. Hassan

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EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
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Our Partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

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  • Home
  • Recent News
  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About