Successful Painting Exhibition to Commemorate the Lebanese Aboard the Titanic.
The RMS Titanic is the most remembered non-war disaster of the twentieth century. The scope of the disaster was tragic in terms of lost lives. Men, women, and children from a diverse group of nationalities perished on that ill-fated day in April 1912. The ship’s engineering, construction, passengers, and sinking continues to draw interest among international scholars and the public. One hundred and twenty-five Lebanese were among the various nationalities aboard the Titanic. They were emigrants who were either returning from a trip home or voyaging to America for the first time. Those who perished took their stories with them, and those who survived recorded their experiences. Much about the Lebanese aboard the Titanic remains unknown, however, especially the full list of names and places of birth.
To commemorate these Lebanese, an International Lebanese Titanic Committee (ILTC) was established in 2012 to
a) collect as much information as possible on them and their descendants;
b) correct their names without the Anglicization or phonetic approximation that shrouded their true identity for a century;
c) ascertain their “Lebaneseness.”
The May 2016 painting exhibition at the Lebanese Diaspora Energy 2016 aims at paying tribute to the brave Lebanese whose courage, hardship, resilience, and determination continue to echo in the current migration from Lebanon.
Dr. Nick Kahwaji of British Columbia Council, Canada, and Dr. Guita Hourani of Lebanon (Director of the Lebanese Emigration research center-NDU), and Artist Bernard Renno (Owner of Vestiges D’orient-Lebanon) are behind this exhibition,
which includes paintings by:
Bernard Renno, Hussein Joumaa, Hayat Haddad, Rosy Krikorian Hankach, Nathalie Jbeily, Rima Kibbe, Jean Zammar, Ghazi Riman, Ghinwa Radwan, Marie Khoury, Lucie Torkomian, Rita Daccache, Mountaha Chouity Saikali, Adlette Tarraf, Lolita Haroun Abou Samah, Malak Matta, Simone Boulos, Mary Haddad, Sylvie Alam, Joseph Ghanem, Akram Bouassi, Lea Waked, Nicolas Skaf, Colette Haddad, Nabil Radwan, Pascale Tarraf, and Joumana Bou Mattar, Abd Alrahman Almouhamad.
The ILTC is grateful to all those who have contributed to the realization of this event.
