Dancing into the Light

An Arab American Girlhood in the Middle East

Kathryn Abdul-Baki

• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781647425388
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

Set against the backdrop of the early American presence in Iran under the Shah, and the burgeoning years of Kuwait’s early oil boom, Dancing into the Light is Kathryn Abdul-Baki’s memoir of growing up within both the expatriate Western communities and the larger Middle Eastern society of Kuwait and Jerusalem. Hers is a story of belonging to two vastly different cultures and finding her place within both, and the search to find the inherent harmony in worlds at odds with each other. She is already caught in both the joys of and the struggle to be both Arab and American, yet not fully either, when her young life of promise is disrupted by tragedy. But instead of derailing her life, her mother’s death opens the door to deeper love and support from other places within Kathryn’s family.

Dancing into the Light is a story of love, loss, and renewal, and of overcoming devastating early trauma through music, dancing, and the love and devotion of strong American and Arab women.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Prologue
• One. Young Love
• Two. Iran, 1956
• Three. In the East
• Four. Zena
• Five. Mommy
• Six. Patriarch
• Seven. My Palestinian Family
• Eight. The Families Meet
• Nine. Kuwait, 1958
• Ten. Shuaiba
• Eleven. My World Expands
• Twelve. Sabha and Captain
• Thirteen. Dr. Midhat
• Fourteen. Baby Boy
• Fifteen. The Enigma of Religion
• Sixteen. The Fall
• Seventeen. Uncle Jimmy
• Eighteen. Western Science, Eastern Instinct
• Nineteen. Recovery
• Twenty. Safia
• Twenty-One. My Mother Departs
• Twenty-Two. Spin the Bottle
• Twenty-Three. Ramallah
• Twenty-Four. Om Hassan
• Twenty-Five. The Last Summer
• Twenty-Six. The Beatles and Dottie
• Twenty-Seven. I Turned and Left
• Twenty-Eight. Easter Basket
• Twenty-Nine. The Longest Night
• Thirty. Tell Them Not to Forget Me
• Thirty-One. Family Refuge
• Thirty-Two. Hani’s Wedding
• Thirty-Three. Portentous Summer
• Thirty-Four. Flying Dutchman
• Thirty-Five. Be a Writer
• Thirty-Six. Boarding School
• Thirty-Seven. Planning for Europe
• Thirty-Eight. A Surprise Meeting
• Thirty-Nine. My Grandmother’s Gift
• Forty. The Letter
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Selected Titles from She Writes Press