Weam Namou

Born in Baghdad to an ancient lineage called the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians who still speak Aramaic), Weam Namou immigrated with her family to the United States at age ten. She is the Executive Director of the Chaldean Cultural Center, which houses the first and only Chaldean Museum in the world. She’s an Eric Hoffer award-winning author of 15 books, a two-time international award-winning filmmaker, journalist, poet, and an Ambassador for the Authors Guild of America [Detroit Chapter], the nation’s oldest and largest writing organization. Her script Pomegranate was chosen as a quarter finalist by Francis Coppola’s Zoetrope and was turned into a feature film. It's currently touring film festivals. Namou hosts a half-hour weekly TV show, and she’s the founder of Unique Voices in Films, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. A keynote speaker, her essays, articles, and poetry have been published by national and international publications. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with her about what it is like to be an immigrant women in them United States and what we can do as a community to encourage individuality, creativity and pursuing one's passion regardless of the where they were born.