SWANA: Southwest Asian and North African Heritage

Southwest Asian North African (SWANA) Heritage

SWANA honors the diverse cultures, traditions and histories of Southwest Asian and North African heritage. Enjoy a diverse array of free workshops, performances, author talks, book recommendations and more for all ages.

About SWANA

In recent years, the Library has celebrated Middle Eastern Heritage. In order to recognize more of our residents and the region, we have renamed our celebration SWANA. Many universities are adopting this language for use with their Middle East studies programs. SWANA is a way to describe the Southwest Asian and North African region in a geographical, non-political, non-religious and non-Eurocentric way.

With SWANA, we hope that our residents from this region recognize that San Francisco welcomes and celebrates them. We welcome all to learn something new, have their curiosity stoked and enjoy our varied programs.