And she hasn’t been doing it through talk-at-you lectures or one-sided conversations. She’s been doing it through movement, dance, and exposing Winona to other Arab-Americans artists who can bring their own insight to the table in an artistic way.

“Za’atar,” part of the The Cedar Tree Project, hosted by the Page Series and organized by Mansur, will feature a performance from Mansur and two other Arab-American female artists who will perform individually and together on stage to bring a fresh look at how they interact with the world and their own identity.

The performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Valencia Arts Center.

But the performance is just one piece of the “Za’atar” program. Before the show, at 7 p.m. Friday, a Winona State dance professor will join the group for a pre-show talk. After the show, there will be a discussion moderated by Winona State professor Mary Jo Klinker.

There will also be an artist talk at 12:10 p.m. Thursday at the Figliulo Recital Hall at Saint Mary’s. On Wednesday night, the artists had a panel discussion at Winona State.

The two other artists to join Mansur are Leila Awadallah, a Palestinian-American from Minneapolis who will perform a piece that explores the tension between the urgency to connect with Palestine and the patience it takes to make connections; and Leyya Mona Tawil, a Syrian-Palestinian-American from Oakland, Calif., who will perform a piece that follows Tawil as she searches to understand what she can and can’t control in a interpretation related to political resistance.

Mansur plans to perform a piece based on a snapshot of her first trip to Lebanon and her continued meditation of her heritage and the experience of having a complex, fluid cultural identity.

Mansur said the three women as artists have different ways of portraying their artwork and expression, but the goal for them is still the same. One part of that goal is to explore their Arab-American identity internally. The other is to externally make a difference with it.

“How we’ve used it as a way to be activist,” Mansur said. “To help use it as a counterpoint to the mainstream news media and information, as well as misinformation … and some stereotypes that aren’t accurate or outdated.”

Or, in other words, to give people more information, Mansur said, so it’s easier for someone to step away from stereotypical thoughts. And to do that in a fun way.

“Just the beauty of getting to know a people and a culture through art,” Mansur said.

It’s a different way to transmit knowledge, Mansur said, and she hopes it opens Winonans up to the human experience of being Arab-American.

“I was just so thrilled for the three of us to be together,” Mansur said. “For our community it is just tremendous for us to have this cross section here.”