Category Archives: Blog

Several Sufis were drinking from these jugs of water, when I stepped inside of this Sufi lodge in Sudan…

What is praised is one, so the praise is one too,
many jugs being poured into a huge basin.
All religions, all this singing, one song…

— Rumi

Come into my house, beloved—a short while!…
That the light of love will shine from Konya
To Samarkand and Bukhara.

— Rumi

Construction of a new amphitheatre in the Silk Road city of Samarkand has damaged to two 17th century madrassas in Registan Square. A nearby minaret was also damaged, and will require restoration work as well.

When my family and friends in Mali picked me up in the middle of the night at the airport in Bamako, they brought along a kora to serenade me to sleep on the way back to the house. A 21-string instrument made from a calabash gourd, the kora (like the ney) is notoriously difficult to learn–which is why I stuck to studying the djembe instead…

In the recording above, Sengalese musician Youssou N’Dour performs music from his Grammy Award-winning album Egypt–which was dedicated to the Sufi “saints” of West Africa…

Fathy Salama, Egyptian Grammy Award-winner
Alwan for the Arts
Saturday, May 3rd
8:00 pm

The Arab World’s Only Grammy and BBC Awards Winner, Fathy Salama, at Alwan! Producer, composer, arranger and pianist Fathy Salama has influenced the World Music scene immeasurably. His music reflects his experience of the Middle East and Europe, as he works tirelessly on bridging the gap between traditional and modern music from the Orient.

“There is nothing more interesting than forging new styles, and nothing more exciting.”

— Fathy Salama

During our lunch breaks in Sudan, one of my Sudanese co-workers worked on this addition to his house…

While a number of media outlets in America have been sounding the alarm that “Marx is Back,” in many places around the world he never left. Today in Beirut, the Communist Party held a Labor Day rally to protest proposed tax increases being considered by a parliamentary committee. Though the Communist Party in Lebanon is not as strong as it once was, it remains visible and active in organizing events like today’s march, and weighing in on the crisis in Syria. In fact, the 14th Meeting of International Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) was held in Beirut in 2012 to “strengthen the struggles against escalating imperialist aggressiveness” and to fight for “peoples’ socio-economic-democratic rights and aspirations.”

While some have argued that the Communist Party in Lebanon has been suffering from a crisis of ideology and political vision, others contend that Lebanese communists have been divided along sectarian lines. Regardless, communist imagery in Beirut–from kitschy Communist pubs to Che Guevara t-shirts–is living on in the consumerist realm. In fact, a significant number of my students self-identify as Communists–though some of the politics behind this label are too complex to explain in a blog post.

Though I first became interested in the history of communism in the Middle East while studying the subject with Rashid Khalidi at Columbia University, I’ve learned more specifically about the history of communism in Lebanon since moving to Beirut. It’s a fascinating topic, and there’s still so much more I hope to learn while I’m here…

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers such places regardless of distance or time. I do not let one single phantom disappear with the cloud, and it is my everlasting remembrance of the past that causes my sorrow sometimes. But if I had to choose between joy and sorrow, I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the whole world…

— Khalil Gibran

TAN DUN’S THE MAP
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
Monday, May 12th
7:00 pm

Chinese music, chilling compositions for a Western orchestra, and stunning visual footage of rural China, give American audiences a window into a world oceans away. The NYU Symphony Orchestra will perform Tan Dun’s masterpiece, The Map in a one-night only concert performance with special guests – Grammy-nominated conductor Andrew Cyr and leading classical cellist Wendy Sutter. The field video recordings used in The Map capture passionate antiphonal singing, intriguing tongue singing, emphatic percussive dance and other images of ethnic musical life. The interaction of audio-video and live music connected generations and cultures across years and over continents. The evening will also feature Tan Dun’s Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa featuring pipa virtuoso Zhou Yi.