Category Archives: Blog

If you’re in the New England area, my gamelan guru and gang will be performing in a concert in Boston on April 27th. If you’re in the neighborhood, it might be a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon…

The Boston Village Gamelan and Rinengga Sih Tentrem, the Tufts University Gamelan Ensemble, invite you to a concert of traditional Javanese music on Sunday, April 27, 3:00pm, in Distler Performance Hall, Tufts University, Somerville/Medford Campus. The performance will feature as guest artists I.M. Harjito, a renowned Javanese musician and composer currently on the faculty of Wesleyan University and Peni Candrarini, a well-regarded singer and composer currently on a performance tour sponsored by Cornell University. The ensembles are directed by Barry Drummond. Admission is free.

Today in Beirut, my students and I are surveying archaeological sites in Sudan–in preparation for our next field-trip…

My students and I began our field-trip this week-end by following in the footsteps of Ramses the Great–who marched across this mountain on his way to do battle against the Hittites in Syria…

Sometimes my pieces are based on real events that I’ve witnessed, the most being the song “It happened in Al-Amiriyya,” based on a 1991 incident that happened during the Gulf War: American soldiers entered a shelter in which Iraqi children were hiding, and 800 children were killed. I don’t remember exactly how I felt, but I found myself going to the site of the massacre the next day. I took my oud along and started to play, letting out my feelings. The song is not a political statement. I’ve never been a great believer in politics and I don’t like being referred to as an activist. The song is simply a record of the day I was playing in the middle of the burnt out backpacks, toys and clothes. It was the first Arabic song describing an actual event, and I tried to be as graphic as possible in the writing of the song so that the listeners would be as imaginative as they could be. In this case it wasn’t about melodies any longer: the song includes siren sounds (from the oud) among other atmospheric ideas, innovations that serve that purpose…

— Naseer Shamma

I just returned home from a wonderful concert by Naseer Shamma–a master oud player from Iraq. My Iraqi students had told me I would love his performance–and they were right. The moment he stepped on the stage, he was greeted by a standing ovation. His musical genius was on full display when he played a challenging piece using only one hand. Another song–meant to evoke Syria–brought back many cherished memories of my time in Damascus. After the last standing ovation of the night, I began my walk home to the accompaniment of a different sound–the call to prayer, echoing from the minaret of the mosque near my house…

Now that my students and I have finished reading Plotinus, St. Augustine, al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Maimonides, and St. Thomas Aquinas, we’re moving on to contemplating love in Dante’s Divine Comedy.

And as a pilgrim now refreshed with joy
surveys the temple of his vow, and wonders
how to describe it when he is back home,

so through the living light I let my eyes
go wondering among the ranks of the Blest,
now up, now down, now searching all around.

I found love-dedicated faces there,
adorned in borrowed light and by their smiles
and gestures graced with chastest dignity…

— Dante

Come in, come in, we are going to the sea. Come in, come in, speak no more. Be with me now. We are going to the sea. Come in, come in, for in me you shall forget you wanderings, sad or gay. Come in, come in. And you and I will forget all our ways when we reach the heart of our mother the sea…

— Khalil Gibran

The challenge to unite my career and revolutionary cultural work requires the same skills and qualities needed to build revolutionary organization: commitment, clarity, creativity, and competence.

— Fred Ho

Here is a trailer for a documentary celebrating the life and music of Fred Ho–the brilliant saxophonist and activist who died yesterday after a long war with cancer–a struggle which inspired some of his final works…

Art can fill us with love, with hope and with revolutionary vision…

— Fred Ho

Today I took my students on a field trip to view traces of the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Romans in Lebanon. Having spent my morning following in the footsteps of Ramses the Great and my afternoon volunteering at the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon/St. Jude in Beirut, I’m rather exhausted–but I’ll post some photos from our adventures after some much-needed rest…