New York City’s First Muslim Arts Festival
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Craig Adams and the Voices of New Orleans
Since childhood, Craig Adams has been a central figure in the black churches of New Orleans and the US gospel tradition more broadly. In the footsteps of his relative Fats Domino, Adams is today considered one of the most talented pianists and organists in Louisiana who is also an established musical director and choir master.
Said Guissi's Aissawa Ensemble is from the holy city of Fes, Morocco. Considered among Morocco's most famous and accomplished groups to emerge from the centuries-old Aissawa tariqa,or Sufi organization, the group uses trumpets and pipes to pierce through a barrage of polyphonic drumming, creating a trance-inducing wall of sound.
The vocal ensemble Al Taybah revolves around soloist Junayd Bourret (vocals and daff), supported by Ismaïl Bourret (solo and choir), Omar Jouineau (choir), Larbi Benmelouka (chorus) Zachariyya Thibon (chorus) and Zayd Bertrand (daff). S. Muhammad Said directs the group.
Born in Kuwait in 1972, Sulayman Al-Bassam graduated from Edinburgh University and went on to found Zaoum Theatre in London in 1996. Sabab Theatre is the Arabic arm, established in Kuwait in 2002. Led by Al-Bassam and working alongside mixed groups of Arab and Western performers, the company's work challenges, questions and celebrates the complex relationship between the Arab world and the West.
Born in 1971 in Tunis, Tunisia, Raja Amari trained as a dancer at the Conservatoire de Tunis and received a degree in Romance languages with focus on art history from the University of Tunis.
Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a fellow at the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy and Middle East Analyst for CBS News. He is also a featured blogger for Anderson Cooper 360.
Nouri Bouzid was born in 1945 in Sfax, the second largest city in Tunisia. He studied
cinema at the Institut National Superieur des Arts du Spectacle (INSAS) in Brussels
Born in Egypt’s Alexandria in 1926, Youssef Chahine was educated at private schools, including the elite, English-language Victoria College, the city’s pre-eminent high school. He was fascinated by theater and the performing arts at an early age and, still in his teens, Chahine convinced his parents to let him travel to Hollywood to study acting.
Born Nurkurniati Aisyah Dewi in 1970, Nia started out as an apprentice reporter at a private Indonesian television station and began her career making video clips and commercials. A graduate of Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, Nia also took a course on film production at New York University.
Jerrilynn Dodds is Professor of Architecture and Theory at the School of Architecture of The City College of New York at CUNY. Her work centers primarily on issues of artistic interchange and identity, and the problems surrounding architecture and minorities in pluralistic societies.
Faiz Ali Faiz and His Ensemble
Faiz Ali Faiz is a world renowned master of qawwali music, a distinctly Pakistani Sufi praise song form. During qawwali performances, listeners and artists alike can be transported to a state of spiritual ecstasy associated with Sufism.
Mahmood Farooqui studied history In India and at the university of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Over the last four years he has worked to revive Dastangoi, the lost art of storytelling in Urdu. He has been helped and guided by S. R. Faruqi, Urdu's pre-eminent critic and writer. Farooqui also contributes opinion pieces to India's leading newspapers and magazines.
Ismael Ferroukhi was born in Kenitra, Morocco. After directing his first short film, L'Exposé, which premiered at Cannes in 1993, Ferroukhi co-wrote the script for Cédric Kahn's feature film Trop de Bonheur (1994).
Born and raised in Morocco, Brahim Fribgane was steeped in the sounds of North African, Gnawa, Berber, Arabic and Andulusian musical traditions from an early age. By age 16, Fribgane was playing guitar at small shows in Casablanca.
Leon Geller grew up in New Jersey before moving to Israel where he completed his military service. He went on to study film and to work for Israeli television stations, where he produced documentaries including Heavy Twenty (2004) and The Tel-Aviv University during The Lebanon War (2006). Geller further directed music videos and commercials before making his first fiction short, Roads (2006).
Born in New York City, Edward Grazda studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and has shot extensively throughout Latin America and Asia.
Danish Husain has performed lead roles in plays by many of the best names in Indian theatre today, including Habib Tanvir, Rajinder Nath, M.K. Raina, Barry John, M.S. Sathyu, Sabina Mehta Jaitly and Sohaila Kapur.
Kamilya Jubran is a singer and musician, born in Israel to Palestinian parents. Elias Jubran, Kamilya's father, an instrument maker and music teacher, provided her first exposure to classical Arab music.
Born in Istanbul in 1963, Ozer Kiziltan has directed a number of television series and mini-series in his native Turkey, including 2005’s Yagmur Zamani, 2004’s Mujgan Bey, 2003’s Kursun Yarasi and 2002’s Gulbeyaz.
Sardono Kusumo, described by the New York Times as Indonesia’s “most famous but also most rebellious choreographer and dancer”, was born in Solo on the island of Java in 1945. He trained in the alusan (refined) style of court dance yet cites his initiation into dance as having occurred via pencak silat, an Indonesian martial art.
Adam Matta is a beatboxer and vocal performance artist from New York City. His style fuses elements of hip-hop, rock electronic, jazz, contemporary and Middle Eastern influences.
T.C. (Teri) McLuhan is a filmmaker and author based in New York. Her films include The Shadow Catcher and The Third Walker. She has written a number of books on sacred space and global culture, including Touch the Earth, Dream Tracks, The Way of the Earth, and Cathedrals of the Spirit. Ms.
Born in Tehran in 1939, Dariush Mehrjui is regarded as an icon of Iranian New Wave cinema. In the early 1960s, Mehrjui moved to the United States and entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), graduating in 1964 with a degree in philosophy.
Adam Matta
Adam Matta is a beatboxer and vocal performance artist from New York City. His style fuses elements of hip-hop, rock electronic, jazz, contemporary and Middle Eastern influences.
Born in Dakar, Senegal in October 1959, Youssou N’Dour is acknowledged as one of Africa’s most important musicians. Together with his band the Super Étoile, N’Dour offers Senegalese roots music with what the Los Angeles Times has called “a joyous precision”.
Shirin Neshat is a leading contemporary artist. In her videos, films, and photographs she draws upon her Iranian heritage for inspiration and addresses the complexities of the contemporary Muslim world through visually arresting imagery. She has exhibited her works internationally at major museums, galleries, and performance halls.
Rahraw Omarzad, born in 1964 in Kabul, is the Director of the Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA). He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts Kabul University and Editor-in-Chief of Gahnama-e-Hunar Art Magazine.
Parissa was born in 1950 in Iran. She began her musical studies under the supervision of the renowned Persian radif (classical repertoire) teachers, Mahmoud Karimi.
Born in Tehran in 1954, Seifollah Samadian is an accomplished Iranian artist, photographer and cinematographer.
Naseeruddin Shah (sometimes spelled Nasiruddin) was born in India in 1950 and is widely recognized as India's and one of the world's finest actors today. He began his career in parallel cinema, India's New Wave cinema movement, and is now one of that movement's icons.
The Aissawa Ensemble
Said El Guissi's Aissawa Ensemble is rooted in the holy city of Fes, Morocco. Considered to be among Morocco's most famous and accomplished groups to emerge from the centuries-old Aissawa tariqa, or Sufi organization, the group uses trumpets and pipes to pierce through a barrage of polyphonic drumming, creating a trance-inducing wall of sound.
Rahraw Omarzad
Rahraw Omarzad, born in 1964 in Kabul, is the Director of the Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA). He is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts Kabul University and Editor-in-Chief of Gahnama-e-Hunar Art Magazine.
Mahmood Farooqui studied history in India and at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In the past four years he has worked to revive Dastangoi, the lost art of storytelling in Urdu. He has been helped and guided by S. R. Faruqi, Urdu's pre-eminent critic and writer. Mahmood also contributes opinion pieces to India's leading newspapers and magazines.
The Artists of Qawwali Gospel Creation
Craig Adams and the Voices of New Orleans
Since childhood, Craig Adams has been a central figure in the black churches of New Orleans and the American gospel tradition more broadly. In the footsteps of his relative Fats Domino, Adams is today considered one of the most talented pianists and organists in Louisiana who is also an established musical director and choir master.
The following artists will bring the artistry and the community of a traditional teahouse (chaikhana) to life on Wednesday, June 9th at the Asia Society.
The Creators of New York Masjid
Edward Grazda
Born in New York City, Edward Grazda studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and has shot extensively throughout Latin America and Asia. Grazda's photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The New York Public Library, all in New York City, as well as The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Directors of Heart of Jenin
Leon Geller
Leon Geller grew up in New Jersey before moving to Israel where he completed his military service. He went on to study film and to work for Israeli television stations, where he produced documentaries including Heavy Twenty (2004) and The Tel-Aviv University during The Lebanon War (2006).
Vocalist Marina Alam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh began training in the ancient classical music tradition shared by Bangladesh, India and Pakistan from the age of four. In Bangladesh she was under the tutelage of Ustad Phul Mohammed Khan and Shri Bari Majumdar after which, she continued at Dhaka Music College.
Iman Vaziri (1970) came to master the tar, or Persian lute, as a student of Iran’s great instrumental masters from 1980 to 1990. He developed his virtuosic technique by absorbing not only the outstanding traditional music styles from the complex Persian repertoire, but also through his studies in Germany of Western classical traditions.
German-born Marcus Vetter holds an academic background in economics and media theory and has always been drawn to film. Since 1994, Vetter has worked as an editor, producer and director for the television channel ARD/SWR in Baden-Baden and Stuttgart.
zerobridge is a New York-based indie alternative/rock band formed in 2001. The band draws on the Kashmiri roots of lead singer Mubashir Mohi-ud-Din and his brother and drummer, Mohsin. zerobridge is named after an actual bridge in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.
Born in Beirut in 1945 and raised in Aleppo, Syria, author, screenwriter and director, Samir Zikra has proven a prolific filmmaker.