Celebrating Rumi's Birthday

Dr. Carl Ernst, The Reza Antoszewska and Arsalaan Fey Ensemble, Qalbi, and Mally Rafizadeh

An evening of lecture, music, recitation, and a performance of the Sema (the spiritual concert and turning ceremony). A celebration of the birth of Rumi featuring traditional Persian and Turkish music and recitation.

Dr. Carl Ernst, Professor and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill, will open by placing the life and work of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi in historical and spiritual context. Dr. Carl Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies who has written extensively on Islamic mysticism, particularly in Iran and South Asia. His most recent book is The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, 1997.


Reza Antoszewska and Arsalaan Fey have been playing and singing music as a spiritual practice for many years. The music for Wednesday evening will include the elements of the traditional Mevlevi Sema: The Na'ti, and Hicaz makam (mode) peshrev and ayin, with voice, ney (flute) and bandir (frame drum).

Qalbi (formerly Qahiri Qalbi) was born to a Sufi family. Her father, Fatah Engel, was a dervish of Hazrat Inayat Khan. She was initiated as a Charaga (Teacher) in the Sufi Order of the West at age sixteen. She has recorded a number of audio cassettes of her readings of Rumi, including The Garden of the Soul.

Mally Rafizadeh, a student of Mohammed Reza Lotfi, is an inspired and admired reciter of Rumi's poetry.

Wednesday, September 30
9:00 p.m. Carrboro ArtsCenter, $5.00 (tickets at the door)

The Song of the Nightingale: Readings from Rumi

Qalbi and Mally Rafizadeh

American Rumi performer Qalbi and Mally Rafizadeh from the local Persian community in an evening of Rumi's poetry in the original Persian and in English with Persian and Turkish musical accompaniment. In this evening of poetry, we will hear recitations from Rumi's Mathnawi.

Thursday, October 1
8:00 p.m. Silk Road Tea House /456 West Franklin St. $10.00 includes tea and desserts (tickets at the door and seating limited)

Inside the Rose: An Evening of Rumi's Poetry, Stories, and Dance

Coleman Barks with Zuleikha, Mercan Dede, and Jonathan Kramer

Widely regarded as the premier English interpreter of Rumi, Coleman Barks has produced 14 volumes of Rumi's poetry including the bestselling The Essential Rumi, and most recently, The Illuminated Rumi. He was featured on Bill Moyers' PBS series The Language of Life in 1995, and his Rumi translations have been included in the prestigious Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. A student of Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Coleman Barks brings to Rumi's poetry his own mystical heart and his great love and command of contemporary English. Currently Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Georgia, he has taught poetry and creative writing for the past 34 years at various universities.

Zuleikha is an inspired performer who integrates techniques of East and West with humor and depth. She creates her own fabric with stories and movement and her dance-narrations encompass a variety of world lore. Zuleikha works through a mesmerizing flow of living traditions and the sparkle of the ancients. For several years, Zuleikha has worked with poet-translator Coleman Barks, along with world musicians to create a feast of poetry, music, and dance in the interpretation of the poetry of Rumi. They have performed across the United States and Canada, drawing audiences into a mood of celebration. Zuleikha has performed with musicians Glen Velez, Jai Uttal, David Darling, and Hamza El Din, among others. She recently completed the PBS television special Dances from Wild Gardens.

Cellist and Ethnomusicologist Jonathan Kramer holds advanced degrees from Duke and the Graduate School of the Union Institute, and has held senior Fulbright Fellowships in India and Korea. He has been a member of the San Francisco Opera and Ballet Orchestras and the North Carolina Symphony and has served since 1985 on the Music Faculty at North Carolina State University where he is currently Associate Director.

Friday, October 2
8:00 p.m. Concert; doors open at 7:30 p.m., $20.00
The Friday Center, Friday Center Drive, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Zikr of the Whirling Dervish: The Ceremony of Divine Remembrance

Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras and Musicians & Members of the Mevlevi Order of America with special guest Imam Bilal Hyde

In his ecstasy at Union with the Beloved, Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi began turning, or ³whirling² with the spinning beat of the Universe. This meditation of movement and prayer has been incorporated into the practice of Zikr, a Ceremony of Divine Remembrance. In the day's workshop and the evening Zikr participants will have a rare opportunity to observe members of the Mevlevi Order of America perform the whirling movements Mevlana taught and inspired, and will be able to participate in the Zikr service.

Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras, spiritual director of the Mevlevi Order of America, was born in Konya, Turkey. His father and Murshid, Hyati Suleyman Dede, included Jelaluddin in the sacred ceremonies of the Mevlevi dervishes from infancy. He was sent to the United States in 1978. He has developed new expressions of the traditional mystic teachings inspired by Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi.

Postneshin Loras will be accompanied by musicians and trained Turners (Semazen) featuring: Steve Flynn on keyboard and ney; Huzur Nawav Coughlin on ney, and Rashid Patch, on drums.

Saturday, October 3
Day: Turning and Dance Workshop
10:00 - 5:00, Location to be announced $45.00 includes full day workshop and a vegetarian dervish lunch catered by Silk Road Tea House
Evening: Zikr
8:00 - 11:30 Great Hall, Student Union, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $10.00 to observe (balcony) or participate (main floor)

Teaching Discourses: Dialogues of the Heart (Sohbet) in the Manner of Jelaluddin Rumi

by American Sufi Teacher Shahabuddin Less and Turkish Sufi Teacher Sherif Baba
with Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras, Spiritual Director of the Mevlevi Order of America Kothreneda Less, Doctor of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine and Zuleikha

Spiritual Discourse (Sohbet) is a divine food that delights the ears, mind, and soul. Today, Sufi teachers worldwide carry forward Rumi's way, using questions, stories, and discourse to challenge listeners to realize the gift of our humanity and become true human beings. In this gathering, Sufi Teachers Sherif Baba and Shahabuddin Less join with guests to share moments of wonder, humor, and deep reflection interweaving teaching styles from East and West, offered from the same loving heart.

Sherif Baba (el-Hajj el Fakir er-Rifa'i M. Sherif Catalkaya) is a recognized Sufi teacher of the Turkish Rifa'i Marufi lineage who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and teaches throughout the United States. In addition to a formal education in religious academies (medrese), Baba received his education in Sufism in the Rifa'i-Marufi, Halveti, Kadiri, Bektashi, and Melami tarikats. He has lectured on spirituality and healing at universities and conferences throughout the United States.

Shahabuddin Less has been a teacher for over twenty-five years in the Sufi Order of the West, a Chishti order founded by Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan in 1910. He is also a direct student of Murshid Samuel Lewis, founder of the Dances of Universal Peace. He has been traveling, teaching, and leading spiritual pilgrimages to sacred sites around the world for over twenty years.

 

Sunday, October 4

11:00-3:00, Location to be announced (Donation suggested)