Rumi: An 800th Birthday Celebration, with Coleman Barks and master musicians

RUMI
An 800th Birthday Party
with COLEMAN BARKS
& master musicians
Stephen Kent, Geoffrey Gordon, Sukhawat Ali Khan, and Kris Yenney
Introduced by Shams Kairys

A concert for wisdom, joy, tenderness, laughter, and the enlightened mingling of our souls

Benefit: KPFA (listener-supported) Radio, 94.1FM
Tickets: beginning January 1, 2008: $15 advance, $20 door, at independent bookstores or on-Line: brownpapertickets.com/event/25946
or 510.848-6767X609 Supported by Poetry Flash & Open Exchange.

JELALUDDIN RUMI, born in 1207 in medieval Persia (present day Afghanistan), was widely recognized while still young as a brilliant scholar and popular teacher. Meeting at 37 the wandering Sufi dervish Shams of Tabriz transformed Rumi into an astonishingly powerful artist, ecstatic poet, and spiritual force as profoundly meaningful now as he was eight centuries ago, when a flock of scribes gathered and walked with him, writing down his spoken words, the prose poems that remain so inspiring today.

COLEMAN BARKS is clearly responsible for much of Rumi’s current impact. An internationally renowned poet, translator and bestselling author of The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi, Rumi: The Book of Love, and The Drowned Book. He was prominently featured in Bill Moyers’s PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life and Fooling With Words. Barks taught English and poetry at the University of Georgia for thirty years, and now focuses on writing, readings, and performances. Deepak Chopra notes that “reading…Rumi by Coleman Barks is an ecstatic experience that will shift your awareness and give you true exaltation of your own spirit.” http://www.colemanbarks.com

STEPHEN KENT, didjeridu master and founder of the groups Trance Mission, Lights in a Fat City, Beasts of Paradise & Furious Pig, has made five solo CD’s and performed on many other imminent releases including Oil & Water and Living Labyrinths. His musical collaborations include artists as diverse as Tuvan throat-singers Chirgilchin, Korean Samulnori Drummers, frame drum wizard Glen Velez, Japanese Taiko luminary Leonard Eto, Markus James & the Wassonrai, flute legend Paul Horn, and Airto Moreira. Kent spent a day at Stanford University opening for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He performs to large and expanding audiences all over the world. http://www.stephenkent.net


GEOFFREY GORDON has performed on major motion picture soundtracks, on many popular recordings, and on the Broadway stage in Tony Award winning shows. He's composed and performed music for renowned dancers, poets, storytellers, shamans, and yogis. He's also recorded with R. Carlos Nakai & Nawang Khechog, Gabrielle Roth, Jim Wilson, Stephen Kent, Coleman Barks, Dave Liebman and many others.Geoffrey has performed at The United Nations, Avery Fisher Hall, the Asia Society, the Jung Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History, the Jewish Theological Seminary, in Europe and throughout the United States. He has also composed and performed with dancers and teachers from Alvin Ailey, Dance Theater of Harlem, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Lavinia Williams and choreographers from Kenya, Spain, Haiti, China, and India. http://www.myspace.com/geoffreygordon

SUKHAWAT ALI KHAN
In the 1960's and 1970's, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan and Nazakat Ali Khan, Sukhawat's father and uncle respectively, were known throughout Europe and the rest of the world as the famous "Ali Brothers," rivaling Ravi Shankar's popularity in the United States. By the invitation of royalty and many heads of states, Ustad Salamat and Nazakat traveled to Russia, England, Germany and France, among other countries to perform their blend of pure North Indian and Pakistani classical music with the sounds of contemporary western pop culture, pioneering a new genre of music that was emulated and widely popularized by their relative Nusrat Fatah Ali Khan.

Sukhawat further contributes to keeping traditions alive by prominently featuring the harmonium. He has performed in Japan, England, France, Canada, Holland, India, Pakistan, the United States, and by invitation at the State of the World Forum founded by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. On the three albums he made as part of the Ali Khan Band (aka Shabaz) a group he formed with his sister and brother-in-law, he employed crossover elements. A more traditional approach appears on his new debut solo album, Shukriya. http://www.spacewavemusic.com/Sukhawat_Ali_Khan

KRIS YENNEY, cellist, conductor, composer, and educator, is an active freelance performer throughout the Bay Area and can be heard sitting in with various ensembles, including the San Francisco and San Jose Chamber Orchestras, San Jose and West Bay Opera Orchestras, Schola Cantorum and TheatreWorks. With her Celtic and Early Music ensemble, Broceliande, she plays several stringed instruments (cello, viola, kamanche, fiddle, and bodhran). The quartet has recorded several CDs on the flowinglass label (http://www.broceliande.org). She has presented a private concert with Yo-Yo Ma and NESQ, performed with Jazz pianist Fred Hersch, accompanyied Terry Riley in a concert of Indian Raga in Delhi, India, played with Alasdair Fraser's fiddle class in Skye and sat in with the likes of Lyle Lovett, Smokey Robinson and Rod Stewart. http://www.broceliande.org/bios

SHAMS KAIRYS, a freelance writer and editor, is international co-coordinator of the Kinship activity of Sufi Order International. He has worked with innovative organizations and projects dedicated to helping heal the world, including Berkeley Area Interfaith Council, Meeting of the Ways, Creating Our Future, Seva Foundation, Reaching Out Project, EarthSave International and Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!).