ReligionDispatches.org

The Muslim Voices Festival began last Friday, and while I did not have the privilege of hear Mayor Michael Bloomberg greet the audience with an "as-salam alaykum" in a surprise visit to Youssou N'Dour's opening night performance, I did have a chance to go to the second day's festivities. I began with an afternoon visit to the souk , or outdoor marketplace.

The souk was something of a disappointment. Unlike a Manhattan Street Fair (I'm told Brooklyn street fairs are similar), the space was confined, the stalls were limited, and there were very few people. To be fair, much of this was out of the hands of the organizers, who apparently received little response from Muslim communities in New York. The irony is that the souk was on Atlantic Ave., a heavily Arab Muslim part of New York. However, there were opportunities at the souk that I believe were missed. There were dancers present, but only from the Arab world: an Egyptian group and a group from the Gulf. The Egyptian dancers performed dabke, and those who are familiar with the dance recognize resonances with Israeli, Greek, and Turkish dancing. If the point is to have think cross-culturally, having some troupes perform sequentially, or even cooperatively, would show how these cultures interact. One thing that I wish they put in was the call to prayer, the adhaan, it is perhaps the most recognizable expression of the Muslim voice, and since the market was there all day, people would have heard it at least 3 times.

The souk is a good idea, it just needs some work. The evening's performance was more problematic. There were two groups, each receiving an hour around a short intermission. The first group was the Aissawa Ensemble, a well-known and respected group from Morocco. There was no introduction to the music, Sufism, or the spiritual concert called the sama'. The performers simply came out and started their piece. While one can make a strong argument that to introduce the work risks exoticizing it, for no one goes to Carnegie Hall to hear Mozart introduced, there were not substantial program notes either. The website does have a detailed explanation of what is going on, but no one seemed to know it was there, and there was no mention in the program either.

Although considered a spiritual concert, this is not a concert in the Western musical sense of the term. A primer on etiquette, or adab, would have been useful. People were clapping at odd moments. These sufi session last for hours, and usually build from a slow point, to an ecstatic point, and then bring the listener back down to a peaceful point. The Aissawa Ensemble, for the performative aspect, really picked up at the ecstatic moment and carried it through for their hour. Although one cannot get too technical, I think it would have been nice to mention that this is not all mystics do for an hour of their life, but that this part of a larger project and endeavor. I did feel like their performance was incomplete, and in a good way. It seemed as though there should be more, and one hopes that audience members decide to explore the site for more information.

At the end of the performance, Aissawa asked audience members to "dance" with them, which many did. Although all the members of the ensemble were men, there was no issue with women participating that I could see. Apparently, mixed gender environments are allowed by the Aissawa, again a useful note to have had by the audience. Overall, Aissawa did a good job presenting their tradition to the audience, while making their Muslim identification clear. I will also admit, when the troupe came out on stage, my first thought was "you can always spot the shaykh, leader, by his belly;" somewhat irreverent, but a sentiment shared by several acquaintances in the audience.

The second hour was given to Al-Taybah. To be honest, this group is hard to describe. They do not appear to be affiliated with any order, rather they pull on a variety of traditions. As a festival dedicated to the representation of Muslims, I think it's a bold move, but well within the parameters of the program. However, we do not know who they are. Are they devotional or a "band?" Is this religious music, or just religiously inspired? All of these things help us understand the diversity of the Muslim artistic experience.

Unlike Aissawa Ensemble, Al-Taybah's performance seemed self-contained, it had a beginning, middle, and end. There was no "hook" to get people thinking about the performance and where it comes from. It was disappointing because there was no sense of how this group fits into the expressive tradition, when it is clearly referencing a wide variety of practices. Are the leaders shaykhs or musical directors? In sufism, bewilderment is a goal for almost any initiate, it allows one to search for the Truth. However, Al-Taybah simply created a sense of befuddlement.

There were occasions to educate that were missed here, and while I think it could have been done better, there were some intriguing comments from the audience. Walking out of the theater I heard a woman say "I wish shul was like this. I want to be a Jewfi." Perhaps there is some hope after this concert after all. Of course, if all people know of Islam is either terrorism or hedonism, then we haven't really moved the conversation forward have we?

[note: due to restrictions on recording at all venues, high-quality photography and video are currently not available. Media relations promises these materials at the end of the festival.]