Evento

Benefit Concert for Islamophobia Research - TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR

Join us for a solemn night of sacred music from the Muslim world and support Islamophobia research.

Featuring

The Aswat Sacred Music Ensemble (Arab Sufi music)
Mohammad Nejad Ensemble (Persian Sufi music)
Mete Bayyigit Ensemble (Turkish Sufi music)

Date: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Venue:
Zaytuna College
2401 Le Conte Ave,
Berkeley, CA 94709

Ticket Prices
Online: $25
At-the-door: $30
At-the-door Student rate (with current, valid student ID): $25

The program includes

Arabic poetry written by 4 classical Sufi poets: Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), al-Shushtari (1212-1269), Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235), Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah (717-801)

Persian poetry by Rumi, Sa'di, Hafiz, and others
Turkish poetry by Yunus Emre (1240-1321)

A sing-along to Tala'al Badru Alayna

About IRDP

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) focuses on a systematic and empirical approach to the study of Islamophobia and its impact on the American Muslim community. Today, Muslims in the U.S., parts of Europe, and around the world have been transformed into a demonized and feared global "other," subjected to legal, social, and political discrimination. Even at the highest levels of political discourse, the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections, Islamophobia took center stage as a sizeable number of Americans expressed fear that Barack Obama, the first African American president, is somehow a closet Muslim. Newspaper articles, tv shows, books, popular movies, political debates, and cultural conflicts over immigration and security produce ample evidence of the stigmatization of Islam within dominant culture.

The challenge for understanding the current cultural and political period centers on providing a more workable and encompassing definition for the Islamophobia phenomenon, a theoretical framework to anchor present and future research, and a centralized mechanism to document and analyze diverse data sets from around the U.S. and in comparison with other areas around the world.

For more information, please visit http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia

About the Islamophobia Studies Journal

The Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at UC Berkeley announces the launch of Islamophobia Studies Journal, a a bi-annual peer reviewed academic periodical focusing on emerging research on and analysis about the nature of Islamophobia and its impact on culture, politics, media, and the lives and experiences of Muslim people.

For more information, please visit
http://crg.berkeley.edu/content/islamophobia/islamophobia-studies-journal

About The Aswat Sacred Music Ensemble

The Aswat Sacred Music Ensemble is a the sacred music arm of Aswat, the Bay Area's premier Arab music ensemble.

The musical voice of Arab America in the Bay Area is Aswat, which is sponsored by Zawaya. True to Zawaya's commitment to pluralism and inclusion, Aswat is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious music ensemble that reaches out to the diverse Bay Area community with folkloric, classical, contemporary, and sacred Arab music. Aswat's doors remain open to all who want to participate in the exciting, enriching exchange between Arab Americans and other communities through the universal language of music. For more information about Aswat, please visit www.zawaya.org.

About Mohammad Nejad

Mohammad Nejad, a Persian-born master multi-instrumentalist, was born to a musical family in Tehran, Iran. As a young child, Persian classical music was passed down to him from his father. In Tehran he attended a special high school for musicians, later graduating from Fine Arts Academy in 1976, and in 1990 received a Bachelors of Fine Arts Musicianship and Performance from Tehran University, proficient in both the Western and Persian musical systems. While studying toward the completion of his degree, he was blessed with having master teachers of Persian classical music including Ostad Roushanravan, Ostad Sinaki, Ostad Jankook, Ostad Paayvar, Ostad Tavakol, Ostad Tahmasebiyan, Ostad Moosavi, Ostad Khoshdel and Ostad Baharlou. In the early 1990s he began recording for the Iranian motion picture industry. He composed for and performed with many music and dance ensembles in Iran. Nejad came to the United States in 1995, he now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nejad plays a large number of instruments, including ney, zurna, Western flute, santur, kanun, oud, setar, dotar, tar, kemanche, violin, daf, dumbek, zarb, accordion and keyboards. He effectively uses Persian instruments to add a Persian influence to Western classical, jazz, blues, new age, and flamenco. He also performs traditional Persian classical music. He collaborates with many other musicians and ensembles. He has performed throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States, including most campuses of the University of California, the Palace of Fine Arts and the Ethnic Dance Festival in San Francisco, and the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. He teaches privately and through workshops. Here he established the Nejad World Music Center, to teach youth and adults in the community and bring world artists to the United States for collaboration and performance.