22 June 2009
New York City Festival Showcases Muslim Art and Ideas
Festival focuses on building bridges of understanding
Washington — A festival in New York City celebrating the extraordinary range of artistic expression in the Muslim world featured more than 100 artists from as far away as Asia, Africa and the Middle East and as near as the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
The festival, titled “Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas,” was held June 5–14 at various locations throughout New York City. The events were sponsored by the Asia Society, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and New York University’s Center for Dialogues.
The festival featured music, theater, films, exhibitions, talks and other events, which ranged from traditional calligraphy, storytelling and Sufi devotional music to contemporary video installations and Arabic hip-hop music. The popularity of this festival is viewed as a reflection of the interest that Americans have in religious and cultural diversity.
Festival presentations and programs offered multiple perspectives from Muslims from around the globe, and took place at various locations, such as the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library.
During the festival, the Center for Dialogues sponsored a two-day conference entitled “Bridging the Divide between the United States and the Muslim World through Arts and Ideas: possibilities and limitations.” This academic, cultural and policy conference brought together approximately 50 artists, producers, religious and community leaders, scholars and policymakers from the Muslim world, the United States and Europe.
Participants discussed three broad themes: “The World of the Artist,” which examined the place of artists in the Muslim world and their access to audiences and venues; “Art and Social Commentary,” which considered art’s power to transform as well as to critique; and “Cultural Exchange,” which investigated how to harness cultural capital through cultural exchanges and suggested new arenas for U.S. cultural diplomacy toward the Muslim world.
The conference blended performance, panel presentations and group discussions to spark conversations about how the rich expressive arts of Muslim cultures might reinvigorate relations with the Muslim world.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music neighborhood was transformed into a vibrant souk, or open-air market, featuring food, arts and crafts from diverse Muslim cultures. The market also included craft demonstrations, hands-on workshops, exhibits and outdoor performances by local Muslim artists and artisans.
The Senegalese artist and humanitarian Youssou N’Dour also performed songs with his band that drew on his Islamic beliefs, African heritage and global experience. During the performance, 2,000 people were on their feet, waving their hands and moving to the music. “The music brings them, and then you can deliver your message,” N’Dour said.
Both the Aissawa Ensemble and the Al Taybah Ensemble presented their vibrant musical traditions based on the mystical branch of Islam, Sufism. Sufi music seeks to unite listeners with states of transcendence to connect with the Divine.
The festival not only exposed new audiences to examples of contemporary Muslim creative culture, but beyond that, it also reaffirmed the value of artistic exchange as a means of building intercultural bridges. The festival attracted more than 10,000 people.
