I just received a note from Erika, the Sultan's favorite, who broadcasts Arab music from a radio station at the University of Chicago. She has put this sweet wiki site on her web page at "music."
Listen to "Party from Damascus" with Erika, the Sultan's Favorite!
- belly dancer and world music DJ
- Thursdays, 5-6 PM WHPK 88.5 FM
- roadcasting from the University of Chicago
thesultansfavorite@yahoo.com http://erikagreen.com/whpk/
She has enjoyed the party here!
I have been peddling the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz as regular fare at the newly opened "Club Timbuktu," in Riverwest, Milwaukee, one of the most authentically integrating neighborhoods of Wisconsin. Here is my first on-line broadcast after our first gahtering, which was a great event.
Astonishing Lucid Confusions Abounding at Timbuktu Rumi/Hafiz Nights, Last Tuesday of Every Month During 2005
Karen Kolberg Incarnation of Hafiz at Timbuktu, Sky Schultz as Rumi Last Tuesday of Every Month Sufi Mystic Poetry of Rumi and Hafiz 7 to 8 p.m. Dinner Served Before & During Drinks and African Music After 520 E. Center Where Riverwest Intersects with Brewers Hill and Harambee
Last night she astonished about 50 "sweet ones" at Timbuktu with her theatrical performance of Hafiz.
A thousand suns from the mouth of a single bird.
A holy bum... squeezing drops of sun...sole heir to the king...heart like a wild alley cat in heat...
Omar, an elegant host...God asked for everyone's address...happiness found our names...
Hafiz disguised as Kolberg issues a divine invitation for tired old pilgrims and beautiful ancient warriors...
Sky Schultz brought us to eternity and back again as Rumi, sweet blasphemies in gardens of mystical lovers, generous merchants beheading themselves in astonishing lucid confusions.
Last Tuesday of every month in 2005 a trip to eternity at Timbuktu
Sufi Mystics at Timbuktu on Center and North, in Riverwest at the intersection of Brewers Hill and Harambee, in Historic Milwaukee
A wild party
Astonishing lucid confusion abounding
Gardens of mystical lovers...
The Bag Lady
I am the bag lady in every city,
I have a spot on every street.
My sacks are full of holiness
so I have come to peddle, To touch your feet.
I give Myself to Myself on rare occasions because I am so very shy.
Hafiz, the monarchs of this world Are but slaves to thee
Since the Beloved took His seat In your eye.
I am the bag lady in every city. I am playing divine music in every world.
My sacks are full of holiness. I am asking,
May I please bow to you.
Hafiz
It is by the most beloved of Persian poets, Hafiz, who lived from around 1320 to 1390 in Shiraz. Hafiz I'm told was a widely read in Timbuktu, as early as 1492. This glorious trading center of North and Central Africa had 4 mosques and 100,000 citizens. The mystic Sufi Islamic tradition, from which Rumi and Hafiz hailed, was considerable in its presence. Goethe, Emerson, Nietzche, Pushkin, Turgenev, Carlyle, and Lorca loved Hafiz.
Here's a Rumi for you.
UNDRESSING
Learn the alchemy true human beings know: the moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door will open. Welcome difficulty as a familiar comrade. Joke with torment brought by the Friend. Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover then are taken off. That undressing, and the naked body beneath, is the sweetness that comes after grief.
I think the word of the world's mystic traditions will be of value to humanity facing the terror of the world's various fundamentalisms. I hope we can have a dialogue with our brothers and sisters of the Middle East, from all of the great religions represented there. I think Rumi's poetry can be a new beginning between East & West, North and South. He was raised at the crossroads of all of the world's Afroeurasian religions, in Afganistan, Persia, and Turkey.
Spread the word!
The poetry of Sufi mystics and peace loving Islamic universalists Rumi & Hafiz at Timbuktu!
Godsil
Here is what is on a wiki site I've been working on, and hoping to find others adding their bits of wisdom, humor, or beauty.
Who is Godsil,
http://www.bucketworks.org/index.php/Godsil/JamesGodsil,
[This is raw material, a "rough draft," like the desk or office of an Irish-American professor]
http://www.bucketworks.org/index.php/Godsil/MilwaukeeRenaissance