Performing artists and writers will come together on stage: a testament to a hoped-for future of peaceful collaboration between the three great faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The evening will gather Shirin Neshat on the written word in Islam, Alicia Jo Rabins who will perform poems set to music about women in the Torah, Salman Ahmad who will play traditional ghazals mixed with rock and roll, and Fabrice Hadjadj who will read on the book of Job, in a duet with Gregorian chant singer Damien Poisblaud.
Bio
Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad is a Pakistani rock star whose band Junoon has sold over 25 million albums. A medical doctor by training, Salman currently travels the globe as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, spreading a message of harmony and reconciliation between the West and the Muslim world.
He currently teaches a course on Muslim music and poetry at the City University of New York. His latest book is Rock & Roll Jihad: A Muslim Rock Star's Revolution.
Reza Aslan
Reza Aslan is a writer and scholar of religions.
Born in Iran, Aslan is currently a research associate at the University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy. He was a visiting assistant professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.
A frequent commentator on television, radio, and in print, Aslan is a graduate of Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of Iowa. He is the author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam and How to Win a Cosmic War: Why We're Losing the War on Terror.
Fabrice Hadjadj
Fabrice Hadjadj is a French writer and philosopher, born in 1971 in Nanterre to Jewish parents of Tunisian heritage.
In his teens he was an atheist and anarchist, and he maintained a nihilistic attitude for most of his twenties until, in 1998, he converted to Catholicism. Hadjadj currently teaches philosophy and literature in Toulon.
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.
Over the past 15 years, Neshat has created provocative expressions drawn on her personal experiences in exile, and on the widening political and ideological rift between the West and the Middle East.
Shirin Neshat is the winner of numerous awards, including the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art Peace Award, the Infinity Award of ICP in New York, the Grand Prix of the Kwangju Biennial in Korea, and the Golden Lion Award, the First International Prize at the 48th Venice Biennial.
She has exhibited widely around the world at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Leon, and the Tate Gallery in London.
Damien Poisblaud
DAMIEN POISBLAUD came to Gregorian chant as early Damien Poisblaud came to Gregorian chant as early as 1980 and and has been singing in a choir on a regular basis for more than 15 years.
His passion for medieval art and thought, which he studied along with philosophy and theology, combined with his opening to different kinds of traditional music from over the world, gradually led him to a completely renewed approach of his traditional church repertoire. He created the Choeur Gregorien de Mediterranee
Alicia Jo Rabins
Alicia Jo Rabins is a poet, violinist, singer, and composer. Rabins tours internationally. living in Brooklyn, NY.
Her poems have been published in Ploughshares, The Boston Review, 6 x 6, Court Green, Broken Land: Poems of Brooklyn, and Horse Poems. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College and received a waiter scholarship at Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Rabins also studies and teaches ancient Jewish holy texts.
Religion stemming from the teachings of Jesus in the 1st century AD. Its sacred scripture is the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Its principal tenets are that Jesus is the Son of God (the second person of the Holy Trinity), that God's love for the world is the essential component of his being, and that Jesus died to redeem humankind. Christianity was originally a movement of Jews who accepted Jesus as the messiah, but the movement quickly became predominantly Gentile. The early church was shaped by St. Paul and other Christian missionaries and theologians; it was persecuted under the Roman Empire but supported by Constantine I, the first Christian emperor. In medieval and early modern Europe, Christian thinkers such as St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Martin Luther contributed to the growth of Christian theology, and beginning in the 15th century missionaries spread the faith throughout much of the world. The major divisions of Christianity are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Nearly all Christian churches have an ordained clergy, members of which are typically though not universally male. Members of the clergy lead group worship services and are viewed as intermediaries between the laity and the divine in some churches. Most Christian churches administer two sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist. In the early 21st century there were more than two billion adherents of Christianity throughout the world, found on all continents.
Major world religion founded by Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century AD. The Arabic word islam means “surrender”—specifically, surrender to the will of the one God, called Allah in Arabic. Islam is a strictly monotheistic religion, and its adherents, called Muslims, regard the Prophet Muhammad as the last and most perfect of God's messengers, who include Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and others. The sacred scripture of Islam is the Qur'an, which contains God's revelations to Muhammad. The sayings and deeds of the Prophet recounted in the sunna are also an important source of belief and practice in Islam. The religious obligations of all Muslims are summed up in the Five Pillars of Islam, which include belief in God and his Prophet and obligations of prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting. The fundamental concept in Islam is the Shari'ah, or Law, which embraces the total way of life commanded by God. Observant Muslims pray five times a day and join in community worship on Fridays at the mosque, where worship is led by an imam. Every believer is required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city, at least once in a lifetime, barring poverty or physical incapacity. The month of Ramadan is set aside for fasting. Alcohol and pork are always forbidden, as are gambling, usury, fraud, slander, and the making of images. In addition to celebrating the breaking of the fast of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate Muhammad's birthday (seemawlid) and his ascension into heaven (seemi'raj). The 'Id al-Adha festival inaugurates the season of pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims are enjoined to defend Islam against unbelievers through jihad. Divisions occurred early in Islam, brought about by disputes over the succession to the caliphate (seecaliph). About 90% of Muslims belong to the Sunnite branch. The Shi'ites broke away in the 7th century and later gave rise to other sects, including the Isma'ilis. Another significant element in Islam is the mysticism known as Sufism. Since the 19th century the concept of the Islamic community has inspired Muslim peoples to cast off Western colonial rule, and in the late 20th century fundamentalist movements (see Islamic fundamentalism) threatened or toppled a number of secular Middle Eastern governments. In the early 21st century, there were more than 1.2 billion Muslims in the world.
Religious beliefs and practices of the Jews. One of the three great monotheistic world religions, Judaism began as the faith of the ancient Hebrews, and its sacred text is the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Torah. Fundamental to Judaism is the belief that the people of Israel are God's chosen people, who must serve as a light for other nations. God made a covenant first with Abraham and then renewed it with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The worship of Yahweh (God) was centred in Jerusalem from the time of David. The destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BCE) and the subsequent exile of the Jews led to hopes for national restoration under the leadership of a messiah. The Jews were later allowed to return by the Persians, but an unsuccessful rebellion against Roman rule led to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and the Jews' dispersal throughout the world in the Jewish Diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism emerged to replace the beliefs and practices associated with the Temple at Jerusalem, as the Jews carried on their culture and religion through a tradition of scholarship and strict observance. The great body of oral law and commentaries were committed to writing in the Talmud and Mishna. The religion was maintained despite severe persecutions by many nations.
His passion for medieval art and thought, which he studied along with philosophy and theology, combined with his opening to different kinds of traditional music from over the world, gradually led him to a completely renewed approach of his traditional church repertoire. Magento Template | Ao Thoi Trang | Web Design Blog
"DAMIEN POISBLAUD came to Gregorian chant as early Damien Poisblaud came to Gregorian chant as early as 1980 and and has been singing in a choir on a regular basis for more than 15 years.
His passion for medieval art and thought, which he studied along with philosophy and theology, combined with his opening to different kinds of traditional music from over the world, gradually led him to a completely renewed approach of his traditional church repertoire. He created the Choeur Gregorien de Mediterranee" That's border-line awesome. Medieval thought and art...so interesting.
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