FES FEST -- FINALLY

Ssalamu 'lekum!

Thanks to Terri for offering us these words of greeting, and thanks to Sara Jane for the primer. Wonder how many Arabic words we’ll know by mid-June . . .

A few weeks ago I ran into Lorrie Streifel, whom I know from years of Zen retreats but rarely see otherwise, and she told me about the Morocco trip. A week later I’d signed up.

I first heard of the World Sacred Music Festival in the late 1990s, and I was dying to go. I belonged to an Indian classical music society and was eager to learn more about non-Western music. A friend went to the festival and wrote a charming article about it, which confirmed my sense that I would love the whole experience. But each time I thought about going, the $3,000 just wasn’t there.

Around this time last year, in researching background for a book I’m writing that includes a Pakistani musician, I’d been visiting web sites of Pakistani-American cultural organizations, sending emails, planning to drive to Atlanta/Charlotte/Raleigh/wherever, to interview people—but getting zero response. Then Google somehow fetched up the World Sacred Music Festival, and the light bulb clicked on: in that one place I would find people to talk with about all the subjects I need to research—music, Pakistan, Sufism, Muslim artists living in the West. A friend I’d told about the festival gave me the Lonely Planet guide to Morocco for my birthday, and I read it in a state of high thrill. But once again, it didn’t work out for me to go.

I’d pretty much abandoned the idea when Lorrie told me about this group, said spaces were still available, and gave me the Interplay Nashville web address. What an irresistible program—not only the great wealth of music from other countries, but our own Jessye Norman, Joan Baez, and Bernice Reagon Johnson! When I unexpectedly received a check for $3,000 for book sales, I knew what that money was meant for.

I am 65, a freelance editor and writer living in Lake Junaluska, NC (west of Asheville). My work is described on my web site, www.presentperfectbooks.com, and information on my second book, just published, is at www.helloatlast.com.

I’m eager to meet all of you and so look forward to sharing this adventure.

maAH as-salaama—

Sara