| | | | | 16th Annual Arab Cultural Festival
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| Souq el Arabi: 16th Annual Arab Cultural Festival On October 2nd, San Francisco's Arab Cultural & Community Center will present our 16th Annual Arab Cultural Festival, the largest celebration of Arab heritage in Northern California. Since 1995, this day-long event showcases the arts, entertainment, food, traditions, and most importantly the spirit of the Arab-Americans, reflecting their diversity and contributions to the Bay Area's cultural landscape. As October has officially been declared Arab Heritage Month by Mayor Gavin Newsome, this event is the perfect forum to come celebrate and learn more about Arab-American culture. This year's theme is Souq el Arabi and the Festival will transform Union Square into a traditional open market place you would normally only find in the Arab World. Don't miss your chance to take part in this entertaining and enlightening event! 16th Annual Arab Cultural Festival "Souq el Arabi" Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 Union Square, San Francisco Suggested Donation: $6; Children under 5 years of age: FREE Booth Bazaar includes: Arabic cuisine, jewelry, textiles and crafts from the Arab World, Henna tattoos, Children's Activity booth, informational booths for many Arab organizations, and much more. Featured Performers: Moroccan gnawa music by Yassir Chadly & Bouchaib Abdelhadi & Ensemble Arabic Classical & popular music performed by Salma Khasiborn featuring Arabic Violinist/Oud player and Sami Abu Shumays and Ensemble Folkloric dance performances, Live Fairytale Performances
For information about sponsorship, renting a booth or informational table, advertisement in the program, or volunteering, please call (415)664-2200 or e-mail: events@arabculturalcenter.org
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| About the Festival Artists:
Yassir Chadly: has been performing traditional Moroccan music since 1972, first in his native Morocco and then in the United States since 1977. His musical expression ranges from the melodic love songs of the Magreb and Egyptian traditions, to the powerful rhythms of the religious music of the Gnawa, the Sufi musicians originally from sub-Saharan Africa. His varied instruments include the oud (lute), the guenbri (a three-stringed bass-like instrument made from a camel neck), qarqabas (metal clackers from which the castanets are derived), bender, darbukkah, and taarija (percussion instruments native to Morocco). Yassir is well known as an inspired storyteller of the Sufi tradition in addition to his talents as a musician. He has recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston, Stephen Kent, and Steve Coleman. He is featured on two recent Omar Sosa recordings, "Prietos" and "Sentir", and has performed with Mr. Sosa since 2001. Yassir has participated in other collaborative projects with Alonzo King, including Heart Song (2003) for the Ailvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Salt (2005) with the North Carolina Dance Theater, and Ocean (1994) and The Moroccan Project (2005) with LINES Ballet.
Bouchaib Abdelhadi: a native of Casablanca, Morocco, has had a distinguished musical career on both sides of the Atlantic. As leader of the Orchestre Abdelhadi, he performed throughout the Kingdom of Morocco in the 1980's. Since coming to the United States in the early 1990's, Bouchaib has been much sought out as a multi-instrumentalist (oud, Moroccan violin, percussion) and as a vocalist in Middle Eastern and North African traditions such as al-Yqa (Andalusian), Gnawa (Sufi trance), and Chaabi ("popular"). Recent career highlights include collaborating in 2002 with Pharoah Sanders on music for Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Company, and live performances range from a US tour with Cuban jazz pianist Omar Sosa in 2002 to a performance with Stephen Kent and Trance Mission in 2001, and from playing at the 1998 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and and collaborating on The Moroccan Project (2005) with LINES Ballet. Bouchaib played with DJ Cheb i Sabbah on the album "La Kahena", and in addition to traditional Moroccan music performance he enjoys working with artists from diverse musical traditions such as Hindustani, jazz, and rock.
Salma Khasiborn: Salma Habib Khshaiboon was born in Haifa in 1975. Her professional career as an artist began at the age of seven as a leading dancer in the "Salma Dancing Group" in Haifa, established in 1979. Her acting and singing career started in the Arabic TV in Palestine where she hosted the only show for Arab children for eight years. For seven years, Salma hosted three daily radio shows in Palestine focusing on women, Arabic classical music and current events. Salma has performed with critically acclaimed composers such as Bassam Saba, an Arabic music virtuoso. She often sings for the Arabic Music Ensemble, Zikrayat.
Sami Abu Shumays: Arabic Violinist Sami Abu Shumays was born in the United States of mixed Palestinian and American descent, but returned to the Arab world to develop a richer connection with his cultural heritage. Originally a composer and scholar of Western Classical music, he began studying Arabic violin with renowned Arabic violinist and oud player Simon Shaheen in New York, where he concurrently pursued graduate studies in composition and ethnomusicology at C.U.N.Y. after receiving his B.A. in Music from Harvard. Seeking a deeper immersion in Arab musical culture, Sami studied in Cairo, Egypt on a Fulbright fellowship, with Dr. Alfred Gamil, and continued his studies in Aleppo, Syria, with Mohammed Qasas, Abdel-Basit Bakkar, and Abdel-Minaim Senkary-experiences that led him to devote himself to Arabic music. He founded Zikrayat in late 2005. Through Zikrayat, an ensemble devoted to presenting the classical, dance and folkloric repertories of the Arab world side-by-side, with a particular focus on rare music and dance pieces from classic Egyptian film, Sami seeks to make Arabic music accessible to a wide variety of audiences. |
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