Baha'i culture...art, film, literature

Interview with Tierney Sutton:

A few months ago I posted a photo of Tierney Sutton and recently she was interviewed in the press where she was quoted as saying:

"My music is all about my spiritual life — and vice versa. Somehow this question has just started to pop up. In Italy the blurb about the band in the Umbria brochure spoke of my spiritual approach in the very first sentence. Although this is my aspiration, I have never advertised my spiritual beliefs, but I guess people want to know. I am a member of the Baha'i faith, as is James Moody and as was Dizzy Gillespie. The core of our belief system is the oneness of mankind and finding paths toward greater unity in diversity in the world. This is a perfect metaphor for the band's arranging philosophy and the Baha'i principles have profoundly impacted our process. I am the only Baha'i in the band and that is, of course, just fine with me — it's about uniting all and finding harmony and equality of voices and approaches."

to see the article go to:

Express: A Publication of The Washington Post
 
Interview with Tierney Sutton:

I hope you enjoy this section on Baha'i culture... There are probably ways Baha'is interject or express their principles that may not be so obvious at first but in time we feel it will have more of an impact.

- Art
 
Jack Lenz project the feature film "Mona's Dream":

"Of all the projects on his plate, Lenz is probably most excited about his feature film, Mona's Dream. His script tells the story of Iran's persecution and execution in 1983 of teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and nine other members of her Baha'i faith. The film, which will star Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), has a projected budget of $7-million to $10-million. He's still seeking a co-production arrangement and some foreign financing."

Read more at

globeandmail.com: Go big or go home
 
Greetings, all!

I'm heading off to Louhelen Baha'i School in Michigan for some serious Baha'i culture, art, and literature, with an extremely heavy component of SINGING!!!!! :) :) :)

So I may well be offline much or all of the next few weeks.

Many regards, I'll see you around, and I hope those within reasonable distance can come to our Tuesday-evening concerts later this month--contact Louhelen's 800 number (available at Louhelen Bahá’í School) for details!

Cheers! :)

Bruce
 
BruceDLimber said:
Greetings, all!

I'm heading off to Louhelen Baha'i School in Michigan for some serious Baha'i culture, art, and literature, with an extremely heavy component of SINGING!!!!! :) :) :)

So I may well be offline much or all of the next few weeks.

Many regards, I'll see you around, and I hope those within reasonable distance can come to our Tuesday-evening concerts later this month--contact Louhelen's 800 number (available at Louhelen Bahá’í School) for details!

Cheers! :)

Bruce
Click to expand...


"...extremely heavy component of SINGING!!!!" Sounds pretty serious Bruce! Someone said once there was more to life than the internet.

- Art
 
Bruce,

Great. I live in Michigan and may be able to squeeze a Tuesday night to come listen. Love to meet you. I have a cousin that works at Louhelen on a volunteer basis. I will forward your email to her. So if a short stout lady approaches you and says she is related to Mick, give her a hug for me. OK?

Mick
 
Baha'is connections...

Celebrated African-American parade of pride boasts Baha'i connections

Posted : August 3, 2007 - 2:47pm | Terms : News | Human Interest
For the 78th year, the Bud Billiken Parade will step off at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, on Chicago's South Side.


The parade has the distinction of being the largest African-American parade, and the second largest parade overall, in the United States. Since the first parade in 1929, it has drawn more than 50 million individuals to enjoy a day of community and celebration of African-American roots.

At the post-parade picnic this year, members of the Chicago Baha'i community will volunteer in storytelling, the Cooperation Olympics and "virtues" face-painting.

Baha'i participation in the Bud Billiken Parade began when Robert S. Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, and David Kellum, an editor at the paper, created the event.

The two hadn't yet become Baha'is, but their outlook was in line with principles of the Faith. They also had been involved for years in civil rights and improving relations between the races. Indeed, Messrs. Abbott and Kellum founded the Bud Billiken picnic and parade as a celebration of "unity in diversity for the children of Chicago."

Bud Billiken, the parade's namesake, is a fictional character invented by Abbott in 1923 to symbolize pride, happiness and hope in being African-American. (The billiken was a good-luck doll devised by Kansas art teacher Florence Pretz in 1908.)

The Defender staff created a Bud Billiken comic strip for young readers that extolled the virtues of being honest and trustworthy, obeying parents and respecting others. Through a pen-pal program, the Bud Billiken Club connected African-American with kids in Africa, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

Celebrities who have graced the parade's route include Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Duke Ellington, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Hopalong Cassidy, Lena Horne, L.L. Cool J, Bozo the Clown, Jack Brickhouse, Frank Thomas, Michael Jordan and President Harry S. Truman.


Souce:

Celebrated African-American parade of pride boasts Baha'i connections | Bahai Faith | Baha'i Faith
 
Popular music release "Arise"

"Some music professionals in Los Angeles - all of them Baha'is and all knee-deep or more in the entertainment industry - have come out with what one recording artist terms a "straight-up Baha'i album."
The group calls itself the Dawnbreaker Collective, the album is named "Arise," and the music is, well, cool.
Rap, rock, funk, R&B, spoken-word - all are represented.
"Come talk with Me, speak heavenly, remember Me, O son of Spirit," sings Tara Ellis on one of the hip-hop tracks. She has recorded with rap star Eve and with Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame, and is unapologetic about her current contribution to a religious record."

Read more:


Bahá'í World News Service - Bahá'í International Community - Hip-hop hits spiritual chords
 
South Africa documents Baha'is

SOUTH AFRICAN FILM SHOWS FAITH IN ACTION

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 19 August 2007 (BWNS) --

Two professional
filmmakers have finished an hourlong documentary about three Baha'is and
how they practice their faith, and the film is being aired on
television in South Africa and neighboring countries.
"Baha'i Faith: A Way Forward" was produced by Ryan and Leyla Haidarian
at the request of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which has
licensed rights to the documentary for two years.
"We created this film to show what the Baha'i Faith has to offer on a
practical level for the world," Mrs. Haidarian said.
The film gives an introduction to the Baha'i Faith and focuses on three
individuals in South Africa and how their faith is reflected in
service to others:
-- Eunice Mabaso turned her home into an orphanage after her brother
and his wife died and she took in their four children. Over the years,
hundreds of other orphans - many of them living in poverty in the streets
- came to her home for shelter, love, and protection. "We can change
the poverty and crime of this earth," she says. "The future of South
Africa will become brighter."
-- Iraj Abedian, an economist and policy adviser to the government,
tries to address problems resulting from extremes of wealth and poverty.
One of his projects is a collective home-financing program that helps
low-income working people save money and invest, but he is careful to
emphasize that his work is based on principles from what he believes is a
divine plan. He says you can look at the world as a construction site,
"full of dust and mud and rubbish, and yet see in it the (new) edifice
that is rising. ... To be at work on the construction site - it's
exciting."
-- Tahirih Matthee helps provide training programs for people with no
experience using computers and the Internet. Her course includes
education about gender equality - she points out that equality of women and
men is an explicit teaching of the Baha'i Faith - and also information
about HIV/AIDS prevention. "For something to be successful, you need
vision," she says. "Every person can be happy when things are ideal, but
our true nobility lies in the journey of being happy precisely when
things are not ideal."
The new film includes historical photos of the Baha'i community of
South Africa, including its founding during the time of apartheid.
"In those days, the Baha'is stuck to the letter of the law, but they
didn't really stick to the spirit of the law," says the film. A
fundamental principle of the Baha'i Faith is the unity of the races and the
elimination of prejudice.
Great precaution was taken for the first election of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South Africa. It was held in a
farmhouse, and whites entered through the front door, black Africans through
the back door.
"If the security police approached, the African Baha'is began cleaning
and cooking. The white Baha'is played cards and socialized," the
narrator relates.
The Haidarians produced and financed the documentary through their
company, Race Productions, in South Africa. The film can be seen on the Web
at Bahai Faith - A Way Forward | doubletake.tv. The Web site also gives
information for ordering a DVD.
Ryan Haidarian heads up development and production at the National Film
and Video Foundation of South Africa, the organization that produced
the Academy Award-winning film "Tsotsi." A graduate of the University of
Texas at Austin in the United States, Mr. Haidarian won numerous
awards, including HBO's Peabody Award, for a documentary about famed
American football coach Darrell Royal.
Leyla Haidarian has worked as a journalist, actress, and filmmaker in
Europe, North America and Africa, and can currently be seen playing a
supporting role in a South African drama series.


To view the photos and additional features click here:
Bahá'í World News Service - Bahá'í International Community
 
Baha'is in Hip-hop scene in Seattle Washington...

"Like The Saturday Knights, Common Market is riding high on the Seattle hip-hop scene.

Formed by DJ Sabzi and RA Scion in 2005, the duo records on the tiny Beacon Hill-based Mass Line label that includes Sabzi's other high-profile Seattle duo, the Blue Scholars, and local hip-hop artist Gabriel Teodros.
Connecting through their interest in the Baha'i faith, Sabzi and RA Scion are kindred spirits known for their powerful, socially conscious brand of hip-hop. KRS-One was so impressed with the Seattle duo's 2005 debut album (later remixed by Martin Feveyear in 2006) that he showed up at the Seattle release party and later took the pair on his Temple of Hip-Hop tour.
The group has subsequently performed at the Sasquatch! Festival and Capitol Hill Block Party.

Performing Saturday night at the Esurance stage at Fisher Green, Sabzi and RA Scion vowed to "do it better" than last year's Bumbershoot performance and kicked out the jams with a fist-pumping, head-bobbing hip-hop party. The performance saluted Monday headliner The Wu-Tang Clan and included guest performers from Black Anger, the group that opened for the Blue Scholars last spring at The Showbox.
Sabzi's masterful blend of soulful sounds and melodies, as well as RA Scion's authoritative rhymes, made the nearly hour-long set a celebration of Seattle hip-hop at its best."

Source:

Bumbershoot: Dispatches from our pop critic Gene Stout
 
Isabel Grinevskaya and the Baha'i Faith

Found this article about Isabel Grinevskaya and thought I'd share it here... Leo Tolstoy also wrote her about the Baha'i Faith and admired her efforts. But here is the article:

Precious little is known about Isabel Grinevskaya, the early Russian Bahá'’ who published a dramatic poem in five acts in St. Petersburgh in May 1903. Her drama, entitled The Báb, is reported as having caught the attention of the educated classes when it played in the St Petersburg Soavorinsky theatre in January 1904, and again, following the February Revolution, in the Folk Theatre in Leningrad in April 1917. By Grinevskaya's account, published in a newspaper in Odessa during her journey to Palestine, the play was "soon prohibited by the censors", but brought her into contact with Bahá'’s:
The life of Bahá'u'lláh and his teachings served as theme for my poem. My first plan under the name of "Bab" was translated into French and Tartar languages and attracted greatly the attention of the Mahomedan world and a correspondence soon started between the Bahá'’s and myself.
​
Those Grinevskaya met included, at Baku, Mirza Ali-Akbar Nakhjavani. In 1910 she addressed the Oratorical Club - and possibly other forums - on the subject of the Bahá'’s, and favourable reports her meetings appeared in Star of the West:
"On November 20th she gave a public lecture on the Bahá'’ Revelation before a noteworthy gathering of authors, writers, poets, philosophers, and a number of Russian princes. Her eloquent words and forceful utterances created among her listeners a powerful effect. On the following day many articles appeared in the newspapers commenting favourably upon her speech".
​
When `Abdu'l-Bahá learnt the details of Grinevskaya's work he asked her to correct some inaccuracies, and in 1911 invited her to visit:
When the Bahá'’s learned about my new play, they with their head and master, Bahá'u'lláh's son - `Abdu'l-Bahá - most cordially invited me to Palestine to visit Sendian Dakr - not far from Haifa - the very center of the Bahá'’s. This trip presents me with an enormous interest because of a closer connection with the members of the movement, which will enable me to study their methods to live up to their principles.
​
It is not clear where Grinevskaya visited Palestine as well as Egypt. It was her journey to the latter that provided the setting for her later essay, Journey in the Countries of the Sun. A subsequent play, entitled Bahá'u'lláh, was published in Leningrad in 1912 but was never performed. The Russian writer and journalist Gabriel de Wesselitsky and the famed Russian novelist Leo Tolstoi were among those who praised the literary quality of her work.

Source:
http://bahai-library.org/asia-pacific/russia.htm
 
His crime? Being a Baha'i

Farshid Samandari

With his soft voice and gentle manner, Farshid Samandari seems an unlikely jailbird, and it's probable that had he grown up anywhere other than Iran he would never have seen the inside of a prison cell. But that's exactly where he found himself during the early years of the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini's reign–the victim, he says, of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

His crime? Being a Baha'i in an Islamic theocracy.

Ironically, Samandari's brief incarceration proved to be a turning point in his life. Although only 15, he already knew that he was going to devote his life to music–but it wasn't until his release from jail that his calling as a composer became clear.

"When I came back it had such an impact on me that I started to improvise on piano," says the classically trained performer, in a telephone interview from his Vancouver home. "I was just shocked, like 'What am I doing?' And then that night I had a dream, which was an opera, and I realized that this was like a sign or something: I had to write this piece."

Read more:

Arts - Music | Bridging musical worlds | Straight.com
 
I got a piece of fan mail for Sword of the Dajjal late last night from a soldier home on leave from Afghanistan:

Sword of the Dajjal gets its first fan mail--from a soldier no less!

Got this on one of the wargaming e-mail lists I frequent. I use the book info on my signature line so it goes out in every e-mail.



"Scott:
On 15 July I departed Afghanistan to go back to the States on leave.
Having nothing to read, I buzzed around on the Net until I found a
sci-fi ebook that looked pretty good; purchased and downloaded it,
read it on my layover at Ali al Saleem.
That ebook happened to be Sword of the Dajjal!
Just wanted to compliment you on it; I thought it well-paced, and the
twist with the Afreet was nice. The depictions of combat were
believable and the political circumstances were well-developed
without slowing the book.
I don't suppose there will be a sequel?

V/R
SSG James Xxxxxxxx"



Very kewl. I redacted the last name til I get permission to identify him.



Regards,

Scott
 
The European Baha'i Business Forum in the news:

I decided to enter this excerpt from a journal under Baha'i culture:

10.12.2007 - 02:50pm ET
News from: The Association for Spirit at Work
Seven International Organizations to Receive the International Spirit at Work Award
Conference Honors Organizations Making a Difference in the Workplace and Inspires Others to Do the Same
(CSRwire) EAST HAVEN, CT. - October 12, 2007 - Tyson Foods, Conner Partners and Bio-Seehotel are three of the seven progressive organizations to be honored at the third annual International Spirit at Work Conference October 19-21, 2007 at the Simpsonwood Retreat and Conference Center in Norcross, Georgia (near Atlanta). "Beyond Wealth: Creating and Measuring Authentic Success" is presented by the International Center for Spirit at Work (formerly the Association for Spirit at Work) in cooperation with the World Business Academy and the European Baha'i Business Forum.

The three-day conference features workshops by the CEOs, executives and internal change agents in the organizations that have received the International Spirit at Work Awards. The honorees are recognized for specific policies, programs or practices that nurture spirituality inside their organizations. They are:

for the complete article go to:

Corporate Social Responsibility News from The Association for Spirit at Work: Seven International Organizations to Receive the International Spirit at Work Award
 
MSNBC news report:

MSNBC news had a news report on religion in America that was brought to my attention yesterday..

MSNBC Video

There's a good section on a Baha'i in Chicago.

- Art
 
About Dizzy Gillespie...

He was especially impressed with William Sears’ book Thief in the Night. When he decided to become a believer in Baha’u’llah, Mr. Gillespie flew to Los Angeles from San Francisco to meet with Mr. Sears.

In 1978, Mr. Gillespie gave President Jimmy Carter a book of sacred Baha’i writings. And each time the musician received an award, of which there were many, he mentioned the Baha'i Faith in his thank-you speeches.

Mr. Gillespie’s greatest melding of his religious beliefs with the ideals of jazz was his United Nations Orchestra, which revived his career in the 1980s. He formed the orchestra along the lines of the Baha'i principle of unity in diversity, perhaps his key inspiration.

“The Baha’is believe in unity, but unity with diversity, to make it prettier,” he is quoted as saying in To Be Or Not to Bop: Memoirs of Dizzy Gillespie. “You always think about what you can do to make it prettier.”

Source:

Dizzy Gillespie, bebop Baha'i, continues to inspire | Bahai Faith | Baha'i Faith
 
Living example of religious pluralism...

Baha'i testifies at U.N. about understanding among religions

UNITED NATIONS
5 October 2007 (BWNS)

A Baha'i from Tanzania - where different religious communities live peacefully together - testified yesterday before the United Nations General Assembly on how to promote religious understanding.

Addressing an informal hearing on "Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace," Mitra Deliri said that in her country, "large Christian and Muslim populations live side by side, intermarry and celebrate each other's religious festivals."

"It is a living example of religious pluralism," she said. "This coexistence did not come about by accident but rather as a result of the vision and deliberate action of Tanzanian leaders, dating back to the country's first president...," she said.

Ms. Deliri, who represented the Baha'i International Community at the two-day hearing, also said it was important for governments to create a climate where freedom of religion or belief is clearly upheld in law and in practice.
"Such a climate must be free from incitements to violence or hostility in the name of religion," she said. "Where contentious opinions about religions are expressed, it is the responsibility of the state to provide for right of reply.
"As a minimum standard, both sides must be afforded the right to respond in a peaceful and legal manner so as to allow the public to arrive at their own conclusion. It is in this climate that understanding and cooperation can take root," she said.

She recommended a number of strategies for promoting interreligious and intercultural understanding. They included establishing a universal, mandatory educational policy and curriculum on religion and education and using the news media to promote respect, prevent conflict and achieve increased social cohesion.

Ms. Deliri was among approximately two dozen representatives of nongovernmental and religious organizations from around the world who addressed the General Assembly yesterday.

Other speakers, for example, included Paul Knitter of the Union Theological Seminary in the USA, Gamal I. Serour of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research at the Al Azhar Centre in Egypt, Sohan Lal Gandhi of the Anuvrat Global Organization in India, Fatima Ahmed of Zenab for Women in Development in Sudan, and Steven Rockefeller of Earth Charter International in the United States.

The hearing on interreligious and intercultural understanding was scheduled to continue today with a high-level dialogue among governments.
The Baha'i Faith, with its belief in the oneness of humanity and the oneness of religion, has long promoted religious harmony and supported interfaith dialogue and activity.

Source:

Bahá'í World News Service - Bahá'í International Community - Baha'i testifies at U.N. about understanding among religions
 
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