Moroccan reflections

Lynn Evans

Regular readers will remember that The View From Fez was supporting the sponsored trek to the summit of Jebel Toubkal to raise finds for the Fez Dhar el Mehraz (click for story).Lynn Evans Davidson has been enjoying Fez over the last few weeks and was kind enough to send us her reflections on her time in Morocco.

MESSAGE OF PEACE

Fès Festival of World Sacred Music has completed its thirteenth cycle. Its message is as always one of peace, dialogue and the harmonious and creative meeting of cultures. Its music reflects and embodies these values. Each of us treads our own personal path through the festival’s myriad of possibilities – the programmed and un-programmed. The message is transmitted through a rich and varied kaleidoscope of experiences.

This year the message was realised in yet another form, one which unexpectedly also created its own little media storm…

CREATIVE DIALOGUE

In February I held a short interview with Naima Lahbil, the director of the Fès Festival, for an article I was working on. During the post interview conversation we talked of my sponsored climb of Mount Toubkal (seen on this blog in April) and hence the story of my friends in the bidonville Association - Fès Dhar El Mehraz. She was intrigued and wanted to meet them.

Naima Lahbil, Director of the Fes Festival and Driss Bouabid co organiser of Festival in the City opening the children's gallery at Al Houriya cultural complex

Within a few days, a meeting had been held and consequently the members of the Association, in connection with Fondation Esprit de Fès personnel Amil and Zineb, officially took on responsibility for the planning, organisation and running of a ten day programme of events for children and young people, from all areas of Fès, as part of the Festival in the City.

They did a superb job! The programme of theatre, music and workshops, performed by and participated in by hundreds of children, filled the cultural complex of Al Houriya and Al Qods with a joyful buzz of creative energy and an astoundingly a high standard of performances throughout the festival time.

Naima was there at the beginning, to open the children’s art gallery and she was their on the closing night , which featured mime; musical theatre; Sufi music and singing; choral singing with instrumental accompaniement; and a pint-sized stand up comedian whose social comment and command of the audience had us laughing and crying at the same time. The audience filled the theatre - in terms of numbers, engagement and pure good vibrations.

It was the highlight of my 2007 festival journey. I was so proud and happy for the Association’s success but also because it was just so joyous - and such a powerful expression of those values at the heart of the Fès Festival.


A CALL FOR PEACE FROM THE CHILDREN OF FES DHAR EL MEHRAZ

Driss Bouabid, is musician; a musical director with the Association; and a key member of the Festival in the City organising team. He explained one of the songs composed by the members and children of Dhar El Mehraz to New York radio journalist, Rob Weisman of WFMU and Transatlantic Sound Paradise.

It is A CALL FOR PEACE.

“We are the children of the Universe.
We want peace.
The difference between the religions is not important.
The difference between the colours is not important.
What is most important is the Dream of Peace.
Why everyday are houses destroyed?
Why everyday are children killed?
And why is the voice of truth stopped?
We are the children of the world.
We give you this message to all governors of the world.
Let the smile be our friend!
Let us all live on this Earth in Peace!”


THE LITTLE MEDIA STORM

Rob Weisberg of NewYork Transpacific Sound Paradise and WFMU radio recording Driss Bouabid playing the oud at AL Qods

Rob Weisman has produced a Fes post mortem radio show, which is now on the web, featuring guests Judy Cantor Navas, Tom Pryor and Richard Gehr.
The playlist page with links is: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/23614.
The 10 minute feature on Dhar El Mehraz is at 1 hour 57 minutes into the 3 hour programme. He is planning a more detailed piece later on and features on his blog and website.

But Rob was just one among a number of journalists who approached me for an introduction to the Association and their work with the Fès Festival.

There was a 12 minute radio transmission produced by Daniel Brown for Radio France and a possible piece for the National Geographic website by Tom Pryor also of New York.
It is also to be included in features being written by Kirstin Barendson for “Yoga + Joyful Living” magazine http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/yogaplus and by Robert Landon who will probably do a story for the “Lonely Planet” website, as well as collaborating with Kirstin on a story for PBS Frontline World website http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld.
Just today, award winning, UK based, DAB digital radio station – Passion for the Planet -
has shown interest in the story. www.passionfortheplanet.com

And there is a film! I spent the best part of 2 days working on this with Jake Clennel and his camera man Derek. Jake won the Edinburgh Festival Award for Best Documentary Film last year, so was fascinating to work with. He is directing and producing a film for a New York based digital broadband TV company, about the Association’s involvement in the Festival as well as more global coverage.


The interest focussed on inclusion - the very positive opening up of the Festival to the people of Fès, in particular the young and more marginalised sectors of society. As one journalist said : we love the Festival and all that it stands for but in terms of reporting, it’s great to have a new angle and one that is so valuable – particularly in the States. Because it not only shows the commitment of the Festival to realising its own message in its own back yard but it also portrays, especially to an American audience and post 9/11 New Yorkers, a positive image of a Muslim country. It’s the kind of portrayal that acts as an urgently needed counterpoint to the more negative images which come through the media.


INTERCONNECTION

For me the Festival opened at Bab Makina, with the arrival of the Princess Lalla Meryam and Queen Rania of Jordan, both incidentally very much involved in child welfare. It closed with performances by children from the rich and poor areas of Fès, on the final night of the Festival in the City organised by an Association which issues from a bidonville.

What an amazing symbol of interconnection!

Clearly this new initiative has been a great success in the living evolution of the Festival – way beyond expectations. And hopefully it is a direction in which the Festival, and Fès the Sacred City, will continue to evolve … in a form true to its roots.



Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news