Past Events in 2009

 

• When: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 4:30-7:30 PM
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited. Tickets are $60 per person, including dinner. 

Grammy-nominated Arabic percussionist Souhail Kaspar, internationally acclaimed Syrian oud master Afif Taian, and dancer Naia present a celebration of Middle Eastern music and dance in a special evening at Shangri La.

Born in Lebanon and trained at the prestigious Nadi al-Fonun al-Arabia (Conservatory of Traditional Arabic Music) in Aleppo, Syria, Souhail Kaspar specializes in classical Arabic music. His dazzling mastery of technique, combined with a highly developed flair for improvisation, makes each performance unique and mesmerizing. He has shared the stage with leading Arabic artists and worked with a host of celebrated musicians in other music genres, including Sting, Tito Puente, Kronos Quartet, Strunz & Farah and many others. He has given command performances for a host of dignitaries, including the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II. His most recent release, When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, was nominated for the Grammy Award in 2008 in World Music

Afif Taian was born in Homs, Syria in 1974. He trained at the Institute of Music in Homs, Syria and graduated at the age of 19. In 1995 he moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he played with the University of California Arabic Musical Ensemble. Taian currently lives in Los Angeles where he performs with the Kan Zaman ensemble under the direction of Wael Kakish. He is known for his brilliant takasims and has toured with such superstars as Shadi Gameel, Master Vocalist of Syria. He has recently released the CD Sunset (Shams el-Ghoroub).

LECTURE
From Andarmahal to Ashram/Anjuman and School: The Life and Work of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein

• Speaker: Dr. Sonia Amin
• When: Saturday, December 5, 2009, 1:30-4:00 PM
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

Dr. Sonia Nishat Amin is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and holds the Arthur Lynn Andrews Chair at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is the author of The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939 (Leiden, 1996). Her lecture will focus on the life and work of Rokeya S. Hossein (1880-1932) a pioneering Indian feminist, writer, and educationist who wrote on the emancipation of women, established a girls school, and forged a new identity for the women of the emerging Muslim middle class in Bengal.

Co-sponsored by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

PERFORMANCE
Two short plays by Bahram Beyzai

• Players: Produced and performed by the University of Hawaii Student Organization of Theatre and Dance under the direction of Dr. Dennis Carroll
• When: Saturday, November 28, 2009, 1:30-4:30 PM
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited. 

“The Puppets” and “An Evening in a Strange Land” are modern Persian plays based on traditional Persian dramatic and puppetry theaters. Both are early works of prominent Iranian playwright, poet, theater and film director Bahram Beyzai. Beyzai, born in Tehran 1938, did substantial research on the traditional Persian plays, Book of Kings (Shahname) and Ta'zieh as well as other ancient pre-Islamic and Persian cultures and literature. He is noted for creating a new non-western identity for Iranian theatre. Beyzai’s stories including The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad, Banquet, Serpent King, and The Story of the Hidden Moon are regarded as masterpieces. Bayzai's plays are little-known masterpieces of twentieth century Persian theater.

Co-sponsored by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Theater and Dance Department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa

GUEST ARTIST LECTURE

• Speaker: Walid Raad
• When: October 21, 2009 at 6pm
• Where: UH Manoa Art Building Auditorium
• Details: Free and open to the public

Internationally acclaimed artist Walid Raad’s works include textual analysis, video, and photography projects, which concentrate on the Lebanese civil wars, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and documentary theory and practice. His video works include Up To the South (with Jayce Salloum), and the recently completed collection of video shorts titled, The Dead Weight of Quarrel Hangs. His photography projects include The Beirut Archive an ongoing documentary photography project of post-civil war Beirut. Raad’s photographic work addresses the relationship between official national histories of Lebanon and international media fantasies about the Middle East. His most widely recognized project is The Atlas Group. Over a fifteen year period, between 1989 and 2004, he developed a fictitious group of scholars and developed a fake archive of historical documents culled from media sources that relate to the Lebanese wars of 1975 and 1991. Raad is in Honolulu as an artist in residence at Shangri La.

Co-sponsored by the University of Hawaii’s Visiting Art and Scholar Program with additional support from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts

A Celebration of Middle Eastern Food Traditions

• When: Saturday, August 8, 2009, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

This event will feature the illustrated lecture “Middle Eastern Influences on American Food Traditions” by Gary Paul Nabhan. Dr. Nabhan is a Lebanese-American writer, lecturer, and conservationist. He is a Research Social Scientist based at the Southwest Center of the University of Arizona and has been the recipient of many awards including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, a Pew Fellowship in Conservation and Environment, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Conservation Biology. He is the author of several books including Arab/American and Where Our Food Comes From.

In addition, participants will have an opportunity to enjoy local renditions of Islamic inspired cuisines by:

• Karen Miyano, the Reluctant Caterer
• Savas Mojarrad, the Olive Tree
• Sean Priester, Top of Waikiki
• Ed Kenney, Town & Downtown
• Chris Murai, A Latta Gelato
• Whole Foods Market

LECTURE
The Conservation and Care of Glass Objects

• Speaker: Stephen P. Koob
• When: Saturday, July 11, 2009, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

This lecture is designed to aid in understanding the materials used in the conservation and restoration of historical glass objects. Mr. Koob will emphasize the correct and safest methods of handling, cleaning, displaying, mounting, lighting, transporting, and storage of glass objects.

Stephen P. Koob received an MA in Classical Archaeology from Indiana University, and a BSc in Archaeological Conservation and Materials Science from the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. He worked as a conservator specializing in ceramics and glass at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. He is currently Conservator at the Corning Museum of Glass. He is the author of Conservation and Care of Glass Objects (The Corning Museum of Glass), 2006.

CONFERENCE
Islam and Muslims in World Contexts

On June 18 and 19 Shangri La, the Doris Duke Center for Islamic Art hosted “Islam and Muslims in World Contexts”, a convening of 21 participants including 13 Social Science Research Council grant recipients and 6 Honolulu-based colleagues. The conference, organized by the Social Science Research Council, presented an opportunity for participants to explore how universities and media organizations working alongside universities can better engage non-academic audiences on the topic of Islamic traditions and Muslim communities in the world. Through animated round table discussions and break away sessions participants focused on how to make more creative use of existing technologies, what kinds of capacities should be developed within universities to promote successful public engagement, and how to encourage the development of leadership on the topic of public engagement. Participants also discussed ways of engaging publics through traditional and new media, recognizing the simultaneously waning but centralizing role that traditional media plays and the tendency of new media to further divide and fragment audiences.

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is an independent nonprofit organization devoted to the advancement of social science research and scholarship. Founded in New York City in 1923 as the world’s first national coordinating body of the social sciences, it is today an international resource for interdisciplinary, innovative public social science. The grants program funded projects helping to improve knowledge on Islam and Muslim communities at thirteen Title VI National Resource Centers on university campuses specializing in international studies, language training, and public education.

The Islam and Muslims in World Contexts Conference was funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York which promotes public scholarship on Islam, with additional support from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

LECTURE
And Allah Answered Their Questions:
The Unforgettable Stories of Islam's First Women

• Speaker: Tamara Albertini
• When: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

This lecture focuses on the extraordinary lives of the first Muslim women with emphasis on the Prophet's wives Khadija, Hafsa, 'Aisha and Umm Salma, his daughter Fatima, and his granddaughter Zaynab, as safe keepers of the Qur'an and transmitters of the Tradition, as theologians, and teachers.

Dr. Tamara Albertini received her D.Phil. from Ludwig Maximilians Universitat, Munich. She is a Swiss-American Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii, specializing in Renaissance and Islamic thought.

LECTURE
Does Art Have a Religion? Islamic Art Revisited

• Speaker: Aslam Syed
• When: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

This presentation will explore the relationship between what is commonly called “Islamic Art” and the religion of Islam. Did Islamic art begin as a religious practice? Were artists commissioned by the clergy to depict the ideology of Islam? And does Islamic art manifest the legacy of the Arabs or the diverse cultural heritage of artists and Muslims throughout the Islamic world?

Dr. Aslam Syed, Professor of History at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, currently holds the Endowed Arthur Lymans Andrews Chair at the University of Hawaii. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

PANEL DISCUSSION
The Roles of Women in Contemporary Iran

• Panelists: Farideh Farhi, Marcia Morse, and Marty Nikou
• When: Saturday, March 21, 2009, 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited. 

In celebration of Narous, the Persian New Year, and the Persian Nights Film Festival at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Shangri La, presents a panel discussion examining contemporary Iranian issues.

Ferideh Farhi was born in Iran. She has taught at Tehran University and is an independent researcher associated with the University of Hawaii. She has been a recipient of grants from the United States Institute of Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation and was most recently a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Marcia Morse received a BFA from Harvard University and an MFA in Printmaking at Stanford University. She is a Professor of Art at Honolulu Community College, an artist, freelance curator, and art critic for Honolulu Weekly, Artweek and Art in America. Her recent series of prints, Women in Black, examines issues of women in the Islamic world.

Marty Nikou was born in Iran. He received an MFA from San Francisco State and is working on a degree in American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is a lecturer in visual arts at Honolulu and Windward Community Colleges, a photographer, an award winning poet, and the only Farsi speaking court interpreter in the State of Hawaii.

MIDDLE EASTERN MUSICAL PERFORMANCE

• Performers: Grammy-nominated Arabic percussionist Souhail Kaspar and Moroccan vocalist and oud master Rachid Halihal
• When: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

Born in Lebanon and trained at the prestigious Nadi al-Fonun al-Arabia (Conservatory of Traditional Arabic Music) in Aleppo, Syria, Souhail Kaspar specializes in classical Arabic music. His dazzling mastery of technique, combined with a highly developed flair for improvisation, makes each performance unique and mesmerizing. He has shared the stage with leading artists across a wide spectrum of Arabic music, and worked with a host of celebrated musicians in other music genres, including Sting, Tito Puente, Kronos Quartet, Strunz & Farah and many others. He has given command performances for a host of dignitaries, including the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II. His most recent release, When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq, was nominated for the Grammy Award in 2008 in World Music.

Born and trained in Fez, Morocco, Rachid Halihal has enjoyed a remarkable international career that has included extended residencies in Morocco, the Arabian Gulf, Ivory Coast, Sweden, Finland and, most recently, New York City. A 14-year veteran of the celebrated Andalus orchestra of Fez, Rachid is best known to world audiences for his powerful vocals in the soulful Andalusian style. He is also a master of oud (the fretless lute of the Middle East) and violin, which he plays in both the classical manner and upright resting on the knee for Moroccan folkloric music. Rachid has performed with a wide range of artists, from traditionalists such as Mohammed Abdo and The Chicago Classical Oriental Ensemble to Israeli fusion artist Michael Cohen and the rai-rock band Rachid Taha.

Presented in partnership with the National Organization for Traditional Artists Exchange.

LECTURE
The Paper Trail: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World

• Speaker: Jonathan M. Bloom
• When: Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

Although paper was invented over two thousand years ago in China, it did not reach Europe for many centuries, and it did not become common there until the development of printing in the 15th century. In this beautifully illustrated talk, Dr. Jonathan Bloom, the author of the award-winning book, Paper before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World , will show how Muslims in the Middle East carried paper and the technology of making it from China to the West. Along the way, this new medium not only transformed Islamic civilizations but also changed the ways we think, work, and make art.

Jonathan M. Bloom and his wife scholar Sheila Blair share the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Norma Jean Calderwood University Chair of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College. Dr. Bloom is the author of Arts of the City Victorious: The Art and Architecture of the Fatimids in North Africa and Egypt (2007) and Minaret: Symbol of Islam (1989). He was the editor of Early Islamic Art and Architecture (2002) as well as many articles on differing aspects of Islamic art from the mosques of Cairo to medieval Islamic woodwork. Drs. Bloom and Blair are in Honolulu asscholars in residence at Shangri La.

Co-sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts

READING AND TALK
The Dream of the Poem: Islamic Art, Arab Verse and Andalusian Hebrew Poetry

• Presenter: Peter Cole
• When: Saturday, January 24, 2009, 4:15 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
• Where: Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
• Details: Reservations required. Seating is limited.

Tenth-century medieval Spain was a place where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in relative harmony and Arabic was the dominant language. In this setting Hebrew culture experienced a renewal that produced what is arguably the most powerful body of Jewish poetry since Biblical times. Poet, translator and publisher Peter Cole brings this remarkable era to life with a presentation of readings from his book The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 .

Peter Cole is the author of three volumes of poetry, Rift (1989), Hymns & Qualms (1998), and Things on Which I’ve Stumbled (2008) and has also published many volumes of translation from Hebrew and Arabic, including Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol (2001) and Taha Muhammad Ali’s So What: New and Selected Poems, 1971-2005 (2006). He is the co-editor of Ibis Editions, which he co-founded in 1998, and has been a visiting writer and professor at Wesleyan University, Middlebury College, and Yale University. Cole has received numerous awards for his work, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2007.

 

Past Events in 2008

GUEST ARTIST LECTURE

• Speaker: Shahzia Sikander
• When: Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6pm
• Where: UH Manoa Art Building Auditorium
• Details: Free and open to the public

Shahzia Sikander’s art responds to the tradition of Indo-Persian miniature painting with wit, irony, and paradox. Over the course of her career, she has used a variety of media, including drawing, large-scale wall installations, animation and video, to expand its canon. She appropriates its serene surface design, and introduces mythology and imagery drawn from a variety of cultures. There is no single story or single moral in her work. Instead, she narrates a world full of possibility.

Ms. Sikander received her training in Lahore, Pakistan. She has had several solo exhibitions and has been included in a number of important group shows, including Global Feminisms (2007), the Taipei Biennial (2006), and the Venice Biennale (2005). She has won recognition for her work from the South Asian Women's Creative Collective. She was appointed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2006, and was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship from 2007-2011. Shahzia Sikander is in Honolulu as a Shangri La artist in residence.

Co-sponsored by Shangri La and the UHM Art Department Intersections Program

EXHIBIT
Fields of Flowers: Woven Carpets and Mughal Treasures

• When: September 24-December 12, 2008, Weekdays 8 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sundays noon - 4 p.m., (closed Saturdays and holidays)
• Where: The East-West Center Gallery, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu
• Details: Free and open to the public. Coincides with the Textile Society of America’s 11th Biennial Symposium (Honolulu, September 24-27, 2008)

In mid-17th century Mughal India, the taste for naturalistic floral sprays reached an apogee of artistic expression. The aesthetic style dominated the arts of South Asia from the 17th century to the present, and has had an impact on even Western and Chinese aesthetic traditions. The taste for beautiful floral motifs is seen in a rare pair of large, unusually-shaped Mughal carpets in the collection at Shangri La. Paired together, the carpets form a bold field of flowers with an interior void wherein a person, most likely a royal personage, would have sat in splendor. The exhibition will include a pedestrian bridge, enabling visitors to view the carpets more closely. Intricate works of art inspired by Mughal floral patterns, including brassware, paintings, stonework, woodwork, and textiles will also be displayed. Photographs and video will demonstrate social and historical context.

Co-sponsored by Shangri La and the East-West Center

Learn more about Mughal Flowers

LECTURE
Introducing the Qur'an as Literature

• Speaker: Dr. Carl W. Ernst
• When: Thursday June 26, 2008. Open house 5:30–6:00pm, lecture and reception 6:00–8:30pm
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Free and open to the public.

How should a first-time reader of the Qur’an approach this book, particularly if one has no previous acquaintance with the text? Contrary to some expectations, the Qur’an is neither a manual for violence nor a legal document known by a single interpretation. Like the Bible and other scriptures, the Qur’an has an intricate internal structure, and it has been interpreted in a bewildering variety of ways over the centuries.

This lecture presents a historical and critical approach to the Qur’an as literature, based on a reading of the text according to its historical unfolding over the prophetic career of Muhammad; it explores the relation of the Qur’an to previous Near Eastern traditions, including its Biblical and Arabian predecessors; and it outlines the structure and stylistic features of the 114 suras that comprise the text. The aim is to make it possible for readers to see the Qur’an as a living and dynamic text, which developed in a very particular historical context, even though it can be subject to numerous other interpretations.

Carl Ernst is in Honolulu as a Shangri La scholar in residence. 

LECTURE
Women’s Tales, Women’s Money: Female Patronage of Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Art in Pre-modern India

• Speaker: Frederick M. Asher
• When: Sunday May 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm
• Where: Luke Lecture Hall, Wo International Center, Punahou School, 1601 Punahou Street
• Details: Space is limited. Parking is free and readily available across from the Wo Center

Women have been instrumental in the development of the arts of India through the ages – as creators, as patrons, as subject matter – yet their contributions to the discipline of South Asian art history have been underrepresented, if not overlooked. In this ground-breaking lecture, Dr. Frederick M. Asher explores the role of women whose financial independence, personal taste, and public-spirited or privately-inspired impulses led them to found and participate in the creation of great buildings and works of art. Dr. Asher will share highlights of female patronage from ancient to the pre-Colonial periods, looking specifically at examples growing out of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain religious traditions.

Frederick M. Asher is a professor of art history at the University of Minnesota, where he has been a distinguished member of the faculty for more than 35 years. He received his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago in 1971. Dr. Asher is extensively published in the field of South Asia art history; his most important publications include Bodhgaya (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007); Art of India: Prehistory to the Present, editor, (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2002); and The Art of Eastern India: 300-800 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1980). He has received the University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and has been honored by the government of India with an Outstanding Leadership Award

Co-sponsored by Shangri La and Punahou School 

OPEN HOUSE
The Sound of Water at Shangri La

• When: Saturday May 3, 2008, 2 hour time slots, between 11:45am and 4pm
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: Space is limited. .

For their final class project, University of Hawaii art graduate students Brian Lo, Sara Hertenstein, Michelle Jones-Little, Chris Hendricks and Margaret Lui have brought a new experience to Shangri La in the form of sound installations. From the Mughal Garden, to the Playhouse Lanai and Lily pond, the students have combined human, animal, musical, and natural sounds to create three stimulating artistic experiences.

These sound installations will be open to the public in a special one-time event which offers visitors an opportunity to enter the grounds of Shangri La not currently open to the public tour. Brian, Sara, Michelle, Chris, and Margaret will interpret their installations, and visitors will be able to individually experience these unique sounds for themselves. As part of this special event, light refreshments will be available and visitors will be able to tour the public rooms of the main residence.

LECTURE
In Search of the Memory of Al-Andalus

• Speaker: Maria Rosa Menocal
• When: Saturday March 8, 2008, 4:15–7:30 PM
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: By invitation

Al-Andalus is the evocative Arabic name for medieval Spain. For centuries, it was a European homeland for Muslims, one that was ultimately lost—as was Sefarad, the Jewish name for the same homeland. Adrift in history, al-Andalus has been kept alive by a powerful nostalgia for the memory of this time and place. It is alive in all manner of literature, from the great Andalusian poets of the eleventh century to the evocative songs of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, and from Cervantes’ bittersweet Don Quixote to the politically charged poems of the contemporary Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish. This presentation will explore the richness of al-Andalus as a muse, the centrality of exile and loss to this literary universe, and the importance of literature to our understanding of history.

A literary historian, Dr. Menocal is the R. Selden Rose Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. She is the author of five books, and co-author of the forthcoming Arts of Intimacy: Christian, Jews, and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture (Yale University Press, Fall 2008). 

LECTURE
From Silk to Oil: Culture and Commerce Crossing China and Islamic Central Asia

• Speaker: Morris Rossabi
• When: Wednesday, February 27, 6:30-8:30 PM
• Where: Keoni Auditorium of the East-West Center's Imin International Conference Center (also known as Jefferson Hall) at 1777 East-West Road.
• Details: Free and open to the public.

Dr. Morris Rossabi will present an illustrated lecture describing the historical and modern connections between China and the Islamic world in Central Asia, emphasizing both commerce and, via the Silk Roads, artistic diffusion. The traditional trade in silks and other goods and its impact on the spread of artistic motifs through such commerce will be discussed. The lecture also focuses on the contemporary scene, evaluating the roles of the Chinese need for oil, natural gas, and other resources from Central Asia, as well as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and ethnic resurgence in both China and Central Asia.

Dr. Rossabi holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now a Professor of History at Columbia University and also City University of New York. He is an expert on the history of East and Central Asia. Dr. Rossabi is in Honolulu as a Shangri La scholar in residence.

co-sponsored by the East-West Center

Events in 2006

PUBLIC FORUM
States of Architecture: In the Midst of the Global, Local and Spectral

• When: Monday, January 16, 2006 from 4:45 until 6:30 p.m.
  
• Where: the Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
• Details: Free and open to the public. Validated parking at $3 for 4 hours is available in the Academy Art Center. For more information, call the Academy at (808) 532-8700. Seating is limited and will be offered on first-come, first-served basis.

This forum will be a conversation among nationally and internationally renowned architectural writers and critics and members of the architecture community in Honolulu on the state of architecture today. Participants will discuss some of the challenges facing architecture today including how the practice of architecture is reconstituting itself in the context of increasing globalization; local imperatives influencing architecture in Hawaii; and the growing phenomenon of media-produced configurations which are “spectral,” disembodied and dematerialized.

Participants include Nezar AlSayyad, University of California at Berkeley; Zeynep Celik, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Hasan-Uddin Khan, Roger Williams University; Fabrizio Medosi, Pacific Atelier; Anthony Vidler, Dean, Cooper Union School of Architecture; and Raymond Yeh, Dean, School of Architecture, University of Hawaii. The forum will be moderated by Amy Anderson, Professor, University of Hawaii.

Co-sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts

Events in 2005

EXHIBIT
Enduring Threads: Central Asian Embroidered Textiles

• When: November 7, 2005 – January 19, 2006
  Weekdays 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
  Sundays noon - 4 p.m.
  (closed Saturdays and holidays)
• Where: The East-West Center Gallery,
  1601 East-West Road, Honolulu
• Details: Free and open to the public. For parking info and a map, visit www.eastwestcenter.org.
  

Among the most well-known arts of Uzbekistan is the suzani. Suzan is the Persian word for needle and it is aptly applied to this textile tradition, which showcases bold and colorful embroidery. Historically made by women for daughters’ dowries, suzanis decorate homes as wall hangings, bedding, and curtains among other decor. The resulting domestic aesthetic is exuberant, pleasing to the eyes and the soul.

Suzanis from the Shangri La collection will be seen together for the first time in this exhibit. Photographs of Uzbekistan will be exhibited with the suzanis to provide an overview of the culture and society. A four-page color handout will be available for visitors.

Presented in partnership with the East-West Center Arts Program

PERFORMANCE
Debashish Bhattacharya, Hindustani Slide Guitar with tabla accompaniment by Subhasis Bhattacharjee

• When: Saturday November 19, 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: $20 general seating, $18 seniors and HAA members. For tickets and more information call (808) 532-8700

A native of Calcutta, India, Debashish Bhattacharya has been described by Guitar Player magazine as one of the world’s most amazing musicians. Over the past twenty years, he has perfected a means of performing Indian classical music on two instruments he has adapted from the Hawaiian steel guitar and another he developed from the Portuguese braguinha, which is the direct ancestor of Hawaii’s beloved ‘ukulele.

Debashish is an incredibly dynamic artist capable of lightening speed, extreme delicacy, grand passion and deep feeling. Their concert is certain to be one of the highlights
of the season, not only for devotees of Indian music, but for anyone who enjoys hearing music played on the highest possible level. This will be the only concert in America this year for this phenomenal artist, who will be traveling direct from India for the performance.

Co-sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts and Tradex, National Organization for Traditional Artists Exchange

DEMONSTRATION
Suzani dyeing and embroidering

• Presenter: Dilbar Khalimova, from Uzbekistan
• Interpreter: Hermine Dreyfuss,
  from Washington, D.C.
• When: Sunday, November 6, 1-3 p.m.
• Where: The East-West Center Gallery,
  1601 East-West Road, Honolulu
• Details: Free and open to the public

In conjunction with the opening of “Enduring Threads,” Dilbar Khalimova will demonstrate dyeing techniques and embroidery stitches used today in Uzbekistan by modern suzani makers. Ms. Khalimova is renowned for the suzanis she makes and has frequently represented Uzbekistan in numerous trips abroad, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Hermine Dreyfuss, a photographer and authority on Central Asian cultures, including the embroidery traditions of Uzbekistan, will interpret the demonstration. The gallery will also be open for viewing the exhibit.

Presented in partnership with the East-West Center Arts Program

LECTURE
Islamic Art in Japan: Japanese Collections of Islamic Art from the 8th Century to Today

• Speaker: Tomoko Masuya
• When: Tuesday, October 18, 5 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the
  Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

Since Islamic glass first arrived in Japan in the hands of the Chinese Buddhist monk Jianzhen in 754, Japanese people have admired and collected art from Islamic regions. Dr. Tomoko Masuya traces the history of Japanese interest in Islamic art and explores the role traditional Japanese culture played in fostering appreciation and enthusiasm for the arts of the Islamic world. Tomoko Masuya is Associate Professor of Islamic Art at Tokyo University’s Institute of Oriental Culture. She holds her Ph.D. in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and is a specialist in Persian culture. She is in Hawaii as a scholar in residence at Shangri La.

Co-sponsored by Japan Foundation and Honolulu Academy of Arts

ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY LESSON
A demonstration of traditional tools, materials, and teaching techniques

• Presenter: Mohamed Zakariya
• When: Saturday, September 17, 10:00-12:00 AM
• Where: Linekona at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1111 Victoria Street
• Details: Maximum attendance 30. Tuition $20
• Contact: To register and for more information, please call 532-8741

This two-hour session will give participants the opportunity to witness the first lesson in a traditional course of Islamic calligraphy, recreating the one-on-one teaching that has always been the mode of transmission from master to student. The beginning student’s tools and materials will be shown and described; a reed pen will be cut and an inkwell prepared. As the lesson begins, the student will watch Mohamed Zakariya draw the Arabic alphabet, letter by letter. Throughout the process, Zakariya will describe what he is doing and why, explaining the philosophy of Islamic calligraphy and its standards and techniques. Examples of finished works will be available for examination. At the end of the demonstration, participants will have a basic understanding of the methods of Islamic calligraphy, the tools and materials used, and how the art continues to be passed on through the generations.

Co-sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts

LECTURE
The Art of the Word: Origins, Techniques, and Meaning in Islamic Calligraphy

• Speaker: Mohamed Zakariya
• When: Tuesday, September 13, 5:00 PM
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

In this illustrated lecture, noted American calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya will trace the history and development of Islamic calligraphy, its spiritual and visual significance, and its primacy among the arts of Islam. Special emphasis will be placed on the flowering of this art under the master calligraphers of the Ottoman Empire—especially in Istanbul, which remains a thriving center for the study of Islamic calligraphy today.

Mohamed Zakariya is a master calligrapher, artist and maker of custom instruments from the history of science. He holds prized diplomas in sûlûs-nesih and ta’lik scripts. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world and he is well-known for his lectures and workshops. Zakariya is in Hawaii as an artist in residence at Shangri La.

Co-sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts

LECTURE
Mughal Gardens and Their Legacy, from South Asia to Shangri La

• Speaker: D. Fairchild Ruggles
• When: Saturday June 4, 2005 at 11:00am
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

Color, fragrance, texture – a garden stimulates a variety of senses. ‘Dede’ Ruggles, one of the foremost scholars of non-Western landscapes and gardens, discusses how Islamic forms have inspired non-Muslims to create uniquely beautiful gardens. In addition to the Mughal Garden at Shangri La, Dr. Ruggles will discuss Lutyens's Viceroy Palace gardens in Delhi, India, the palace gardens in Deeg, India, and the Smithsonian's Enid Haupt gardens.

Ruggles, an associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has published extensively on Islamic gardens in Spain and India. She received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.

PERFORMANCE
From Istanbul to Shangri La:
The Latif Bolat Ensemble Performs the Music, Dance and Poetry of Turkey

• When: January 29, 2005, 2:00 - 3:45 PM
• Where: Shangri La
• Details: $30 per person.  

One of the most well-known Turkish musicians in the U.S., Latif Bolat plays Turkish Folk Music and devotional Sufi songs. On a long-necked lute, Latif sings of love and spirit, with many songs featuring the lyrics of the great 13th century mystical poets Rumi and Yunus Emre. Poetry and dance will also be featured in this special performance at Shangri La.

Events in 2004

LECTURE
Three Cultures or One? Muslims, Jews, and Christians and the Art of Coexistence in Medieval Spain

• Speaker: Maria Rosa Menocal
• When: August 14, 2004, 7:30 PM
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

Dr. Maria Rosa Menocal's lecture comes at a time when the climate in the Middle East is volatile. Her presentation focuses on a time nearly 1,000 years ago when Muslims, Jews, and Christians dwelled together and created a glorious, harmonious culture in Southern Spain, a land known in Latin as Iberia, in Arabic as Al-Andalus, and in Hebrew as Sepharad.

A literary historian, Dr. Menocal is the R. Selden Rose Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. She is the author of five books, including the best-selling book, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (2002).

LECTURE
The Rare and the Beautiful: Discovering Islamic Art

• Speaker: Edward Gibbs, Islamic Department at Sotheby's London
• When: June 15, 2004 7:30 PM
• When: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

This free lecture will explore the history of collecting Islamic art. The talk will begin with two of the greatest connoisseur-collectors of all time, the Mughal Emperors Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, and his father, the Emperor Jahangir, who between them assembled a vast treasure house of precious objects, many of which ended up in the hands of Catherine the Great of Russia and in the British Crown Jewels and Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.

Intense European interest in "The Orient" developed with colonial expansion in the Middle East and South Asia and took many forms: curiosity for the rare and the exotic, love of beauty, passing fashion, pure (and even impure) desire, and latterly with the rise of the great museums, collecting for educational purposes to illustrate the culture of another society. The talk will finish with an insight into the Islamic art market today and will present such future projects as I.M.Pei's Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar.

LECTURE
Houses in Paradise: Damascus in the 18th and 19th Centuries

• Speaker: Annie-Christine Daskalakis Mathews
• When : June 1, 2004 7:30 PM
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public

Resplendent, lavish, grandiose: such words aptly describe the opulent interiors of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Damascus homes crafted during the heyday of Ottoman rule. For a rising merchant class in Damascus, the sumptuous decor of painted and gilded walls, ceilings and cut marble floor conveyed social status, wealth and prestige.

Dr. Annie-Christine Daskalakis Mathews, an art historian at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, is an authority on interiors from Ottoman Damascus. Her lecture will bring to life the history, use, and design of these historic rooms. Among the rooms she will discuss are two important Damascus interiors now among the highlights of the collection at Shangri La, including the “Turkish rooms” on view on the public tour.

LECTURE
Islam and the Challenge of Modernity

• Speaker: Robert Hefner
• When: Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 6:30 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public.

On the eve of the modern era, Islam was the most global of the world’s religions, stretching across a broad swath of Old World territory from West Africa and Morocco in the west to the Malay Archipelago in the east. Muslim artists and intellectuals were among the world’s most cosmopolitan. The modern age, however, would introduce great strains into Muslim civilization and challenge its confidence and bearings to their very core.

In this presentation, Dr. Robert Hefner examines the challenge of modernity in the Muslim world. He emphasizes that Muslim culture is not monolithic but highly diverse and that diversity provides important clues as to where Muslim culture and society are heading today.

A leading scholar of Islam, Robert Hefner is Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. He is currently directing an international project for the Pew Charitable Trusts on Islam and Democracy, and serves as the editor for the sixth and last volume of the New Cambridge History of Islam, Islam and Modernity: Muslim Society and Culture since 1800.

LECTURE
Islamic Art at Shangri La:
Playing with Form and Structure

• Speakers: Carol Bier and Dave Masunaga
• When: Thursday, January 15, 2004 at 6:00 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public.

In this illustrated program, Carol Bier and Dave Masunaga show us the mathematical discipline and creative play that informs Islamic art. While Western art focuses on the figure, Islamic art uses symmetry, geometric constructions and algorithms to create its own compelling beauty. Bier, Shangri La’s first scholar-in-residence and Dave Masunaga, a teacher of geometry and design science at Iolani School in Honolulu, take us to the intersection of art and mathematics in this visually exciting and innovative collaboration.

Events in 2003

LECTURE
Between Two Cultures: Islam and the West

• Speaker: Aslam Syed
• When: Sunday, September 28, 2003 at 4 p.m.
• Where: Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts
• Details: Free and open to the public.

Dr. Aslam Syed, Professor of History at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, and a Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center, is a respected scholar of Islam, Islamic politics, and relations between Islam and other civilizations. His current interests include cultural and intellectual interactions between Islam and the West. In his talk, Dr. Syed will discuss trends in the evolution of Islamic culture against the background of recent events, including the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.