Analysis

Qantara : Building Bridges between Communities in Southeast Michigan through Music

According to a recent report by Amnesty International, “ racial profiling of citizens and visitors [to America ] of Middle Eastern descent has substantially increased since September 11, 2001” (Threat). Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, prejudice against Arabs has dramatically increased, but Arab culture is not limited to terrorism and is not, in fact, properly represented by terrorism at all. There are an estimated three million Arab Americans living in the United States (100), and Southeast Michigan , with an Arab population of 250,000, has the second largest concentration of Arabs outside of the Arab world behind Paris (Singer). Clearly, this is not a miniscule minority. Understanding what Arab culture is beyond stereotypes of terrorism and hostility will be beneficial to the non-Arab and Arab populations of Southeast Michigan because it erases misunderstanding and contributes to peaceful community.

Ascertaining the value of Arab culture and the importance of displaying positive Arab culture, The University Musical Society (UMS) and the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Sevices (ACCESS) began working together in the late 1990s to bring prominent Arab musicians to Southeast Michigan to entertain and educate the public about Arab music. The organizations collaborated to bring Lebonese oud and violin player Simon Shaheen to the area from December 1, 2003 to January 31, 2004 (Sound 1) and also to present the Arab World Music Festival, a sixth-month event featuring five concerts of music from the Arab world (Arab World Music 3-7). At a time when Arab culture is most often represented negatively by acts of terrorism, events such as the Music Festival and Shaheen residency are essential to building bridges between the Arab and non-Arab communities, to educating both communities about the diversity within the Arab world, and ultimately to emphasizing inclusiveness and understanding. The events were both successful and unsuccessful in reaching these goals.

It is first important to understand what is meant by “Arab music.” Arab music features improvisation, emphasizes rhythm and melody rather than harmony, and uses microtones. There are twenty-four distinct microtones, many of which do not exist in Western music, making Arab music sound strikingly different from Western music (Arab Tone). Additionally, many Arab instruments are progenitors of Western instruments. The oud preceded the European lute, and all Western reed instruments are direct descendents of Arab reed instruments (Arab World Music 10). Classical Arab music comes from the Levant region, which includes Syria , Palestine , Jordan , Lebanon , and Iraq ( Levant ).

The “Arab world” must also be defined. There are twenty-two self proclaimed Arab nations that spread from North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula (Abed). The uniting factor between these diverse nations is the Arabic language; however, the people inhabiting these countries differ greatly in ethnicity and religion. Arabs are not all Muslims. In fact, the majority of Arab Americans are actually Christians, and there are significant minorities of Arab Jews scattered in communities within the Arab world (Arab World).

Wadad Abed, an Ann Arbor Palestinian American and a leading organizer of the Festival, said, “ The whole idea of seeing the arts—and through the Musical Society seeing music—as a means to build bridges was outstanding because the bridges we have today are lost. There really are no bridges.” The importance of building relations between Arabs and non-Arabs is demonstrated by the Amnesty International report and is lost on neither Abed nor Ken Fischer, president of UMS. Although the Arab World Music Festival is now over, relations continue between the Ann Arbor Arab community and UMS. Besides founding a new organization to further the Arab arts, Abed has recently accepted a position on the UMS board of directors, and UMS hopes to incorporate an Arab-focus concert in its 2005 Africa festival (University). These bridges have not been abandoned.

In December of 2003 and January of 2004, Simon Shaheen visited Southeast Michigan to bridge communities. His residency included Arab music community workshops, master classes, lectures, interviews, and demonstrations. All workshops were free and open to the public and took place in either Ann Arbor , home to UMS, or Dearborn, home to ACCESS (Sound 5). As a part of the residency, Shaheen commissioned an original work entitled “Waving Sands” on January 31, 2004. The piece was a part of the Continental Harmony project aimed at bringing people together through the arts (Continental). Shaheen says about his music, “I want to create a world music exceptionally satisfying to the ear and for the soul” (Sound 2). His music represents the desire for unification that was central to theses events. The residency was the first successful fruition of the collaboration between UMS and ACCESS to bring Southeast Michigan 's Arab and non-Arab communities together.

Shaheen's ensemble is called Qantara , which literally means “bridge” in Arabic, reflecting its members' desire to unite people of different backgrounds. The music itself also demonstrates this, as it fuses Arabic, jazz, western classical, and Latin music (Sound 3). The variety of influences combined into one transcends divisions of ethnicity and culture. In just one group, music from many different traditions is blended together forging connections between musical traditions and cultures.

The first half of the bridge is educating the non-Arab community about the richness of Arab culture, and in this respect the festival can be counted a success. Most of the concerts were attended by equal numbers of Arabs and non-Arabs and were well received by both (Fischer). Fischer notes, “Demonstrating a certain level of tolerance, interest, understanding, this is a kind of community a lot of people like to be living it, where there's open-mindedness and a desire to learn.” Although the Arab community is very prominent in Southeast Michigan , many non-Arabs are not aware of Arab culture and music. The Festival provided a glimpse of what this music is and through the Festival, many people were familiarized with Arab music.

The other half of the bridge between communities involves Arabs learning about the Western classical traditions as well. As Abed put it, “Initially we were excited that our music was going to be displayed to the world, but what we need to do is the other side, expose our people to the classical world of music.” She also notes how the University Musical Society is no longer a foreign name in the Arab community. Fischer comments on this side of the relationship, “We now have built very solid relationships with this community. We know a lot of people, and we'll want to get them involved in UMS. We'd love to see our friends in the Arab community coming to lots of other stuff: jazz, classical music, that sort of thing.” Abed herself is a testament to the bridges being built between the two communities: although she became a part of the festival through Anan Ameri, a director at ACCESS during the time of the organization, she is now a board member at UMS (University) working in non-Arab music spheres.

Explaining the role that the arts play in building bridges, Abed says, “There's nothing better than the arts—and music in particular—because it transcends the brain.” In his essay “Deportees,” Dave Marsh tells a story illustrating how Woody Guthrie used music to transcend differences in race and culture: “Woody and friends bring the two groups [black and white] together, despite objections of a colonel determined to maintain segregation in the face of death. By the end of the night, the music has become so hot and joyous, the colonel dances with a black soldier” (p. 171). Like Woody Guthrie, the Arab music events presented by UMS and ACCESS attempted to bring people from different backgrounds together to enjoy music and one another without the impediment of prejudice.

Where the first goal of the music events was to bring the two communities together, the second was to represent a diverse spectrum of music from the Arab world. The five concerts of the Festival did not all feature the same type of music, but instead presented variety of acts. The purpose of this was to show the diversity within the Arab world and expand the audience's view of what Arab music is.

The five concerts were deliberately designed to represent a wide range of music from the Arab world and went far beyond what is considered traditional Arab music. The five groups and artists represent seven different nations from the twenty-two nations that make up the Arab world, and their music ranged from avant-garde to Sufi music (Arab 5, 7). Part of the educational goal of the Festival was to represent the diversity of the Arab world. While traditional Arab music comes from the Levant , music from other parts of the Arab world is influenced by different sounds and musical traditions, making it distinctly different from classical Arab music. However, the reaction of the Arab community to the wide spectrum of music reveals a small failing of the Festival; although diverse music was presented, it was not all accepted by the audiences.

The majority of Arabs in Southeast Michigan come from the Levant region, with a smaller representation from North Africa due to language differences since much of North Africa is part of the francophone and not the English-speaking world. Traditional Arabic music also comes from the Levant region and many of the Arabs in the Ann Arbor community expressed surprise when the Festival was not strictly focused on traditional music (Abed). As a Palestinian coming from the Levant region of the Arab world, Abed herself admitted, “I had to make the transition in my mind that the idea doesn't just have to be traditional Arabic music.” She articulated the dissatisfaction of many in the community by saying, “When we got to North Africa was when the Arab community was saying, ‘Are you sure?'” This demonstrates a certain failure of the Festival to expand its audience's understanding of the Arab world to one that included more than just the classical Arab music.

The Festival artists came from all over the Arab world and many musical traditions. It began with Marcel Kalife, who is from the Levant region but who plays a variety of music and who had very wide appeal to the diverse audience. The second concert was very traditional music featuring the Ensemble Al-Kindi and the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus who played Sufi music. The third concert featured Arab Canadian Sam Shalabi who plays avant-garde Arab music. The fourth concert was a controversial artist from Mauritania in North Africa named Malouma. And the final concert was the Sufi Brotherhood, which was a return to the traditional Arab music, although it featured artists from outside of the Levant (Abed). Commenting on the diversity of these acts, Abed said, “You shock the stereotypes out of people.” Unfortunately, it seems from the responses of the Arab community that the stereotypes were not completely removed.

Records of attendance at the Festival concerts also support this. Fischer commented on the success of the Festival by noting that ticket sales for the five events taken together exceeded budgeted expectations with some concerts selling more tickets than expected and some concerts selling fewer tickets than expected. The events that sold more than expected were the events that featured traditional music from the Levant region, and the events that sold fewer than expected featured North African and fusion music. Take for example the Ensemble Al-Kindi and Malouma. Both concerts were held at the Michigan Theater at 8 pm on weekends. Al-Kindi, Syrian artists playing traditional Sufi music, sold 1,670 seats out of 1,710, or ninety-eight percent. Malouma, a Mauritanian singer who mixes blues into her music, sold only 619 out of 1,710 seats, or thirty-six percent (Bozell). The huge disparity in ticket sales suggests that the Festival did not reach a very wide audience with its message of diversity and that many people in the community only attended the classical music that did not stray from the traditional understanding of Arabic music.

When I gave copies of the interview transcripts to Abed and Fischer for editing, they returned them with all references to this failure of the Festival taken out. For instance, the above quote from Abed was gone. When I asked Fischer about the reaction of the Arab community to the Festival, he talked about success only in terms of financial profit for UMS and the relationships forged between the communities. This indicates that they were perhaps worried about looking unsuccessful, and also that they partially were just that. The fear of looking unsuccessful probably stems from business concerns, but is likely compounded by the politics of the situation. Although the relationship between UMS and ACCESS preceded the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by many years, the organizations did not receive grant money to present Simon Shaheen until after the attacks (Fischer). Fischer speculated that they received grant money so quickly after the attacks for the purpose of building understanding between the Arab and non-Arab communities in wake of anti-Arab prejudice in the aftermath. For this reason, they might want to come off as being wholly successful in every aspect of the events.

In his book Music: a Very Short Introduction , Nicholas Cook addresses the issue of musical elitism and notes that elitism favoring classical traditions often persists longer than other forms of cultural elitism. He writes, “It is hard to think of another field in which quite such uncritically ethnocentric and elitist conceptions have held such sway until so recently” (p. 43). Interestingly, relations within the Arab world do not seem to reflect the musical relations observed in the Festival; Arab countries remain closely allied politically and economically. Perhaps part of the rejection of new forms of music in the Festival is an inherent and unique quality of all music that encourages this sort of elitism. Whatever the cause, the Festival did not succeed in overcoming this elitism and getting its audiences to appreciate the diversity of music from the Arab world.

There was a time in American history when music like jazz and blues, traditionally African American music forms, were rejected and overlooked by mainstream America . There was a time when music like rock and punk, music forms of the counterculture, were rejected and overlooked by mainstream America . Now, Arab music is increasingly becoming part of the American music scene. It is vital that it is not overlooked by society, but embraced as a part of the many colors of the United States and recognized for its unique musical style. Culture is the fabric that holds a people group together, and a large part of culture is music. By educating the Arab and non-Arab communities about one another, UMS and ACCESS stimulate understanding and mutual interest rather than sitting in judgment.

The collaboration between the two organizations in the planning of the festival demonstrates the understanding that was being forged between two very different communities through the events. ACCESS and UMS worked in partnership to enrich and educate their communities and to mutually benefit one another. They reflect the positive relationship building that the residence and Festival fostered.

Ken Fischer outlines what makes a good relationship with four principles: “cooperation, communication, vulnerability, and reciprocity.” Explaining these principles, he said:

Communication: you've got to be able to talk to each other. Cooperation means you're entering it with a desire to work together. Vulnerability is a way of saying, ‘I don't know everything. You may think I'm the big organization with all kinds of knowledge and research, but when I'm working with you, I don't know anything about the Arab world, I don't know anything about your culture. I'm coming in as a complete novice, and so I'm vulnerable.' I'm telling you I need to learn; I need you. Reciprocity is finding a way that everybody is benefiting in a kind of equal way.

These principles can be applied to building everyday relationships not just between the leaders of the two communities but also between all members of the communities.

Many people with various levels of involvement in the organization of the events show how communities can come together to achieve a common goal. Ben Johnson, Education and Audience Development Director at UMS, was instrumental in all of the planning and organized an honorary committee of fifty to sixty people from the two communities to help plan the event. Even the Honorary Consulate from Syria hosted an event before the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus concert. Through cooperation, these individuals helped the communities understand each other, interact with one another, and build lasting relationships.

The Arab World Music Festival and the Simon Shaheen residency accomplished many good things in Southeast Michigan . The Arab and non-Arab communities came together and built lasting relationships, and cooperation on the parts of UMS and ACCESS built a legacy of understanding that will hopefully persist for years to come. Unfortunately, the events were not wholly successful in communicating the value of the diversity within the Arab world. However, a foundation of harmony was laid in place, and future musical events may help fully carry out the goals of the Festival and residence.