Posted in Events, Interfaith, London

‘The Mirage of Angels’: Special performance, Sufi poetry, and meditation (2nd April, 7 PM – 9:45 PM, The Poetry Cafe, Covent Garden)

“An exploding horizon of Wings.

We cascade down sheering radiance, our faces burnt from the limitless sun, to receive a boy of ten in oversized Rambo T-shirt playing with other hazel-eyed children outside a white-walled house, and together dance with him to death.”

From ‘The Book of Naseeb’

RECORDING ANGELS, 1280. Manuscript illumination from The Wonders of Creation ('Aja'ib al Makhluqat) of al-Qazwini, Iraq, 1280.
RECORDING ANGELS, 1280. Manuscript illumination from The Wonders of Creation (‘Aja’ib al Makhluqat) of al-Qazwini, Iraq, 1280.

This event features a specially curated performance from ‘The Book of Naseeb’. Musicians and reader, Michael McLellan and Khaled Hakim (electric violin and loops, frame-drums and voice) weave excerpts from a poetic text which imagines the life of a petty criminal as written by his Recording Angels. This work-in-progress which draws on both modernist and Quranic language forms the centre of our evening.

We have two more guest readings of spiritual writing-in-progress: Jane Silk’s open meditations draw on initial studies in Islamic and Sufi thought and then spiritual awakening in Isfahan; Michael McLellan has been distilling spiritual experience and practice into a writing seeking its own form.

As always we keep our floor open to contributions of original poetry or music from our audience.

Ending with a Sufi zikr- a traditional meditation of remembrance with chanting, movement, breathing, and music, which closes with prayers for humanity and the planet.

Event details

Saturday, 2nd April 2016
Poetry Cafe

22 Betterton St, Covent Garden, London, WCH2 9BX
7pm to 9:45pm

Please note: the Sufi zikr at approximately 8.45pm is FREE and you are welcome to come only for the zikr.

£8 on the door (includes copy of opening chapter of ‘The Book of Naseeb’)

 

Author:

This the official blog of the Ansari Qadiri Rifai Sufi Order of the United Kingdom (www.ansariuk.org)

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