CIIS Public Programs Presents the Rumi Concert April 5 and 6 Featuring Coleman Barks With Zuleikha, Glen Velez, David Darling, and Jai Uttal

CIIS Public Programs Presents the Rumi Concert April 5 and 6 Featuring Coleman Barks With Zuleikha, Glen Velez, David Darling, and Jai Uttal

SAN FRANCISCO, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Programs at California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) presents two evenings of poetry, music, and movement with renowned poet Coleman Barks in celebration of the 800th birthday of Sufi mystic poet Rumi. The Rumi Concert will take place on Thursday and Friday, April 5 and 6, 8 p.m., at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

"What we are trying to achieve with these concerts is something Sufis call 'sema,'" says Coleman Barks. "This is a deep listening to the spoken word with music-sometimes movement is involved. It's sort of a moving meditation, a way of letting the words and images go deeper into your heart."

Rumi: A Community of Spirit, performed on Thursday, April 5, features readings by Rumi translator Coleman Barks, with dance and story by Zuleikha, percussion by three-time Grammy Award winner Glen Velez, and cello by Grammy Award-nominated composer and performer David Darling. Rumi and Friends: The Open Sky is performed on Friday, April 6 and adds Grammy Award-nominated world musician Jai Uttal to the line-up.

"We are thrilled to have Coleman Barks back for another Rumi program," says Karim Baer, Director of Public Programs at CIIS, adding: "especially in light of the fact that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared 2007 as 'The Year of Rumi' as a way to develop interfaith dialogue and to spread Rumi's message of humanism throughout the world."

In 1976, poet Robert Bly handed his younger colleague Coleman Barks a 19th-century academic translation of mystic Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi and said, "These poems need to be released from their cages... " Barks, previously unaware of Rumi, took the poems and began to render them in free verse. Thirty years and 18 volumes of Rumi translations later, his translations of Rumi have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and made Rumi one of the top-selling poets in the United States, a remarkable accomplishment in light of the chasm that exists between the West and the Muslim world.

Barks has made two appearances on Bill Moyers' PBS specials and was included in the prestigious Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. He also taught poetry and creative writing at various universities for 34 years, and has published six volumes of his own poetry, most recently Tentmaking and Club: Granddaughter Poems. He received the Juliet Hollister Award (2004) for his work in the interfaith area, and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature from the University of Tehran.

EVENT DETAILS
Rumi: A Community of Spirit
Thursday, April 5, 8pm
Rumi and Friends: The Open Sky
Friday, April 6, 8pm
Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco
Tickets $25/$35/$45 ($10 OFF when attending both performances)
Available through City Box Office: 415.392.4400 or at
www.cityboxoffice.com.

CIIS Public Programs is a premiere center for the cultivation of mind, body, and spirit, offering concerts, special events, experiential workshops and classes, and lectures by leading teachers. For more information about CIIS Public Programs, call 415.575.6175 or visit www.ciis.edu/publicprograms.

California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is an institution of higher education that expands the boundaries of traditional degree programs with interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and applied studies in psychology, philosophy, religion, cultural anthropology, transformative studies and leadership, integrative health, and the arts. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). For more information, visit www.ciis.edu.

Contact: Valerie Chow Bush, Director of Communications, 415.575.6165, vbush@ciis.edu

Source: California Institute of Integral Studies

CONTACT: Valerie Chow Bush, Director of Communications, California
Institute of Integral Studies, +1-415-575-6165, or vbush@ciis.edu

Web site: http://www.ciis.edu/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos available upon request.

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