Beat Lively Kirtans and Heart Chants

Here are some images from our annual Rumi Celebration, featuring the Wild Moon Bhaktas, Hakim Bushnell of Light Upon Light Sufi Center and the Rev. Ted Tollefson. We begin the program with an invocation, chanting with the Wild Moon Bhaktas, and then the band provides back-up music for the poetry recitation. Audience members share their often deeply moving, sometimes humorous and always rich, favorite Rumi poems. Pictured is our friend, Tom Esch, reciting Rumi’s highly regarded “Chick Pea” poem, which magically turns our common suffering into something inspiring and meaningful. In the second portion of the program, Hakim Bushnell leads us in sacred dance inspired by the Sufi Zikr. It is a marvel that Rumi’s astonishing poetry – now some 800 years old – still speaks to us so strongly. Thanks to poet-translator Coleman Barks and Robert Bly for giving us these lively English versions of the Sufi mystic’s work.

photos: stevepetersonphotography.net