Mutanabbi Street Starts Here
Special Events

LISTENING to MUTANABBI STREET
A Benefit Concert and Reading
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Concert begins at 7:00 PM
 

Join us for a very special evening of traditional Arabic music and readings from our Mutanabbi Street poetry broadsides as we transform the Jaffe Book Arts Gallery into the "Jaffe Athenaeum" for one night only, Thursday, July 17, at 7:00 PM.

Harmonic Motion Middle Eastern Music Ensemble will perform in an intimate concert setting here at the Jaffe Book Arts Gallery. Only 40 seats are available for what will certainly be an unforgettable concert and reading. And in the spirit of the Mutanabbi Street Coalition broadside project, all proceeds benefit Doctors Without Borders, an organization working to relieve suffering in Iraq and in other troubled areas of the world.

Harmonic Motion is a music and dance performance group that focuses on folkloric and ethnic idioms and cross-cultural projects, playing traditional Middle Eastern instruments. Its core performers are musician/composer Joe Zeytoonian (ud, darbuka, and voice) and dancer/ percussionist Myriam Eli (darbuka and riqq). They perform with kanun master Elias Kilzi as the Harmonic Motion Middle Eastern Music Ensemble.

Tickets are extremely limited. The minimum donation per ticket is $20, though any amount over that will be greatly appreciated as we support Doctors Without Borders, the important charity that is at the heart of "Mutanabbi Street Starts Here"--our current exhibition of broadsides printed in honor of Mutanabbi Street, the centuries-old center of bookselling in Baghdad that was attacked by a suicide bomber in 2007. (In fact, why not plan to view this moving exhibition before the concert begins?)

SPECIAL OFFER: Give $50 or more per ticket, and receive as your gift a copy of the Convivio Bookworks limited edition broadside "Occident to Orient" printed by John Cutrone and Seth Thompson. It's one of the Mutanabbi Street broadsides currently on exhibit--only 100 copies were printed letterpress, by hand. (Gift broadsides courtesy Convivio Bookworks: www.conviviobookworks.com)

For tickets, contact Jaffe Center programs coordinator John Cutrone by email or by telephone: (561) 297-0455. Remember, there are only 40 tickets available for this charity fundraiser, so please act quickly to avoid disappointment. And parking will be a breeze: the Wimberly Library actually closes at 6:00 that evening, so plenty of parking will be available! But don't worry--we'll be at the doors to let concert-goers into the building.

 

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Harmonic Motion Middle Eastern Music Ensemble are Joe Zeytoonan on ud and darbuka, Elias Kilzi on kanun, and Myriam Eli on darbuka and riqq. These are all traditional Arabic musical instruments. The ud is a stringed instrument that is an ancestor of the lute and guitar; the darbuka is an hourglass shaped hand drum; the kanun is a Middle Eastern harp; the riqq is a classical tambourine.

JOE ZEYTOONIAN is an udist, singer, percussionist, and composer who has received various Fellowship Grants and Honorable Mentions from Florida's Department of State and the National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to the 2000 Florida Folk Heritage Award from the Division of Historical Resources. He has recorded numerous albums of traditional Middle Eastern and Armenian music, as well as pop music with Gloria Estefan and Shakira. He is co-director of Harmonic Motion with Myriam Eli, with whom he has toured the United States, Turkey, Japan, and Latin America.

ELIAS KILZI came to Miami from Venezuela in 1977. He taught himself to play kanun, one of the most complex instruments in the world. He has risen quickly in his craft, and visiting artists have sought his expertise for years now. He has performed with the famous Lebanese singers Sabah Shahoura and Tony Hanneh, as well as with the Syrian art singers Saba Fakhri and Shaadi Jemil. Demand for his unique musical interpretations and crystal clear sound has been high in the Arabic speaking diaspora of Canada, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States.

MYRIAM ELI performs traditional Middle Eastern, cross-cultural, and improvisational dance, and plays a variety of Middle Eastern hand drums and percussion instruments. She has received awards from the New York based American Academy of Middle Eastern Dance and Florida's Department of State has awarded her two Fellowship Grants and selected her as Master Teacher of Middle Eastern dance for the Folklife Apprenticeship Program. For seven years she has recorded and toured with pop singer Shakira, and has choreographed the performer's Middle Eastern dance segments. Ms. Eli's percussion performances and choreography have been televised on MTV, Saturday Night Live, the Latin Grammies, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She is co- director of Harmonic Motion with Joe Zeytoonian, with whom she has toured the United States, Turkey, Japan, and Latin America.