ASHA & AID Event

Saturday night, my husband and I performed downtown at an event for ASHA & AID, two organizations that provide education and development projects in India. It was a wonderful evening, with a mostly Southeast Asian crowd. Several of our friends attended, and we felt blessed to have their company.

We performed Prabhat Samgiita - Songs of the New Dawn - spiritually invoked songs, composed specifically to aid one in spiritual practices. I also sang kiirtan, a universal mantra that is repeated over and over, and creates a vibration of Divine Love. Several people were moved by the songs, which created opportunity for deep and meaningful conversations.

Unbeknownst to me, one of the speakers, on the behalf of ASHA, was the husband of a well known author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, whose book I had just finished reading the week before. He approached me, as I had sung in Bengali, her native tongue. When I found out who his wife was, I was surprised, as this was the third time I was to hear about her.

When I first read about Chitraji a few years ago, something drew me to her; I was curious to meet her - I even considered taking one of her classes. I was at the library last week, and the librarian recommended a book to me. It was written by Chitraji. Now, here was her husband, inviting me to their house for dinner, If only I promised to sing a set of songs in Bengali;)

There were three other phenomenal performances by a harpist; a female sitarist out of Austin, who does documentary work on women in India; and a wonderful sarod player, accompanied by our dear brother, Partha (Uncle to the children) on the tabla.

KPFT Outreach Meeting

On Monday, I was asked to sing at the KPFT Outreach Meeting downtown. The organizers wanted to create an atmosphere of harmony, and felt my music would do that.

I was excited as Rev. Robert Muhammad, a peace activist and radio programmer who had worked with Rev. Martin Luther King in the 60's, was going to be speaking. I have heard him numerous times on the radio, and find his unabashed, political humor to be warm and familiar.

The meeting was quite powerful. Brother Muhammad started off by cutting-to-the-chase. He thundered like a lion, letting us know that we all had to work together and support one another during this time of change in the world. The room filled with his majestic presence as he spoke.

Hitaji Aziz, another programmer was also there and spun her magic web around us all with a wonderful synapses of how people can undermine others - how we need to have unity amongst diversity, even when we don't agree with one another. Sister Akua H. suggested that we be documenting our strong, black leaders of today - that we left off in the 60's with MLK, and others.

The rest of the meeting went off smoothly. The organizers thanked me for my contribution, and felt that the music definitely transformed the vibration to one of peace.