>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. [ Silence ] >> Thank you all for coming and welcome. I'm Chris Murphy, the head of the Near East section here in the African Middle Eastern Division and on behalf of our chief, Dr. Mary Jane Deed [phonetic] and all of my colleagues in the division, I wish you welcome to one of our noontime presentations. The African Middle Eastern Division consists of three sections, the African section, whose staff is responsible for developing the collection from and about sub-Saharan Africa, the Hebraic section, whose staff is responsible for developing the collection about the Jewish people worldwide and in Hebrew, and the Near East section. The Near East section is responsible for developing the collection from and about all of the Arab countries, Turkey, Turkic Central Asia, the countries of the Caucuses, Georgia, [inaudible] and Armenia, Afghanistan, Iran and the Muslims in Western China, Russia and the Vulcans. Basically the per view of responsibilities of the Near East section runs from Morocco in the west to Western China in the East and from Khartoum in the south to Kazan in the north. Wow. I think I just threw the speaker's material on the floor. The Near East section itself holds about 480,000 volumes in the local languages in the areas of which I just described. About 50 percent of the material is in Arabic, the other very largest collections are Turkish, Persian, Armenian, followed by Georgian, Uzbek and a number of other languages. I think there's 36 of them all together. The staff of the section, as I said who's responsible for developing the collection from and about the near east as defined here at the library, they're also generally active working scholars themselves and one of their major jobs is to provide reference assistance, that is access to the collections that they are building here. Another aspect of their work is to make the collections known to the general public and to the scholarly public. To that end, they work on such events as exhibits of material but they also find individuals who have interesting things to say about the area for which we are responsible and then they do what they can to arrange for those individuals to come and speak. And the arrangements for today's presentation were made by Dr. Fazi [phonetic] Tadrose [phonetic], Arab world specialist in the Near East section who is often referred to as the usta [phonetic], the master, because of his great capabilities and I'm now, without further adieu, going to ask Fazi to come forward and please introduce today's presenter, Fazi. [ Applause ] >> Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to introduce to you one of the Sudan's most renowned singer and intellectual elite, Mr. Ali Mahdi. He's an actor and stage director who has, as [inaudible] director of Sundanese that theatre, music and drama have an invaluable role in promoting their [inaudible] and support peace, keeping process. Mr. Ali Mahdi was born in Khartoum and graduated from Faculty of [inaudible] Art. He founded in 2000 the Booga Theatre Group in Khartoum, which is internationally recognized today as the most convincing practical example of theatre for development and peace building in Sudan. Mr. Mahdi's faith in the log in accepting the other and the diversity of cultures in Sudanese and Arab theatre style have allowed him to bring former child soldiers, victims and aggressors, [inaudible] and lost children to experience cultures and drama as a means through the explorations of new opportunities and unearthed by creativity of finding the way and the courage for personal revival. Mr. Mahdi was a member at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on a child rights and was part of the litigation when the Sudanese government signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations Headquarter in New York. Mr. Mahdi received the [inaudible] prize for the Arab culture. The director general of UNESCO Irina Bokova [phonetic] presented the award to him. UNESCO named him as Artist for Peace of the United Nationals Cultural Agency Headquarter in Paris. Please join me to welcome, Mr. Mahdi. [ Applause ] [ Speaking foreign language ] >> When I speaking in English we just have to-- we each have the sound of my Arabic language. I am so happy that I'm here. First I would like to thanks my colleagues, mainly Dr. Staz [phonetic] Athouzi [phonetic] for this invitation. For I am an artist, I am an actor. This is my main profession, but in the last 10 years or 20 years, I like that I have been writing a lot of things. I have been speaking, giving lecture. So today I don't want to have a lecture. I want to have a dialogue. My profession is to lead the dialog, especially in the last difficult days in our area. We need to listen to each other. This is what I believe. I believe in the cultural diversity. This is-- by the cultural diversity I'm standing here at this very-- this is very, for me as an artist, small and actor, this is a very historical moment that as an actor coming from very far place, not directly from Khartoum from the west of Sudan from a very-- and big family of the Sudi groups but we are very strong to each other but were a little bit poor at that time. I couldn't imagine that one day after all this working, that an artist to be here give you this moment of dialogue not lectures. So this is at the beginning. As usually my office or myself present a lot of good work in the PowerPoint making very good technical, but sometimes it's not working well, as usual. Because you know, the technical have a lot of difficult. I just learned this IT or this technology in the last seven years from my children but I couldn't work with. I use it, but maybe I'm not believe it's [inaudible] on it. I believe in even my theatre in there, if I came here to make a performance, I will select the big yard outside so the people will come and enjoy that. It's what I'm doing and you'll see. But anyway, although I prepare but let me be very frank with you, I will go directly using my speech, showing you some photos, some video and after that I will give you the library, my presentation as a good presentation because it's technically is good more than I try to play it now. I thanked also then you'll hear our friend. He tried to find a way because I came with a different, I think, system. Anyway, my name is Ali Mahdi [inaudible]. I born in Khartoum, out of Khartoum a little bit, in 1952. So I am [inaudible]. I start my career you can call it, as an artist very early. But I believe very much my fairest teacher is my grandmother. My grandmother, Amna [phonetic], she was the fairest teacher because she used every night, especially when it's raining, when it's dark. There was no electricity at that time. >> We came together, all the children around town, and she'd tell us stories. And I think she's the first actor and a good director because when she talk about character in the story, she change her voice between lady to the devil, if I have the right translation, to the young, the hero, she change the voice and she give us the atmosphere sometimes so we come close to her, close to her, close to her. So I remember like a chicken, we are around our big chicken. And she, the speeches that she [inaudible] if a train or [inaudible] and always she have a new story. I remember in the morning when we are playing together, the children, I start repeating the story, what is my grandmother told me and I play the roles differently and I select from my friend, this will be the nice lady, this will be the old man. And so it is how the things start. That was earlier when I was 10, 12, something then. So I believe this is what the first time that I learn that inside made someone, he can find the image. I always consider myself running after images, pictures. So the image, I build the picture. This is my-- the whole concept of my new theatre. So I believe very much in the school in Sudan at that time, we have some classes for art, you know. We make, for model, we make small samples, we paint, I used to go to paint on the sun near the river. We are not far from the White Knight [phonetic]. So I believe this things have helped me very much and the school at that time, there is music, there was drama. So I play small role, small role. And I believe very much at that time in my house this is the atmosphere of the Sufi's [phonetic]. I don't want to talk too much about the Sushi, but you know what are the Sufi's-- something good deeply in the spiritual of the people. And I'm not going to compare between religion to other things, but let us take-- I always call it the art of the Sufi that build a bridge between the others, whatever you are in the same side or what. And this is what is teached me in the future to talk about the bridge between the other. This is why in one of the period I talk about Satan [phonetic] between [inaudible], one was walking, trying to use that performance art in the peace building and the dialogue between the other and in the community of [inaudible] also, that you need the art and the performance. And this is the important role of the artist now, especially in our area where we have the difficulties. So the artist should come from the [inaudible] down to the people. And this is why I always call that my theatre go to the people, not the people come to my seat. Also, before I have the new experience of having this Sufi, you can call it Sufi theatre, I used to work in the national theatre, in a big theatre where there was about 1,200 audience every day and my play at that time is a political, social political play. It's a social stories and also it's touched a little bit far the political situation and what I call it, the political cabaret. You know when you have something funny about the minsters about the regimes. And that in my-- I believe that was not deep. That was touching these things, but the audience was so happy because they find themselves in the same characters as I used to do it. And whatever, they couldn't say outside because of difficulties, they listen it from my theatre and they accept it. So the play is sort of like that. But I start in 1997 changing the whole things. I have a dreams. I dreams many times with my first performance, [speaking foreign language] is the name of big Sufi shakes [phonetic] in the middle of Sudan. [Inaudible] the old kingdom of Sudan, called the Black Kingdom. And that was the meeting between the Arab culture and African civilization. They made that and that was the unity and the culture diversity we dreams now for our countries to have the same situation at that time. You can imagine 200 years of [inaudible]. So I dreams. In my dreams I saw the colors. I saw the flash of the colors. I saw the characters. So when I sit down with my group, I have no routine dialogue, just my dreams. So I try to told them about the dream. They said, what can we do? So slowly by slowly believe me the next dreams are the [inaudible] dreams, I find the characters. It seemed to me the things like that. This is a very different way to-- difficult way to write a play or to compose a performance, but it can be like that. So-- and also, I came back to the Sufi's, the meeting of the shakes, the meeting of the people in the place of the shakes, it became to me that instead of coming every years, it came to be every month I got involved. I go back reading what I learned before when I'm young. I forget. I'm not forget. It's deep inside me, but I realize that I have to discover the things and it's helping to have a new vision for art, the Sufi. It's helped me very much to have a new vision and to have these dreams. I go to the [inaudible]. The [inaudible] it's a circle, a big circle where the people came from different level of the community from the society. They are making the circle by themselves. Sometimes they hold their hand, sometimes not. But the [inaudible] are-- bring them together, this feeling inside them, the spiritual things. And of course there's a shake, there's other people and there is in the Sufi, in the groups, there is some professional thinks that this is a [inaudible]. [Inaudible] is the assistant of the shake, the one he's near after the shake, the one he's not far from the shake. So it's a completely system of community and you can find it in different group of Sufi. I'm talking about the whole Sufi group. I belong to the Smiley [phonetic]. The Smiley, a group, is a Sudanese Sufi group. There is a lot of Sufi group around the world, you know, but this was from Sudan and there's [inaudible] the leader of-- the founder of all these things. And they came to Sudan and in Sudan they have now different group of gadria [phonetic]. It's people that can make their own. The [inaudible] gadria, the [inaudible] Sufi, the Sufi is the open mind, the open doors. This is why I believe the theatre before, I used to do is like audience like you and the stage here, and the people came on the stage play whatever, Shakespeare, whatever it is. And the character, yes, there is some dialogue, unseen dialogue maybe between the audience and the character. But in my new theatre, you will see that I took from the same design of building the [inaudible] dance and music, I build it and other scenes. So I believe that, I always looking for scenes, for scene picture by picture, I build the scenes and at the end we have the performance. I talk too much so I will go. I will show you something. I will show you something now just to improve what I said about that. Concentrate on the circle because at the end from 1979, my first performance find the change to have the performance at the Arab Institute in Paris, which is the first time that other audience, not the Sudanese, find the chance to see a new Arab performance where I concentrated in the tradition, culture and the songs, the stories and the Sufi tools like drums and colors. You see how it fits. This photo of one of the big place where the Sudanese came every Friday, an older name called [inaudible]. It became artificial. Some people they said, this is artificial because a lot of foreign people came to see how it does. It's full of music, full of drums. >> So this is from Hamilton [phonetic]. Look at the circle. I was here visiting one of their sheikh. I am on the other hand somehow artist and a sheikh. SO you can accept it, both of them. So this is-- this is what-- I already talk about it. I'm just going to-- this is an older man. See the colors? See the colors of the people and see one of them, you can't tell whom is the sheikh, one of them. But all of them are coming to this afternoon to Hamilton [phonetic] meal to spend from the 4 o'clock until 7:30 or 6:30, this movie full of music, full of songs, special songs of course. So look at this. This is one of the-- I hope that I will do it correctly because-- [ Music ] >> This one-- [inaudible] the real one? This is-- [ Muffled speech ] >> You hear me? I'm sorry. I can't. Is it okay? Okay, that's good. So look at the picture and you will see another picture. Forget about what I write inside. This is the details. Maybe I say more things than that, okay. Look at this one. This is-- you remember? You remember that one? Look at this and look at this, okay. This is number three. [ Music ] >> This is a tradition, Sufi. And you will see in Sudan now we have modern sheikh. Not like me, you will see [inaudible]. He's a young guy or he's follow from doctor, engineers, young people, we allow women to come to the Zeikel [phoetic]. It's a big change and he uses the same rituals and things, bring them all together. So those people are coming every afternoon, Friday afternoon and they meeting place, a social meeting that we meet, they solve their difficulties. They came to the sheikh. The sheikh can help them in their difficulties, but he played the role of the local government in a different way and he is-- have the power, the social power more than the government will have the other power. But through him, they can solve a lot of difficulties in their area every Friday or sometime they do it in the evening. [ Music ] >> Thank you. So from this atmosphere, I believe very much my [inaudible] performance has become more strong. And it reflect every day, we have the performance outside the normal theatre, the classic theatre. It reflect, I believe that there is change happening when you go to one of these places with the difficulties of the war, difficulties of the community conflicts, this is why I call my theatre, Theatre in Conflict Zone. Theatre in Conflict Zone, that theatre can help in the peace, dialogue as the photo just said and this is how the [inaudible] is accepting this example as a good example for the peace culture of one of the-- aim of the UNISCO, using the art and the performance. This-- our first performance was in Paris and we, after that we moved to different places, to Germany, to Istanbul. And Istanbul, the most interesting because at Taxeme [phonetic], now with the new Taxeme. Taxeme is a big place. They tell us you can play on the stage in the theatre. I say no. We need to go to a big place. So they said there is no publicity. Nobody know where is the show. They already know the place. I said let us try. So when we start, we start it over and the movement and slowly by slowly the people came. So we move around the place and that performance at Taxeme, this is their calculation, a statistician, not us. They said 5,000 people attend the performance. You know, the Sufi believing inside the people always. When it came it would come out in the sign somewhere. I believe in this, not the normal things. They said this is not scientifically because I believe very much to be here is part of my belief in the Sufi, to be here, this moment. Now I'm flying two days almost, you know how I'm flying from Khartoum to Cairo and I could miss the fly, whatever it is, but I am here because the message is like that, that whatever we talk about it, whatever we agree on at the end, we open the window for the dialogue. This is for me important, open the window the dialogue will come and you put your first step and the second step, you will be inside. If you are out of the frame, out of the picture, you will never shape. So I believe the art we are talking of these other things can help very much to reach somehow not the end of the difficulties, but it will have to lead the people to take a decision concerning the difficulty around the world. So the-- yes. This-- look at it. This is [inaudible]. Look at this. We tried to fine-- when we came to place, we tried to find a place for performance. We asked the audience, where do you think the big place we can have a show for you. They said they take us. So they take us from place to place until we find the place. And now, I'm talking about the new sheikhs. You know, the old guys-- the old Sufi group are very old and some people say that the people come to this to be a real good Sufi when they are reaching the 40 or 50, when they are finishing the whole good things in their life. So they said, they are retired to let us go to be a Sufi, this relaxation and just do what they want. But I believe this is wrong. Also I am 60. I'm old. Yeah, starting very early but this now, the Sufi art, if you allow me to say that, giving the chance to the young generation and I believe this guy [inaudible] and all the way the Sufi, the roots in their families, sheikh the valor, sheikh-- his father to his father to his father. It's like a kingdom and it's shaped like a king, a real king if you go out and see him and have the people around him. He is a real king. This is a community very well built. The system is very controlled, more than the army, more than other difficult places and other hand, it's easy because it carries the sheikh, so oldest. But now in Sudan the last 20 years, I believe, there is new modern Sufi. I can't use the word. I don't know how to explain, but I can use because this guy, [inaudible], he have his family, they are known. I told you in the community of Sudan they are sheikh or belong to one of the sheihk family or [inaudible]. But he was young. He completed university. He have his business, his business is struggling, he's doing everything. But when he came to [inaudible] he became a real sheikh and all the flow of him are doctor, ambassador, army officer, whatever-- intellectual people, and this is new. This is new. I believe also the group of sheikhs are working with me, now we are 25 member of the [inaudible] company. We are also diversity in believing in what sheikh. I am not the [inaudible], I am just one of them. But each one, he have his own believing in what's group of social but at the end we work together like this. So let me show you how this-- that was [inaudible] you see and this is [inaudible]. Also always you add the name of the big sheikh, the founder of the group after that. Okay. I think this is number six-- four. Yes. [ Music ] >> Just remember the color. [ Music ] [ Silence ] >> Yes. This is the fall again in [inaudible]. This performance, the audience is 10,000 audience, 10,000 people attending that performance and it's a big place and if you remember the performance was the last one for the sheikh [inaudible]. You see the same-- we are reading the same color, the same ones. But this, the different of this, we are using dialogue in that. We are talking about story. We are talking about something. And [inaudible] take them very close to that community where we're going to give the performance. If we give the performance in a different area, the things will change, the subject itself will change. But as you see, the content of the tools are the same. But it's not always the same color, it's not always. But we take the atmosphere as part of this, so. [ Silence ] >> Yes. This is in Boland [phonetic], can't imagine. This is in Boland in a place called Paton. It's a festival for-- [inaudible] festival. And you can look at the breeding [phonetic]. Around us was restaurants and the people are sitting. The organizer attendant, they will have a tradition performance in this-- the [inaudible] people are sitting, eating, drinking, whatever and we start the performance and slowly by slowly we have all of them inside the performance with their drinks, with their mind, with their soul which is magnificent to us. Since they are in the performance, but slowly by slowly they put their drinks around and they more involved. For me, this was not a big issue for me. The issue is the question after that. It became like a symposium. We came together, we discussed what it is and the [inaudible] are very interesting because they start talk about this sort of culture, this Arab, this Africa, Sudan, whatever it is. And this is the message that we gave them, that from Sudan, from the Arabian, African culture we can build this bridge between each other. And that was one of the most important place because I believe in that place we take in the car four hour from the capital to reach that place. I believe one day dancing this joy in the [inaudible] saying Allah, Allah, Allah, that is the fairest word of Allah at that place from the beginning of these things. For me this is what the big issue that we spent-- and by the way, our performance was always-- was at 55 minutes, but it depends on the audience. If the audience [inaudible] and continue, we can work for two hours and that's what happened at [inaudible] at New York. They said we're renting the place for one hour, but the audience, you will see that later. The audience continue, continue, continue for one hour and 45 minutes more and that was different feeling from them and from us. Okay. This is the same place. Look at the audience and this is by night. Our performance in the afternoon, in the morning, early morning, in the night, it doesn't make-- we have no very-- any difficult technical things. If we find the light, that will be okay. If it is afternoon, that will be-- because the theatre is the people. If that wasn't [inaudible] in a close theatre like the Italian theatre, that was look different. And the group by the way, I have to talk about the group. The group are now playing the actors, playing the music, the drums, songs, making the design of their costumes all together, the 26 people, they're doing the same things in the same time and this is also very important to have a group that can move from place to place and believing in the same things, okay. [ Pause ] >> Yes. This is me and-- somewhere in [inaudible]. As I said, we make something like-- the people walk together, try to find the place. And as you see, we are moving thousand of people Okay. [ Pause ] >> This is in another place. Just look at the people where are the others, whatever it is to see the performance because these people stand on the [inaudible] and you see how they are controlled in that, in that, in that, in that. [ Muffled speech ] >> And I believe the one hour or two hours give the people, the small people, the kids because they are shading the performance. We're playing a tradition games. They came and play for the two hours everything under control, by the spiritual of the art, by the peace, the umbrella of the peace around the place. Okay. This is [inaudible], the master of [inaudible]. You will see. I will show you. I will show you a part of it so you can find the different between the place where we are losing the two, the performance like outside and this is at Cairo Festival and you-- but because I haven't got the big yard and the festival said we have only the theatre, the stage. So I close the stage before the audience. I put a lot of nice smoke inside so nobody can see anythings. I keep the audience outside like before this whole. And one minute before I take the drums together and we lead them to that, to the theatre. They go to the seats. Somebody sees somebody is not seeing. But they are in the atmosphere because of the good smell of the smoke and the drums. And we start the play because it is on the stage. So I try to make the same environment, if I'm right for the word, or the same atmosphere and-- because in my performance I have to control the whole-- every second in the performance should be in the hand of the actors, actress. And in the outside performance every second should be in the hand of the audience whom they are changing the play from which side to start. So this one-- [ Speaking foreign language ] >> We ask the sheikh have them guided to give him the poem. I am young. That was [inaudible]. [ Speaking foreign language ] [ Singing in foreign language ] >> You see now we are on the stage. This is at Cairo, the big stage, center of Cairo during the festival. So [inaudible] difficult for our movement, but sometime it's-- we have now-- now we have a new member. [Inaudible] design the dance in a different way but it's the same lines, but the difference on the big [inaudible] was watching the [inaudible]. [ Singing in foreign language ] >> Just because of the time, all right. Because I will show you the last one. In this, also you can see how the audience around. This is in Madrid, in Spain. This is another-- this is [inaudible] festival in Madrid. And this is one-- the performance that there is no dialogue, no need for translation or English or Arabic, in Madrid. This is where we are. You can see how many people following that. You can imagine a performance with this thousand people, how it look. This is in Cairo. I'm not going to play for you because it's the same, because of the time. [Inaudible] and this is also-- I like this one. We find a place to-- you see that? The one at the top. Yes. This is-- I'll show you small part of this. [ Pause ] >> Yes. This is-- this is my last piece and this is the last piece. This is the performance at [inaudible] Theatre. So you will see how the audience-- that audience in Sudan, in Istanbul, in Egypt, they have the same sense of culture. In Madrid is a little difficult, but just have a look on this and that will be the end. I know that you have short. [ Music ] >> We invite him to come be part of it. She teach him. [ Music ] >> I thank you for-- I talk too much, but you know. Thank you very much. I will keep the presentation here and if somebody interest to read what I write on the presentation that will be fine. Welcome. Thank you very much again. >> Thank you, Mr. Ali Mahdi. And now will you please time for questions and answers. >> Yes, please. >> Well, I want to thank you very much for a very exciting and very fascinating presentation. I wanted to ask you, you pointed out in the beginning, you said look at the colors. >> Yes. >> Because you-- can you say something about what the red stands for? >> Oh, yeah. >> Or the yellow stands for? >> Like my hat. Well, and the color is very important. In my theatre I am a choreographer. I study choreography, designing the movement and sometimes you make the design, the movement go to the left two steps, according to the will sometimes. But in my performance, I do the movement according to the color. This green goes to the red, the red goes to the-- there is a lot of sign. There are a lot of explanation of the colors. But always the green is part of the dream of the Sufi, the green of the part of the good time before and the dream of good time coming. This why I wear my green hat. It's part of my family. But not everybody-- our friend from Sudan, they wear the white one. I'm not allowed to do my green one, but they can do it at any time. Anyway, this is-- the green, the color is very important. You see them in my performance. And I took them from the [inaudible] and if you look at that-- at this. Tomorrow, if you allow me, I would like to give you an [inaudible] because it's full of colors, to be a part of this section, if you accept it. Thank you. >> And the red? >> Yes? >> And the red? >> The same, the same. Each color is for this group but on the-- in the-- if you see the flags, on the flag they have red and yellow and green. But the green is the most important to me. It's helped very much. Anyway, I have no different between the color. I have no gender in the color. All the color is equal in my eyes. It depends how you're feeling when you look to the red. The color is something-- it's tan [phonetic] like that, but you move around the colors. So you make-- between you and the color, this distance is give you the feeling about the colors. Tomorrow you will see the green when you are bad, you are not happy with your family, you will see, with your wife, it's making difficulty. You say, okay the green is very bad. I'm not happy, but you came with a different. So I believe, always I stand with the green, I, myself. I don't know of the others, okay. >> Thank you. Okay, please. >> I like the story of your grandmother's. >> Oh, yes. >> Because it somehow reminds me of my own mother. She used to tell me folk tales [inaudible]. My question to you is the movement that the Sufi's do, that you've shown us in the [inaudible]. What is the equalness of the movements [inaudible]? >> First, the stories. I think now the people discover what they call a stand comedy. My grandmother was the best stand comedy presenter because she tell you the story with different character and she's a mono drama. She's the people, the one one show, one woman show. She's telling the story in a nice way and she's opening for me the windows for creating the scenes. The movement, we believe in the circle. The circle is mainly unity that we are in one place. Now we are standing facing each other. I wish if can-- I have the right to sit together in the circle. Maybe we'll feel more close to each other. The circle is good. The movement around the circle or sometimes up to that is a movement. And if you see when the sheikh came to any place-- any part of the circle, the wall of the circle is different character, different people, different color. I developed a director behind all of these things. Although this is not true, it came like that. Maybe you are there and you can tell about it, yes. >> I'm was very much interested in the movement so we-- I, myself, participated-- >> Absolutely. >> With you-- >> Yes. >> In circle [inaudible] and there are pictures about that. >> We was attending the Festival of [inaudible] theatre in Khartoum and we go to Sheikh Hammond [phonetic] [inaudible] we have about six American artists. We go there and this is also very open mind for the sheikh and for the Sufi. They are not close to this real world. So we joined, all of us that was looking to that ground to the dance, Sufi, and you see in the-- in the circle after two hours, we saw some people, they came to step of feeling they can fly, whatever, I'm not sure. But nobody will accept it, but they can do something, unusual things, unusual things. Because in that time they are in the circle with the small things linked between this circle and something above. Yes? >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you so much [inaudible]. I used to be or, you know, went to performance [inaudible] when you had the silent theatre. >> Yes. >> And it was [inaudible] to be a part of that presentation. [ Muffled speech ] >> Of course. This is the special-- this is what's happening. Look at that, look at that, look at the audience at New York, how they are getting part of the performance, as you said. I think this is their favorite piece and they feel happiness and they feel part of the circle. I always talk about the circle. Now they are part of the circle, but inside the circle. You can see there are different culture, different identity, different education but you can come from home, from where you don't know, the Arab, the people of the [inaudible]. [ Music ] >> I hope this is a good answer. Yes, please. >> [Inaudible] >> Yes. What is the difference between what I did at the performance and what the Sufi are doing? Very good. This is very important. What the Sufi did in the normal tradition religions activities. The one you saw, the two or three movies you saw. What I'm doing here is instead the people talk about if you want to make a rich theatre, then tradition being [inaudible] to the theatre. But on the other hand, I took my theatre to the Sufi not taking the Sufi to be part of the theatre. But what is different that I put that in a concept, I put that in a play, in a story. So there is a story among that. I'm using the Sufi as element because my [inaudible] is composing. I'm composing from different element, different element and composing the show. My show is color from here, character from here, some from here, drums from here. I compose. I always consider it building the picture. I'm building the picture for one hour there is something. There is a concept here. There is a message. My theatre is full of messages, messages of peace of course, messages of community development, of future [inaudible] dreams. Yes. >> Any questions [inaudible]? >> Yes, sir. >> Yes, please. >> When you show the theatre here in this country >> Yes. >> And we can see women in the audience. >> Yes. >> And women participating. >> Yes. >> I could not see so well when you showed me clips on-- in [inaudible] or in Sudan. >> Yeah. >> And I could see the small children, but I did not see women. >> No. >> They were not clear. >> What about this nice lady? >> Okay. What I was really wondering about is if I were there where would I be? Would I be participating? Would I be-- >> You would be here [inaudible]. >> I would be there. >> Look at this, ladies. I just [inaudible] from one of the old ladies. We are in one of the camps in [inaudible] somewhere and old, old ladies about 80-something. And slowly by slowly she became in the middle. She start dancing. After half an hour from her dancing I look to her, it looked like 60 in her age. She looked very pretty, very young, very active, moving in a nice, artistic way. So after she finish, she came to me. My boy, I said yes. From where? I said from my family, this is my tribe, whatever, you know, the question from the normal old woman. And she open her sari, you know, we have the [inaudible] so then it's like this one. She opened it and she have two stone, black stone. And she opened. She said I have nothing to give you. I, for the last years, I didn't dance like this. I didn't have this happiness so I want to give you a small gift. And she opened her sari and she have two black stones. She gave me one and she tell me, I asked god and Prophet Mohammad Ali [inaudible] son to keep you and to help you to give the other happiness. And since that time I keep the stone and the stone is me here at this moment. So I believe this is the-- this what happens. So the womans are part of that-- the activities in Sudan. The womans is part of the art, the woman are-- even the Sufi [inaudible] weekly, you can find them and there is also in my group we have-- not that big percentage but some of them, you saw them in the first film that-- the first lady. So in my performance the ladies, the woman start playing a big role define themselves easy to [inaudible], maybe before the performance it would be difficulty for the community difficulties. But during our performance, they came and join us, yes. >> Anymore questions? Thank you so much. [ Applause ] >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> So tomorrow we'll have the [inaudible] here somewhere. >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.