Here are two photos from the November 3 performance of “Burroughs: The Tangier Letters” at the Espace Beckett. Performers Anne-James Chaton and Carolyn McDaniel gave readings in French and English of correspondence between William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. The letters ranged from ribald to hallucinogenic, mundane to shocking, and both performers movingly conveyed the wry genius of one of the 20th century’s most complex and controversial authors.
Thirty-one years ago last month, a group of sixty-plus Peace Corps trainees arrived in Rabat, following a nearly 24-hour trip from Philadelphia via Paris. It was already night as we drove in from the airport, and it was Ramadan. The streets were packed, but our bus eventually made its way to the Bulima Hotel in the center of Rabat. Unable to sleep, I wandered down Blvd Mohammed V to the medina, and entered a new world of sights, sounds and smells. Thus began my own “beautiful friendship” with Morocco.
After spending two years teaching English at Lycée Laymoune in Berkane (and also visiting the American Legation in 1984), I began a diplomatic career that took me from Guinea-Bissau to Singapore, Madagascar to Tunisia, Cairo to New York City, and finally Niger and New Delhi. Working subsequently for the United Nations also allowed me to work in lovely, lyrical Cape Verde. Now I’ve come full circle and will begin a new adventure as Director of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies.
Can’t stop curating?
Well, I do have to stop – we’re getting on the ferry to Spain Friday morning! Friends have joked that I’ll still be at it tomorrow morning, mounting yet more exhibits while my wife waits in the car. Not true; I stopped this afternoon.
At the French Consulate’s 14 Juillet reception after we arrived in 2010, a Moroccan friend introduced me as the “nouveau conservateur” in what people in Tangier only knew then as the “Musée de l’Ancienne Légation Américaine.” I joked that I was no conservative… I was a Democrat!
But the point is that conservateur or curator was the way people thought of this position in this city. I thought that was a bit limiting – how about our research library? Our seminars? The Arabic literacy program? Etc. I also didn’t like that ancienne thing – made it sound like we were closed.
I was an early and strong supporter of John’s candidacy, among a very competitive field of applicants for this job. He had visited us at the Legation after learning of the job opening, and we were impressed with his enthusiasm, imagination, and his knowledge of Morocco.
Drawing by Lawrence Mynott, graphic design by Anthea Pender
The eagle – hats off to artist Lawrence Mynott and his American eagle balloon on our invitation cards – has taken off, or almost. Actually, we’re still here for a couple more weeks, so last night’s farewell was the biggest but not the last farewell.
Thanks to the generosity of Madison Cox, we were sent off with full flying colors by our Tangier friends, a cross section of this multidimensional city, with donors, staff members, artists, artisans, academics… everyone who has helped us make this place a livelier, more open venue for our wide range of activities.
Their voices came wafting up over the Legation courtyard, a springtime Friday evening. Intrigued, I paid a visit to our group of high school English students enrolled in the Global Voices Initiative program, thanks to our partnership with the American Language Center (ALC) Tangier. You can watch the videos on the ALC website.
It was practice for their upcoming presentation of a set of three plays, which they developed, wrote in English, and then performed for their audience of American students in Chicago, via a Google + connection.
Meanwhile, the Chicago students were doing the same thing – in Arabic. Here’s how George Bajalia (he’s smiling from the corner of the screen in the photo below), former Fulbright scholar in performance studies in Tangier, described the scene in Chicago:
Several other intervening events prevented me from properly congratulating Dr. Khalid Amine and his circle in the International Center for Performance Studies on the tenth edition of “Performing Tangier.”
The Legation’s women’s literacy program teaches more than Arabic – it provides guidance on family medical issues too.
The US Embassy in Morocco spent two days at the Legation, brainstorming and team building under new US Ambassador Dwight Bush.
Sephardic music has lasted down the ages, from Moorish Spain to modern Morocco, thanks to the Jewish tradition of “romances” or ballads.
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