Today the Legation hosted an American Embassy-organized workshop for performance artists. The event was somewhat impromptu, but gathered a nice variety of people involved in music, theatre, and festivals. Our Fulbright-led off-Broadway team was a key part of the discussion.
This was a unique opportunity to learn from Zeyba Rahman, originally from India but longtime US-based cultural consultant and chair of the World Music Institute.
Appropriately, she's profiled here in Cultural Diplomacy, a field in which she excels. She has a lot to say about the difficulties for professional women in certain societies dominated by, as she calls them, "hard core tribalized men."
Much of her advice was nuts-and-bolts, but what could anyone hope to achieve without proper consideration of such things as budget? She has taken her show on the road this week, covering Tangier, Tetouan, and Larache in the north.
Zeyba Rahman has a long history of working with Moroccan cultural initiatives, and has represented the annual Fes Festival of Sacred Music in North America. We were happy to host someone of her calibre to address our growing circle of performance artists.
Gerald Loftus
