Last week, I had a chance to attend the National Jubilee Arts Festival in Los Angeles as a judge. I judged visual art and performances. Above, you can see some photos from the gallery. What a beautiful event, in which a community came together to celebrate and encourage art making. My friend Karim Gowani asked if I'd like to judge some of the art and I'm glad I did. It was very inspiring to see the outpouring of volunteers and members of the Ismaili community celebrating their values through art. Judging was certainly challenging, as there was a lot of beautiful work. What I enjoyed most was talking to artists and people just there to enjoy art and support while I walked around the gallery. Thanks to Shamim, Farzana, Karim and all the other wonderful volunteers and artists who worked so hard to put it all together. I hope this is the first of many. Good luck to all those who passed this round and on to the next in Lisbon, but I hope that regardless of how a piece 'scored' that it is the thought and the process of creating that really matter.
So often our cultural celebrations do not include hands on creative activities or art, and yet when given the opportunity, people of all ages enjoy creating art, or connecting to pieces that show them another point of view. All it takes is a little space, and a chance to share.
Click to enjoy the music of the Girnari Jogi Group.Back in December 2011, I had called my friend Ustad Amb Jogi in Pakistan. I was visiting Ohio at the time, and thought it would be good to catch up with some friends I hadn't spoken to in a while. I had hired Jogi and his group of musicians to record music for my short animated film Gul, back in 2008. I returned to the US, finished the film, toured around with it, then returned to share the results with Jogi and his group in 2010. That day in December 2011, on the phone, after some prodding, Jogi told me that he and the other musicians had lost their homes to flooding, earlier that year.I felt ashamed for not having called sooner. My second thought was that I needed to do something. Sitting a world away, what could I do for these wonderful musicians? I had one song that I had hired them to record. There was some unedited video footage from the recording session. Perhaps I could use these along with the photos of them I had already posted online in promotion of my film, to try and piece together a campaign to raise funds.
Ustad Amb Jogi on Dholak, with Mewa Khan on Harmonium
It was not feasible for me to raise enough funds to rebuild their homes. Still, I knew they could use whatever I could raise, but there had to be something more. I had discussed promoting them with recordings that others may have made of them before all of this, but no one every really gave them footage from shows, nor were there people interested in looking our for and promoting them.What if I used this campaign to pay them to create an album? Then they would be earning the money and it would work towards trying to create new opportunities for their careers. I already had a website, so I researched some shopping plugins for wordpress and decided on Shopp. I also started contacting people in the US and in Pakistan. I started letting everyone I met know about this campaign that I was putting together. My target was to get it up and running after Christmas and New Years, when people might be paying attention again. I enlisted the help of a few friends for recording at the Institute of Sindhology in Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.
Sanam Chakori and Sherebano on vocals.
I went through my data backups and pulled out the footage, and the music only version of the score from my film. To me, this was the key to connecting potential crowd funders here in the US, with these musicians in Pakistan. I edited the video together, finished testing the shop portion of my website and finally launched the campaign, a few days after New Years. I used my facebook page, and fan page to send out messages with the purchase link. Everyone I spoke to learned about the campaign. By the time the campaign began, I had everything worked out as far as recording facilities, how to send the money directly to Ustad Amb Jogi and what to do with the footage for the new album once I had it. Now I just needed to raise the funds. I set a goal for $1,200 as that would be 4 to 5 times what the musicians would normally get paid for recording.Now that I had pushed myself so hard and put it all out there, certainly the money would come pouring in. Wrong! A few sales came through, but it quickly became apparent that things needed to pick up to make this goal a reality. I posted in all kinds of forums and groups related to Sindhi culture (Sindh being where the musicians were from in Pakistan). There was interest. People enjoyed watching the video, but it really did not increase sales.I started sending direct messages to everyone based in the US on my facebook. It took time to write all the messages, personalize them and try and connect people to what I was trying to do. Every day, I sent messages until I hit the facebook anti spam warning, then stopped for the day to start again the very next. Things picked up slightly, but on a day when I didn't campaign, nothing happened. I kept on it morning, noon and night around my work schedule.Every time someone purchased the music, I sent a thank you with them tagged in it from the Mad Guru facebook page. This showed up to all their friends and then to my twitter feed which was connected. I tried to use hash tags that would help with visibility. I kept this going for 2 months, messaging and remessaging to get through to friends and their circles.By the end of the campaign, there were over 90 people who purchased music to help the Jogis. I sent it all to Ustad Amb Jogi, all the while discussing what the purpose of the album was, how stories are what connects people and how their culture is what people wanted to enjoy. The Jogis were ready to go. With money in hand, they were able to hire a recording engineer and studio at the Institute of Sindhology for a very low cost thanks to the generosity of contacts there.
Zulfikar Ali Gopang, Recording Engineer
Receiving the recordings ended up being the largest delay in the process. I called from April to October to try and get the recording sent. I tried to have other contacts go and pick up the tapes to send me, but in the end a good friend Suffi Bilal Khalid in Lahore was able to get the tapes sent to him, which he was able to digitize and ftp to me as courier services refused to send music, probably due to piracy fears, though these were original recordings.
Jairam and Bhiko Jogi on Murli
With the recording in hand, I've launched the album, and feel thankful to all those who chipped in $1.50 to $150, and placed their faith in the Jogis and myself. It had been a rewarding journey so far, and I hope to keep connecting the Girnari Jogi Group to new opportunities. Thanks Saeed Mangi for all the beautiful photos from the recording session, and for helping to make it possible to record at the Institute of Sindhology. Thanks to Fatah Daud Poto and Suffi Bilal Khalid for making it possible for me to ever even meet Ustad Amb Jogi and the group.Sanam Chakori and Sherebano on vocals, with Ibrahim Jog on Tali behind them.
Today, for the third time, I shared Thanksgiving in Long Beach, at a Drop in for people in need. I sat at the gratitude table along with Norma and stacks or art supplies in a Church, to share with people in writing and drawing things they are grateful for on this day.
I went to a tea party...no not that one. So, often times when disasters hit, they have long term affects that require assistance much after the actual event. I went to a charity tea party put on annually by the Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Fund of North Hollywood. This group has been working to sponsor a group of children orphaned during the Tsunami since shortly after the disaster. My friend Supun's mother, who is an incredible cook puts this and other fundraisers together throughout the year for great causes.
Photos and stories from an art therapy workshop I had the privilege to conduct in Bangalore, India, with woman from Milana, and HIV and AIDS support group.
I decided that I could teach the class to make the drawings I had made, and then use that as a tool to teach younger children about cleanliness and hygiene. I hope that learning to draw would interest them and the idea that they too could teach others the lessons they have learned could be very helpful as most of the children are strictly in a teacher teaches, student memorizes and regurgitates mindset.
I visited BIRDS, a non profit in Belgam, Karnatika, India and learned about the ayurvedic medicine producing plants, enjoyed lunch with local farmers and attended a local dairy collective meeting.
The younger Patilji took us, along with a local farmer and another man who knew many musicians to see a Shahnai (a high pitched wind instrument with a narrow mouth piece and large opening at the end) performance in a mandir in another village. We drove out to the Laxmi Devi Mandir. In the courtyard, children were playing around a holy tree with green bangles strung about it by grateful mothers giving thanks for their healthy babies.
Metal sculptures, ceramic, handicrafts, live drumming, musicians, dancers, clothes, paintings and photography at a Bangalore Arts and Crafts Show in Southern India.
Flew in to Bangalore to visit my friend Jayashree; a documentary filmmaker I met in Los Angeles when she came for a screening of a film about HIV and Aids drugs and how companies are trying to create patents to prevent generic prescriptions. It had been over two years since we'd all seen each other, and I have to say it was great to see her, meet her other half and son.
I went on the walking tour called the Ahmadabad Heritage Walk. We started in the old part of the city which I had yet to see at an incredible Mandir. The walk took us through old lanes, past people making kite string, beautiful old buildings with layers of history in their architecture. To me, the old parts of towns in Pakistan and India are the most fascinating. They may not have all the modern amenities, nor are they the best planned for modern traffic, but within that chaos is that unique identity of that city as a sort of living culture and history.
I spoke to the puppeteers for a while and watched all these interesting puppets do tricks. We talked for quite a bit about history, different arts and I tried to share how what I do is very much like what he did as a puppeteer, but on a computer. For me, that was really the most exciting thing, was to sit down and speak to a wonderful puppeteer.
The kids were amazing as usual and it was a tiring, but incredibly rewarding experience. I jokingly said invited myself to come eat lunch at one of the children's homes as we were leaving after the workshop and she was walking home for lunch. She said she'd ask her mom what she cooked. So many dimples and funny little toes.
I had peeked into the school the day before and I can't quite describe how excited I was to share animation with them. The children I met so far have really been an energetic and amazing bunch. Many are not used to discussion questions in class so carrying on an in depth class discussion has not really worked, but they are bursting with energy, creativity and most of all a genuine desire and willingness to try new things and learn. This really does a lot to make what I am doing with the children possible.
Anjali, one of the amazing people at Manav Sadhana met me and within minutes was on the phone arranging workshops with the various schools in Manav Sadhana. I was really grateful for how everyone invited me in and trusted me with their precious time and resources. It is very humbling to walk into a group of truly dedicated and amazing adults and kids and to try and share something that you hope will be worth their time.
Thanks to Kristeen Singh I had the pleasure of doing my first animation workshop in India with the amazing people at a very special org in Khan Market, called Manzil.We met up with some of the folks from Manzil at Lodhi Gardens, where there was some beautiful old architecture and a picnic for special needs kids and kids from Manzil. Afterwards, Jimmy who is volunteering there took us to Manzil's Khan Market location where we cut used paper to be used as small flipbooks for the workshop. The idea was to use readily available, recycled materials to show the kids how to create animation in a way that they could continue long after I was gone, without materials they did not have access to.
