Arabian Nights Festival

Thursday night was the 2nd Annual Arabian Nights Festival at Cedars Mediterranean Café. The event was held by the Middle Eastern Culture Club (MECC). The evening featured fine middle-eastern cuisine, Arabic tea, hooka and belly dancing for entertainment. President Andrew Nelson, grad student majoring in political science said, “The event is held to raise interest in Middle-eastern culture.”

Nelson knows first hand about Arabic culture. In summer of 2008 he traveled to Yemen and this past summer studied abroad in Syria. “It was really an incredible experience,” he said. “I know there is a lot of political conflict with these countries, but when I was there, they all wanted to know about America.” Nelson hoped that the club and the festival would draw the attentions of Texas State students to this world.

Amjad Mohammed is the Arabic Language coordinator one of the faculty advisors for MECC. He came to Texas State from Jordan in 2007. He helped start the MECC to bring attention to the Arabic program. “It would be wise for many students to take Arabic. It is very useful in fields like political science, international studies and especially business,” he said in an interview. “Then I started to realize that there was a real lack of knowledge here among the students about Middle-Eastern culture. So we started to hold events and invite speakers from the Middle-East to get students interested in the club, the culture and the language.”

The Arabian Nights festival drew a large crowd to Cedars. Amjad called the event, “a huge success.” “Last year there were roughly 50 students. This year there were more than 80. And they were not just students but faculty and even San Marcos residents.” The night began with huge plates of food from the region. Beef gyros called Shawarma were the main dish with sides of humus and falafel. The air was filled with the rhythmic beats and sounds of Arabian music. As the crowd dined, the belly dancing troupe, Sabaya, took to the floor and proceeded to enchant their audience with their art form. The dancers even took members of the audience from their seats to join them and soon everyone was dancing and having a wonderful time.

After the crowd sat down to enjoy Moroccan tea and smoke water pipes called hookah the dancers were able to sit down for an interview. Rania Kandil has practiced Arabian belly dancing for nine years and has even gone to Egypt to learn with the best. “Belly dancing is a very misunderstood dance form,” said Rania. “It really began as woman dancing together. It’s even been theorized that back in the day when there were no C-sections it was a way of teaching pregnant woman to move their hips and control their bodies for giving birth.”

Angela Nations, another dancer there that night, is actually a Texas State graduate with a BFA in Theatre and Dance. “I studied a lot of modern back then and now I’m able to sort of incorporate that into Tribal belly dancing,” she said. “One thing you need to know is belly dancing is very welcoming. You will see dancers of all ages and body types.” The two girls agreed that the style of dance is very difficult. “There’s a lot more than just moving your hips, it’s your whole body,” said Angela. Rania also added, “But the challenge is definitely its own reward.”

MECC hopes that in the future they will be able to hold more events like this one and at even bigger venues. Amjad said that they hope that they will have live music and maybe add some more educational attractions to their future events. “Right now we’re in need of funding but it’s events like this that get our name out and hopefully we’ll get what we need to keep events like this coming.”

Ways of the People

This past Thursday I went to the 5th Annual Celebration of the People powwow. I had been to powwows before that were very fun and this one was no exception. I have always been a fan of Native American cultures. I remember being a little kid and watching movies like Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans and Geronimo (all of which have Wes Studi in them, usually the bad guy, but still a great actor and one of my favs.) The Native American people, in my opinion are one of the most interesting groups in the world. Completely cut of off from the wars of Europe and Asia, the western civilizations moved on in peace with the earth although not always with each other. Never inventing gunpowder, steel, or even horseback riding, they retained a Stone-age culture til the days of the early Renaissance. And when the white man first came and gave them all gave them these things, they had a Renaissance of their own. Tribes emerged from nowhere with new lifestyles and beliefs. And even though they have been all but annihilated, they still hold onto their ancient ways.

The powwow is a gathering of members of all the different tribes and a celebration of this incredible culture. The powwow celebration was held at the Texas State student center. For hours I watched as tribal dances took place from tribes like Apache, Comanche, Navajo and even Aztec. The walkway was lined with tents selling goods like dream catchers, authentic carvings and animal hides. There were the typical factory made pieces that sold for cheap and the perfectly accurate dance costumes selling for hundreds of dollars, and sold they did. I even picked up Cherokee tomahawk, South American style spear complete with python skin talismans and a few dream catchers to send off as Xmas presents. But as with any cultural event, it's the people that get my attention. The woman I met buying dream catchers was Navajo and had driven all the way from Arizona. Her pieces were perfectly authentic with deer sinew netting and Turquoise stone in the center to give it its magical properties. For those unfamiliar with dream catchers, the southwestern Native Americans believed that dreams were communications with the spirit world. Good dreams were being sent to you from your ancestors while nightmares were evil spirits. A dream-catcher was a magical tool used to filter the dreams you could receive. It would allow the good dreams to pass through the net while the nightmares would be caught.

The dance performances were separated by storytellers. This may be the heart of Native American culture in my opinion. Their stories are unlike any other culture I know with their reverence for the earth and all her creatures. I love the tales they would tell that would explain the things we've always wondered like why do dogs and coyotes howl at the moon, how did the birds get their feathers and who made the first reed flute.

One of my favorites is one about why owls have big eyes, no necks and can turn their heads. On the day that the creator was going to make all the birds different, Owl looked over his shoulder at to learn how the creator was doing this. The Creator then snatched Owl and squashed his head down making his eyes bulge out and giving him no neck at all. Owl can still turn his head but maybe now he won't try and peek at other peoples work.

The one thing that really moved me was the level of pride these people have in themselves. And the thing that touched me the most was not even rehearsed; it just happened right before me.

The last story teller was an old Apache woman. After her story was over she decided to give a speech about how important it was to remember who they are and where they come from. At the same time a young man who had just arrived from class. At first he looked just like any other Texas State student. He was wearing Khakis and a Polo. He proceeded to set all of his books down and then began to change out of his "white man" clothes into his full traditional Apache garb he was wearing underneath: buckskin pants, tanned moccasins and even a bone breast plate. At this point the speaker began to cry as she watched him, not that this young man, who was also Apache, was dressed the same as any normal "American" college student, but that at the same time he had worn the clothes of his people underneath. "When I see things like this young man here in front of me," said the woman breaking away from her prepared speech. "I know that we as a people will always be here." The scene struck home for me. I remember how few of these people are left in our world. It would be the greatest shame for all of humanity if their ways lived on only in history books. But like the speaker, I too felt relieved to see that the young man and so many others at the powwow refusing to let this way of life slip into the folds of time.