Al-Bustan Out

These classes beat the drum for Arabic culture in West Philly.

by Mary Armstrong

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Published: Jan 17, 2007

Throughout most of December, UPenn's Houston Hall had Christmas and Hannukah in the air. But on the ninth, the east end morphed into an oasis of Arabic culture, two floors of community groups showing off their best work. Restaurants contributed their tastiest dishes and coffees and the local Algerian women brought trays and trays of exquisite honeyed sweets.

Folks grazed to the sounds of Joe Tayoun's advanced workshop for Arabic drummers, teaching simple patterns to anyone who wanted to try playing a dumbek (goblet drum). Others shyly extended hands across tables to have their first-ever henna decoration applied. At another table you could learn to write your name in Arabic. The walls were hung with colorful kid art. Masses of families turned out to celebrate the community and raise funds for Al-Bustan: Seeds of Culture, the source of the festivities.

Al-Bustan, which means "the garden," sprung from Hazami Sayed's desire to raise her kids with a sense of their heritage.

Sayed knows firsthand the freedom of being part of one culture while living in another. Lebanese and Egyptian by birth, she grew up in Kuwait, attended the American school there, came to the States for college and made America her home. But her kids are only immersed in U.S. culture (they live in West Philly), so she started thinking about how she could share the cultural richness she took for granted as a kid.

"The idea for the camp was to provide a place where Arab kids, be they Muslim or Jewish or Christian, could gather with non-Arabs, to learn the language, because the language is culture," she says. "We wanted to get young kids 'cause they are open to new experiences and for them language learning is easy." So for the last five summers, Al-Bustan has grown from a few days at the Morris Arboretum to two full weeks at the Springside School.

If you find the idea of full-day immersions daunting, Al-Bustan has recently started weekly classes that offer a taste of the camp experience with less of a time commitment. Tayoun is famed for his sizzling hot finger style drumming on dumbek with groups like Atzilut and Jaffna. By day, he's a trained music teacher. Judging from how the older student apprentices handled the teaching part of the evening, Tayoun also has a gift for transmitting his skills to the pupils. After the noshing was finished the guests settled down to listen to Tayoun's class rip through the complex rhythms with speed and assurance. Young kids, third through seventh grades, will have the opportunity to take 10 weeks of classes with Tayoun at The Rotunda in University City starting Jan. 20.

At the celebration in December, the drummers learned that one of their most important roles is to support the dancers. The Maseera Debkeh Troupe made most of the adults wish for the return of supple knees to join in leaping and bouncing that appeared to be a fluid expression of pure glee. No dance classes are planned outside camp, but the performance was certainly a great teaser for the summer session. Videos produced by the campers as well as bilingual song — naturally working in a bit of hip-hop, these are modern kids! — were part of the evening.

Leila Buck, a new member of Al-Bustan's faculty, gave a riveting performance of excerpts from her one-woman autobiographical play. Buck's experience as the daughter of an American father and Lebanese mother, including the wildest prejudices she encountered, all turn up, poignant and stinging. Her ability to ape the offenders so accurately made the audience giggle rather than weep. Buck is a storyteller of great emotional impact. Her class, scheduled to follow Tayoun's, is aimed at a slightly older crowd, fourth through ninth grades. She will teach storytelling and drama, with celebrated musical performer Umm Kulthum as her starting point.

(m_armstrong@citypaper.net)

More info on Al-Bustan at www.albustanseeds.org.

 

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