Portrait of Jalal al-Din Rumi by Haydar Hatemi . “We are the mirror as well as the face in it. We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity. We are pain and what cures pain, both. We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.” --Jalal al-Din Rumi as interpreted by Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi War is an addiction to chaos that shreds human souls into tattered rags of trauma.   In acknowledgement of Rumi’s 806th birthday, I’m all for Syria, Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, and all other countries and organizations at war with each other to exchange their guns and bombs for poems by Mevlana. Replace tanks and drones with open mics and let everyone brave enough go at it. Whoever spits the most verses, quatrains, long poems, or quotes by Rumi wins the right to proclaim peace and throw a feast in honor of sanity, brotherhood, sisterhood, and childhood. Is that likely to happen? No, not very, but the ecstatic beauty and soulful grace of Rumi’s poetry inspires human hea...

  Official U.N. logo for the 2011 International Year for People of African Descent . With revolutions in the Middle East and the United States’ current Occupy Wall Street movement dominating media reports throughout 2011, the International Year for People of African Descent as declared by the United Nations has received little attention but that didn’t stop the traveling photo exhibition “WoMen in Africa - No Color One Color," from launching November 2 at the Italian Institute of Culture in Nairobi, Kenya. The show marked the second major exhibition within two weeks to launch in honor of the International Year for People of African Descent . A multimedia display of works by different artists and photographers, “The African Continuum: Celebrating Diversity, Recognizing Contributions of People of African Descent”, opened at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City on October 19. For that occasion, Time Magazine photographer Chester Higgins Jr. addressed attendees on behalf ...

Savannah Talks Troy Anthony Davis No. 11: Judge Moore says "Not innocent" - National African-American Art | Examiner.com