In honor of the poet Rumi's 800th birthday, the Rifa'i Marufi Sufi order, locally based in North Carolina, hosted an evening of music and dance at the Carrboro Century Center in North Carolina that I was pleased to attend. The Nagmeh Ensemble, directed by my friend Shahram Mazhari (on vocals and instruments like the daf frame drum) and accompanied by Mohammad Nahavandi on santur and a third musician whose name I don't remember, provided the traditional Persian music.

I also have included a number of short video clips here. You can also see one of the performance and one of the zikr reflection after the performance on the YouTube video sharing site. In addition, I have a few digital audio files (.wav format) that I can email to anybody who is interested. You can see a story about the Ensemble in the March 2, 2007 issue of Rock Hill, SC's The Herald and visit the site of the local annual Rumi Festival, as well as pictures that I took at the 2003 and 2004 Festivals.

All images here copyright ©2007 by Dilip Barman of Vibrant Memories Photography. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for noncommercial usage, including downloading and printing.