Rumi Fest
Dear Editor: We were so fortunate, and I felt so grateful, to have had a visit to Sitka from Coleman Barks and Lisa Starr last month for the Rumi Fest. It was a fantastic treat to hear them share their original poetry, stories, and the poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi. Coleman will be 80 next year on his birthday, and the lure of Sitka and the beauty of our environment drew him into our midst. It is quite unlikely we will see him here again, although one never knows what lies ahead in the future. Personally I would love to see him and Lisa come back to Sitka and share more with us. Coleman’s adult life has revolved around the beauty and delight and transformational power of the written word. It is not an overstatement to say that Lisa embodied her original poetry, and made her stories come alive for us. I think there is more we could happily learn from both of them if they returned.
I received important support in order to bring Lisa and Coleman here, and to have the three-day event come off without a hitch! Thank you to Ellen Frankenstein and Art Change Inc. for the creative advice and for co-sponsoring the events. Much appreciation and big thanks go to Grace Roller, Brian and the crew of the Larkspur for hosting us at the restaurant for two of the three nights, and for cooking such tasty Turkish style food. Thank you, and I feel indebted to Jeanne Stolberg and John for their full day labor of love setting up the sound system and creating the great sound quality at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Tribal Community House, to Charlie Morgan for doing the professional lighting at the Naa Kahidi, and to Tom Crane for his wonderful manner and for performing such beautiful music on Friday and Saturday nights.
Heartfelt thank you to Joann Torgeson for the airline ticket to get Coleman here, to Jeanne MacPherson for help with Lisa’s ticket, to Carol Field and Kathy Kyle for the delicious baklava, pie, and the beautiful flowers, to Mary Chambers for the vases, to Sarah Lawrie and the Greater Sitka Arts Council for the excellent new sound system, and to Leo Jimmy at the Naa Kahidi for helping with set up and breakdown on Saturday.
Thank you to KCAW and Rebecca for helping me with the sound recording, to Melissa for the morning interview and to Kari, Brooke and Sarah of the Library Show for the two interviews. Thanks to Old Harbor Books for selling tickets. Thank you to Shannon Haugland for the great weekender story about Coleman and Lisa, to James Poulson for the rainy day photo, and also thank you to Sandy, Thad and all the folks at the Sentinel, because I don’t thank you nearly enough for your kindness and commitment to excellence and providing Sitka with such a high-quality paper, all year round.
My gratitude and appreciation goes out to Fred Knowles, Kathy Kyle, Martina Kurzer, Marian Allen, Cat Leiser, Aleeta Bauder, Beth Caffrey, Eugene Solovyov, Bob Skeele, Leah Labar, Jerry Rounsley, Mark Kjerstad, Dixie Belcher and Carol Field, for the love and help with logistics.
And, especially, thank you to all the people from Sitka, Juneau and places beyond who bought tickets and came out for the events during the Rumi Fest – it surely couldn’t have happened without your sincere interest and support.
Rumi says, “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” What a joy is was! Thank you.
Auriella Hughes, Sitka
