Dalal Abu Amneh Re-Creates Our Grandmother’s Journey
The Palestine Foundation is hosting Dalal’s tour to be part of history, to be another significant station in the cultural journey taken by all our grandmothers.
Sami Asmar / Arab America Contributing Writer
We are all formed by experiences passed down from our parents, grandparents, teachers, and community. These are communicated by stories, proverbs, recipes, and songs. Simple by design and typically carrying a message of wisdom or describing the beauty of the local environment, folk songs from our grandmother’s generations are treasures we need to preserve and celebrate with joy.
This is exactly one of the objectives of a special Palestinian artist, scientist, and musicologist Dalal Abu Amneh. The multi-talented bright star in the cultural constellation of Palestine and the greater Fertile Crescent has toured globally with her project called Ya Sitti (Grandmother) singing the folk songs of the region with a new flavor; she is always joined by a group of grandmothers who visually and audibly represent this heritage (turath) and cheer her on with refrains and ululations.
More recently, Abu Amneh developed a television show where she visits various Palestinian towns and villages and shares her art with the often surprised but rejoiced market dwellers. This natural follow-up project is called Mishwar Sitti, or my grandmother’s journey, and has been receiving critical acclaim.
The eloquent Nazarene is making a point of not leaving out the Palestinians abroad, called shatat. By hosting Dalal’s tour, the US will be part of history, one more significant station in the journey of all our grandmothers, a journey that is clearly cultural but to many so moving it can be considered spiritual. Dalal is enabling Palestinian-Americans to connect to their own towns that they often cannot visit by coming to them and making them feel included and connected in this special experience.
Sponsored by the Southern California-based Palestine Foundation (PF), four mishwar concerts are planned to reach many audiences. This is the foundation’s second US tour for Dalal and has been anticipated by many eager to celebrate and support the Palestine Foundation’s objectives of promoting sustainable development to help Palestinians help themselves.
The relatively young but highly effective organization has been giving people the means to build self-sufficient and prosperous communities, where today’s grandmothers are passing along more experiences to the young.
Dr. Dalal Abu Amneh, also a neuroscientist, has demonstrated an incredible ability to perform a wide variety of genres, from the sophisticated tarab, to folk music (as in her album Ya Sitti), Andalusian Muwashahat, and Sufi poetry (as in her album Nur) as well as patriotic classics. Herself a songwriter and married to a poet and medical doctor, this artist carefully picks every word and works with researchers in the region’s anthropology for authenticity. This is a show not to be missed so let this journey move you to sing along or dance.
For more information about Dalal Abu Amneh’s upcoming U.S. concert tour, CLICK HERE.
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