Rumi Café
1st & 3rd Sundays, 3:30 – 4:30pm
Starting Sunday Feb 21
Rising Tide International,
5102 Swift Road, Sarasota, FL 34231.
This event is for those who have an interest in Rumi and want to know more, without reaching a scholarly level. Join us for some Turkish tea and expand your field of wonder as you learn of his times, take a deeper look at his poetry, and experience readings of the poetic versions.
Arsalaan Fey will provide an in-depth knowledge of Rumi’s work through presentations and discussions, as well as musical interludes on the Ney, the Middle Eastern flute that was so beloved by Rumi. Arsalaan has been a Sufi Order initiate since 1980 and, as a Mevlevi Sufi initiate has been studying Rumi for 25 years.
Adrian Vyner-Brooks is a Performance Artist, poet, and voice-over talent with a rich and resonant voice and a special affinity for reading Rumi’s poetry. He has been presenting Rumi’s poetry in performance for nine years.
Suggested donation to Rising Tide: $10.
For more info on Rumi Cafe contact
Adrian at adrianvb@immerbox.com, 336-545-4202 OR
Arsalaan at dharps@juno.com, (941) 445-2208
THOUGHTS ABOUT READING RUMI AND THE RUMI CAFE
Moving Inside the Mystery Through Shared Silence
I have come to treasure my experience of the Rumi Café at Rising
Tide in Sarasota. It is my venue of choice on Sunday afternoons
twice a month.
We share experience of having someone read the delicious words
of Jelaluddin Rumi as we let the words wash over us and then sit in
a shared silence and allow what awakens from within when we
each spend a few minutes writing. But there is more as the words
are carried by the music of a Reed Flute and the Tar Drum that take
us back to thirteenth century Konya Turkey, the time and place
these inspiration were set in motion.
The practice of this listening was adapted from a fourteenth
Century Christian monastic tradition known as Lectio Divina. It has
been amazing to hear people share their musings and the sheer
poetry of what appears from the presence among the café-goers.
Here is what Coleman Barks advises in his introduction to “Rumi:
The Big Red Book”:
When we enter these poems, we enter a conversation
In progress at the deepest human level.
Soul is all around us:
Nourishing, illuminating, and encouraging
…
The poetry is meant to lead the listener
Into an experience,
Into a presence or presences.
Barks’ speaks