Ken Green announced there will be training for Campus Kitchens the next two Sundays at 2 p. m., meeting at Allison Hall at Northwestern.  Contact Ken with questions.

 

Marv Edelstein encouraged members to ask youth to apply for RYLA, as the registration deadline is fast approaching.  Registration information is available on our website.  He then showed an inspirational film about RYLA.

 

Editor’s Note:  In The Light for January 5, we managed to misspell the name of our speaker. It should have been Josh Easington.

Ken Green filled in as Sergeant for Zbig, who enjoyed a week off even though he was able to attend the meeting after all.

 

Kathy Tate-Bradish boasted her second-place People’s choice finish in the nationwide gingerbread village online contest, and her first place Judges’ choice award as best Holiday village.
 

 

 

 

Kristin Brown introduced her brother-in-law Majed Abu Ajamia, a calligrapher and music teacher at the Old Town School of Folk Music and in the Chicago Public Schools.  Majed taught himself two musical instruments, the oud and qanun, when his studies at Bethlehem University were interrupted due to the beginning of the Intifada uprising in 1987.
 
Majed then played a piece on the oud, which is like a lute, with origins in third century Iraq.  The instrument, made from walnut and spruce, has 11 strings which are tuned a half step lower than the guitar.  The piece he played was written by a Turkish composer in the 1890s.  Notably it was set in traditional 10/8 rhythm, which is hard to learn, but kids do.

 

Majed loved the oud as a child, but was unable to learn the instrument as a refugee.  His family got supplies from the United Nations once a month, which included flour, sugar, and oil.  His mother made clothes for his brother and him from the flour sacks, and painted the oil containers so they could be used as flower pots.  At that time of his life it was hard to think about music, as there were no music lessons in his schools.

 

In his first year at Bethlehem University, Majed got a job in a hotel and saved money to buy his instrument. At the Chicago Public Schools, Majed has a Culture Club program for students learning Arabic and Mandarin. He uses art, music, and singing to help them learn. He also shares the qanun with the Culture Club. The qanun is an Arabic harp with 79 strings.  He explained that if you put both instruments in front of the students, in eight sessions they will learn to improvise.  Majed also teaches Arabic calligraphy to the Culture Club, and has done so for the last five years.
 
Majed is concerned about the Syrian refugees in Istanbul and would like to bring the Culture Club there so the students will be reintroduced to their traditional music and calligraphy.  In November he spent two weeks in Istanbul at two schools that have been set up for refugees in apartment buildings donated by the Turkish government.  Majed would like to go back and work with two classrooms of students for eight weeks so that they might learn Arabic music and calligraphy so their culture will not be lost. Majed plays in a small musical group that plans to hold a concert to raise funds to support his two-month trip to Istanbul to bring the Culture Club to Syrian children there. 

 

At the concert they plan to sell prints of Arabic calligraphy, with half of the profits going to support the trip.  He promised to let us know when the fundraising concert will be held.  He also thanked us for the books members donated for children that will be brought to the Syrian children in Turkey. 

 

​Majed, Steve, and Kristen