mr-damon/culture

It has become commonplace, in this globalizing age, to bemoan the world's creeping sameness. Vanishing day by day are rarely spoken languages, corner grocers who know your name, movies that don't end happily, ancient ways of making hams and cheeses, the siesta, the neighborhood pub.

In a sea of homogenization, India surfaces as an island of hybridization. Puristic neither about the past's indelibility nor the future's inevitability, Indians may offer a lesson in how to compromise with the past in order to save it - and how to be modern without being just like everybody else.

"Chimurenga, a pan African publication of writing, art and politics has been in print since March 2002. It was founded by Ntone Edjabe. The journal is published on the page three times/year, online monthly and through themed performances called "Chimurenga Sessions." The intellectual project has snaked from a Miltonian swamp of murky morality and "paradigms lost" if not into a Garden of Eden, at least into a more lucid landscape where intellect, integrity and humanity are valid tools for growth. A flowering of organic schools of thought grown in backyard gardens, tilled and fertilised by the fundamentals of humanity preached and sometimes practiced."

Though gamelan music is still played throughout Indonesia - its collaborative rhythms can be heard at most traditional ceremonies and serenely wafting out of Bali's meeting houses - its popularity is dwindling among the next generation of Indonesians, who are more easily lured by Western rock.

Sukarna, who like many Indonesians uses just one name, is 82 years old and worried for decades that his children, who do not share his passion for gamelan, might abandon the family business.

Sukarna's youngest son, Krisna Hidayat, who is 28 and has a business degree, has, after some resistance, taken over as the workshop manager. But he says his favorite band is the American hard rock spectacle Guns N' Roses.

"My father still listens to gamelan at home," he said. "I prefer rock 'n' roll."

Similar stories can be heard from the handful of remaining gamelan instrument-makers across Indonesia. Joan Suyenaga, an American who came to Java to indulge her fascination with its traditional performing arts and married a gamelan musician and instrument maker, said she, too, had noticed a decreasing interest in the art form locally.

"Our children play in rock bands and are immersed in emo, ska, pop and Western classical music," she said. "There definitely are a few desperate attempts to preserve the gamelan tradition here in Java, but not nearly as much as there could be."

FESTIVAL SUNDIATA (pronounced: Soon-jah-tah), named in honor of Sundiata Keita (1210-1260) the historic and legendary Mansa (king of kings) is the Pacific Northwest's largest African American festival celebrated during Black History month. The festival is named in honor of the legendary King of Mali who rescued his people's Griot (storyteller and keeper of the oral history) and honors the significant history and vast artistic contributions of African American people, past and present. The Festival, now in its' 28th year continues to showcase art, education and entertainment which depicts the colorful perspectives, culture and history of people of African descent. The festival activities happen in three venues, the Center House, Fisher Pavilion and Seattle Center Pavilion. Best of all, the weekend is FREE and open to the public.