A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslim Cultures through the Arts

FAIN: ES-256939-17

City Lore: NY Center for Urban Folk Culture (New York, NY 10003-9345)
Amanda Dargan (Project Director: March 2017 to March 2021)

A two-week institute for thirty school teachers on Islamic poetry and related arts.

Based on the overwhelming success of its 2014 and 2016 Institutes, City Lore respectfully requests funding for a third two-week NEH Summer Institute for School Teachers, to be held in 2018. Just as American movies and popular culture have created pathways to understanding the United States for those abroad, poetry’s centrality in many Muslim cultures makes it a powerful vehicle for exploring and understanding those cultures. In a period of growing need for increased American understanding of Muslim cultures, A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslim Cultures Through the Arts will give teachers windows onto the history and social and political fabric of a variety of Muslim societies through an examination of their poetry, music, and book arts.