It’s March 24, the ultimate Monday evening of Ramadan, and Barzakh Cafe — a comfortable venue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn — is packed for a qawwali, the Sufi devotional music custom that originated in Thirteenth-century South Asia. The six performers, the Saami Brothers, carry an unbroken lineage of qawwali spanning 800 years. This marks their first Ramadan tour in New York, a departure from their traditional circuit in Pakistan.
There are not any microphones. Layered voices reverberate via the intimate house, weaving collectively historic Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, and Farsi verses. The harmonium’s elongated chords rise and fall, interlocking with the tabla’s rhythmic pulse and the dholak’s deep drumming. Percussive clapping punctuates the efficiency, echoing the communal vitality of a Sufi dhikr (“remembrance of God”) ceremony through which adherents interact in rhythmic chanting — usually reciting the attributes of God, aloud or in silence — accompanied by respiratory, poetry, music, and motion to achieve a heightened religious state and deepen their connection to the divine.
For some attendees, that is an introduction to qawwali’s entrancing energy; for others, it’s a well-recognized echo of nights spent in dargahs, or Sufi shrines. No matter background, all viewers members are drawn into the shared expertise — a testomony to how qawwali, as soon as rooted in sacred South Asian areas, now thrives in non-traditional settings, fueling a world subculture that extends from music to visible artwork and past, significantly in New York Metropolis.
The Saami Brothers, carry an unbroken lineage of qawwali spanning 800 years. (picture courtesy El Atigh Abba)
By way of its Past Barzakh occasion collection, Barzakh Cafe is considered one of a number of Muslim-owned areas in the US and Canada working to carry qawwali into mainstream consciousness. Partnering with organizations corresponding to Auliya Council, Khusrau Circle, and the Middle for Cultural Vibrancy — in addition to Chicago’s South Asia Institute — the cafe works to protect this custom and emphasize its significance as a religious apply that weaves music, poetry, and meditative remembrance collectively. But, as qawwali’s recognition grows, some adherents are involved about its commercialization.
Mehdi Kazmi, founding father of Auliya Council, started internet hosting qawwali gatherings at his Riverside dwelling in 2008, quickly increasing to church buildings, mosques, and universities. “To truly revive qawwali, it must be more than just listening — it has to restore the full spiritual experience,” he informed Hyperallergic. Hamza Shad, founding father of Khusrau Circle, echoed this concern: “Qawwali, in its purest form, is a spiritual practice — not entertainment. We risk losing its divine connection if we strip it of its purpose and poetry.”
Saks Afridi, “Dil-Machina 2” (2024), mixed-media sculpture (picture courtesy the artist)
Past conventional efficiency areas, up to date artists and curators — each those that grew up with qawwali and those that found it later — are increasing Sufi traditions whereas honoring their roots by mixing Sufism’s philosophies with fashionable creative actions. For a number of artists, Sufi music serves as each a gateway to and a catalyst for deeper religious and artistic exploration. Sobia Ahmad, a visible artist primarily based between Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers discovering qawwali as a toddler via tv and cassette tapes of the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. “I was drawn to the yearning vibrations in qawwalis and their metaphors about God and love,” she informed Hyperallergic.
In her 2024 solo exhibition Devotions on the Gibson Middle for the Arts at Washington Faculty in Maryland, Ahmad built-in dhikr into her artwork. Taking pictures 35mm movie in sync along with her breath, she embodied the Sufi idea of tawhid (“oneness”). Her 16mm movie “One Big Eye” (2024), shot at Pando — a forest of 1 tree with a single immense root system in Utah — equally echoes themes of interconnectedness.
Zain Alam, “Meter & Light: Night” (2024), 3-channel audiovisual set up (picture by Manuel Molina Martagon, picture courtesy the artist)
New York artist Saks Afridi, a self-proclaimed “Sufi sci-fi futurist” with whom I collaborated on the exhibition Spacemosque on the Brattleboro Museum in 2024, additionally cites Khan as an early affect. His love for restoring basic automobiles as a part of his apply mirrors the religious path, he mentioned — filled with challenges, discoveries, and development. “Sufism isn’t about perfection; it’s about the journey,” he mirrored.
Brooklyn-based artist Zain Alam deepened his engagement with Sufism via a 2024 residency with Nawat Fes in Morocco. His three-part video set up Meter & Gentle (2024), exhibited throughout his 2024 residency at Recess in New York, spanned three partitions and compelled viewers to shift their gaze, mirroring the whirling and chanting of a dhikr ceremony.
Element of Khalil Chishtee’s set up at Castlebraid (picture Sadaf Padder/Hyperallergic)
Khalil Chishtee, one other New York-based artist, incorporates Sufi philosophy into his sculptural apply. Raised within the Chishtiyya Sufi custom, his work embodies the precept of zuhd — detachment from materials possessions. He crafts installations wholly from discarded supplies like plastic and automobile components, imbuing areas, corresponding to everlasting works on the Castlebraid complicated in Bushwick, with heat and humanity.
Italian-Senegalese artist Maïmouna Guerresi additionally explores Sufi spirituality, drawing from her experiences with the Muridiyya-Baye Fall brotherhood in Senegal. By way of fantastical images that blends Sufi symbology in works like “Beyond the Border” (2019) and “Aisha in Wonderland” (2016), depicting figures in flowing clothes amid cosmic and pure landscapes, Guerresi explores religion, identification, and transcendence. In the meantime, items corresponding to “Swing” (2019) deal with environmental extra, seamlessly intertwining religious and sociopolitical themes.
Sufism’s affect on up to date artwork and tradition is more and more mirrored in institutional exhibitions, as properly. Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum exhibited Rumi: A Visible Journey By way of the Life and Legacy of a Sufi Mystic in 2023 to mark the 750th anniversary of the poet’s passing, showcasing artifacts, manuscripts, and up to date works. On the Royal Faculty of Music London, Awaken: Sufi Music and Girls in South Asia (2024) explored the missed position of ladies in Sufi music throughout Pakistan, India, Kashmir, and Bengal.
“I wanted to move beyond qawwali as the only Sufi music tradition,” curator Attia Shiraz informed Hyperallergic, emphasizing the deep interconnection of histories, poetry, and rituals.
As Sufi traditions discover new life in city cafes, up to date artwork, and establishments, qawwali stays a significant pressure within the international religious and artistic panorama. The problem is to honor its roots whereas permitting it to evolve — guaranteeing its essence, the craving for the divine, stays at its core.
Maïmouna Guerresi, “Swing” (2019), lambda print (picture courtesy Mariane Ibrahim Gallery)
