Join us at All Souls Interfaith www.allsoulsinterfaith.com for a service to learn more about Zanzibar! Here are the details:

Sundays Music and Spirit service will be a "multi-sensory" experience to Zanizbar ! Steven Weymeyer (see more about him below) will be creating the experience along with our team at All Souls. The intent is to leave folks with a short list of key perceptions and concepts about Zanzibar spiritual traditions, that in turn open our eyes to a world enriched, enlivened, and enchanted by the active presence of Spirit in everyday life. The homily itself will begin with a short exploration of the unique character of Zanzibar as a religiously and spiritually diverse culture - with a specific focus on the role of traditional spiritual healing and spirit work practices in contemporary Zanzibari life. Steve will be illustrating this with his field research photos and video from the last couple of trips he took to Zanzibar (March 2016/May 2017). We will be educated on individual and communal healing ceremonies, visit underground mizimu shrines, and learn about the world of the mashetani or majini - the spirits who aid healers in their craft. The bulk of evening will be a conversation describing the rich and diverse practices of Uganga, and the relevance these traditions have for a 21st century world outside of Zanzibar. The musical offerings will also be offered by Steven and he will share examples of Taarab - the traditional music of Zanzibar (influenced by African, Arabic and Indian musical forms) - it's heart-wrenchingly beautiful, and it's history is bound up in the story of Zanzibar's religious and cultural diversity.

Stephen C. Wehmeyer holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA, and specializes in the study of vernacular religion and the ritual arts of the Afro-Atlantic world. He is an Associate Professor in the Core Division of Champlain College where (among other things) he teaches courses on African and Afro-Caribbean religions. With over two decades of ethnographic research on Afro-Atlantic religious culture, his writings have appeared in journals like African Arts, Western Folklore, and Southern Quarterly and he has contributed to edited volumes like In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st Century Haitian Art (UCLA), and There is a Mystery: Esotericism in African American Religious Experience (Brill). For the past two years, he and his colleague Gary Scudder have been organizing educational tours for students which explore the diverse sacred landscapes of the Zanzibar archipelago.

Nov 22, 11 AM to 4 PM, Nov 24, 2024

Nov 23, 2024, 9 AM to 12 PM

Nov 23, 2024, 12 to 2 PM