Celebrate Rumi’s 800th Birthday at the Morrison Center
Reading sponsored by the Philosophy Department
The Department of Philosophy at Boise State and Montaña Azul will celebrate the 800th birthday of the Persian poet Rumi with a reading by Coleman Barks at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Morrison Center. Tickets are $30 general, $20 for Boise State faculty and staff and $10 for students through Select-a-Seat.
Preferred seating, including a reception with Barks on Sept. 14, is $80. The reception includes a book signing, entertainment, a tea ceremony and food. Preferred seating tickets are available through Spirit at Work, (208) 388-3884 or by visiting www.spiritatworkbooks.com. Proceeds benefit the Department of Philosophy.
Barks is an internationally recognized scholar, poet and translator who will be reading poems from his new book, “Rumi: Bridge to the Soul,” which will be released mid-September by Harper Collins and will be available at the event.
Barks’ English translations of the 13th century Persian scholar, philosopher, and mystic poet Maulana Jalal’ad-din Rumi are principally responsible for Rumi’s current popularity in the West. Rumi is the most read poet in America, and has outsold Shakespeare for two decades. Time magazine identified Rumi as “The mystic of the century.” UNESCO declared 2007 as the “Year of Rumi,” and the international community, from Australia to Tehran to Stockholm, from Charleston to Detroit to Boise is celebrating the 800th anniversary of Rumi’s birth.
“Rumi’s poetry is boundless and bewildering as it expands the attention inward to the evolution of the soul’s growth where one becomes an overwhelming joy in the garden of union,” says Boise State Philosophy instructor Peter Hodges.
Performing with Barks will be musicians Barry and Shelley Phillips (playing cello, harp, and woodwinds) from Santa Cruz, Calif., and singer Chloë Goodchild from the United Kingdom. She will open the evening accompanied by the Phillips. Goodchild’s voice has been celebrated by the Dalai Lama, composer Angelo Badalamenti, film director Jane Campion, Sting, and others.