From my colleague, Typhaine Leservot

A quick announcement to bring your attention to several events this week involving Northern Africa through the “Muslim Women Voices” festival:

Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 4:15 PM / Daltry Room (Music Rehearsal Hall 003) / free: Women’s Voices, Verbal Ability, and Symbolic Power: The Case of Moroccan Shikhat. Alessandra Ciucci analyzes a wedding celebration in Morocco to determine the role(s) of the shikhat, a class of professional female singer-dancers.

Thursday, September 18, 2014 at 7:00 PM / CFA Hall / free: Panel Discussion: Gender, Islam, and the ‘Muslim Problem’. Organized and moderated by Professor of Religion Peter Gottschalk.

Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 11:00 AM / World Music Hall / Free for Wes students. Meryem Saci Workshop: Music Is Medicine—Hip Hop Therapy for the Bifurcated Soul. In this workshop, Meryem Saci will explore her experiences as a refugee, an artist, and a Muslim woman. She will unpack the therapeutic and spiritual benefits that music can provide, pulling examples and lessons from her own history and life story. Meryem Saci fled Algeria in 2000 and now lives in Montréal.

Saturday, September 20, 2014 at 9:00 PM / Fayerweather Beckham Hall / Planet Hip Hop Festival Concert – Evening performances by international Muslim women in hip hop, including London’s spoken-word duo Poetic Pilgrimage, the U.S. debut of Montreal-based Algerian singer-songwriter and rapper Meryem Saci (pictured) as a solo artist, and the New England debut of Washington, D.C.-based and Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter, poet, and emcee Maimouna Youssef a.k.a. Mumu Fresh as a solo artist.

More at a later date: look for Hind Benali, Moroccan dancer, who will come at Wesleyan the week of October 13th.

For more information about the entire MWV festival, please visit http://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa/mwv