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 by means of the intimate house, weaving collectively historical 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 power of a Sufi dhikr (“remembrance of God”) ceremony through which adherents interact in rhythmic chanting — typically reciting the attributes of God, aloud or in silence — accompanied by respiratory, poetry, music, and motion to succeed in 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-known 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, notably in New York Metropolis.
The Saami Brothers, carry an unbroken lineage of qawwali spanning 800 years. (picture courtesy El Atigh Abba)
By means of its Past Barzakh occasion collection, Barzakh Cafe is one among a number of Muslim-owned areas in the USA and Canada working to deliver qawwali into mainstream consciousness. Partnering with organizations resembling 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 follow that weaves music, poetry, and meditative remembrance collectively. But, as qawwali’s reputation grows, some adherents are involved about its commercialization.
Mehdi Kazmi, founding father of Auliya Council, started internet hosting qawwali gatherings at his Riverside house 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 (photograph 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 trendy 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 based mostly between Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recollects discovering qawwali as a toddler by means of 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 School in Maryland, Ahmad built-in dhikr into her artwork. Taking pictures 35mm movie in sync together 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 (photograph 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 follow mirrors the religious path, he mentioned — stuffed 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 by means of a 2024 residency with Nawat Fes in Morocco. His three-part video set up Meter & Mild (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 (photograph Sadaf Padder/Hyperallergic)
Khalil Chishtee, one other New York-based artist, incorporates Sufi philosophy into his sculptural follow. 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 elements, imbuing areas, resembling 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 means of fantastical pictures 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, id, and transcendence. In the meantime, items resembling “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 nicely. Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum exhibited Rumi: A Visible Journey By means 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 School of Music London, Awaken: Sufi Music and Ladies in South Asia (2024) explored the neglected function of girls 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 an important 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)
