Manchester International Festival 2021: Salaam Festival opens tonight with Abi Sampa, Sona Jobarteh and Muneera Pilgrim…(video)

SHOWCASING the best in contemporary Islamic music (and art) is a new section of the Manchester International Festival – Salaam Festival.
In this, Rizwan Iqbal, artistic director and producer of Salaam Festival explains its origins and talks about its aims.
Salaam Festival takes place today this evening (July 14) for the first time and features three artists, Abi Sampa with Rushil Ranjan & Amrit Singh, Sona Jobarteh and Muneera Pilgrim.
Sampa and her fellow artist will perform Orchestral Qawwali. This combines ancient Islamic poetry and music with modern orchestral arrangements and production and features Sampa on vocals, with Amrit Dhuffer on dhamma tabla and Ranjan producing.
Sona Jobarteh is a Gambian singer and master of an instrument known as the kora, a 21-stringed African harp. She is the first female kora virtuoso talent and excels in the tradition of griot, which mixes music, storytelling and oral history.
Muneera Pilgrim, also known as Muneera Williams, is a poet and artist and co-founder of the spoken word duo Poetic Pilgrimage. She hosts and performs tonight’s Salaam.
This is a sneak preview of the Salaam Festival which will take place in Manchester next summer (2022) and will encompass music, film, visual art, dance and more…

To find out more https://www.instagram.com/ryzwaniqbal/

Production credits
A Big Talent Media Production for http://www.asianculturevulture.com
Presenter/Producer: Suman Bhuchar (http://www.twitter.com/sumanbhuchar)
Camera/Editing: Michael Tsim (https://www.instagram.com/tsim21/)