This project aims to document and preserve music and poetry of the Jordanian Bedouins of the North Bādiya region, located in the northeastern portion of Jordan. The two aims of the current project, begun in the summer of 2010 and continued in the summer of 2011, are to document music practitioners using video and audio equipment and to produce a commercial documentary DVD and a commercial CD of the traditional music of this area. This is an oral tradition, which has historically been passed down from one generation to the next. The Bedouins will be able to use the DVD and CD in classrooms to teach the music to new generations, so that the tradition may survive. The 30-minute documentary, “Bedouin Identity at the Crossroads,” is currently in production. A trailer for the film can be seen at: https://vimeo.com/47423342
For more information, see: https://www.facebook.com/BedouinPerformativeTraditionsDVD?fref=ts
Poet-singer ʿUdhaymān al-Ghiyyāth playing the rabāba. Saydiyya, Jordan, 2010. Photograph by Kathleen Hood.