LECTURES, FILMS AND DISCUSSIONS
The Learning Oasis
Community Hall B & C

Host: Tim Resch of Friends of Morocco

11:00 Bridges Between Cultures film
11:30 Story of Handmade Carpets with Russ Pickering
12:00 Wool Work and Carpet Making with Fatma Mbarek
12:30 Letter from Morocco film
1:00 WAC Soccer Club at the Atlas Cup
1:30 Bridges Between Cultures film
2:00 Story of Handmade Carpets with Russ Pickering
2:30 Wool Work and Carpet Making with Fatma Mberek
3:00 WAC Soccer Club at the Atlas Cup
3:30 Letter from Morocco film
4:00 Bridges between Cultures film
4:30 WAC Soccer Club at the Atlas Cup

  Bridges Between Cultures A 26 minute video by Dan Cahill
Dan Cahill (Kenitra 68-70) filmed video during the Moroccan-American Friendship Tour in November 2001. It includes interviews and reflections of the RPCVs and RPCV family members who were on the tour as well as Moroccans encountered. The Friends of Morocco Moroccan-American Friendship Tour of November 2001 had several goals. In the Aftermath of the terrorist attack of September 11 and the US reaction, tourism worldwide plummeted including American tourism to Morocco. It is sill down 50% from historical levels. The tour was an opportunity for FOM members to get to Morocco to remind people that Morocco is a friend of America and the diversity of the Arab world and Islam, to help re-start the tourism economy, to return to their work sites and to bring that message back home to the U.S. There are three basic sections to the program, which are separated by black screens: A) Reflections on Peace Corps service in Morocco in retrospect; B) Thoughts and feelings from Americans and Moroccans on 9/11; and C) Morocco and its culture

  Moroccan Rugs and textiles: Illustrated slide lecture and Rug examples of the diversity of Moroccan Rugs by Russ Pickering. Author of Moroccan Carpets by Brooke Pickering, W. Russell Pickering, Ralph S. Yohe. Originally published in 1994, a survey of 19th and 20th century Moroccan rugs and textiles featuring a collection of mainly rural carpets and covers, tent-weaving, bags, trapping and garments in 115 colour photos. Examines the tradition of Moroccan textiles which has emerged from a number of different weaving cultures. The illustrations and narrative of the MOROCCAN CARPETS by Russell and Brooke Pickering brings out the true allure of the Berber hand-loomed carpet showing the mood and feeling it lends to any setting. The exquisite designs and colors combine to create soft pastel formality or vibrant tribal decor. Working without the aide of a pattern, the artisan produces centuries-old motifs unique to each region reflecting the imagination and genius of the master weavers. This book gives us rare insight into the beauty of the Moroccan art of weaving. See also MOROCCAN CARPETS AND TWENTIETH CENTURY DESIGN by Brooke Pickering.   Additional information on Moroccan rugs and other textiles

  Wool work and carpet making: Demonstrating with a Miniature loom to show how she weaves carpets, and some equipment for making wool treads and showing different types of her work: different types of carpets, pillows, purses and other woven goods.
Biography: Fatma Mbarek (L'hajja), a Moroccan grandmother, was born in the city of Beni Mellal in 1934. She is an amazigh (berber) from the Immouzer Marmoucha region of the Atlas mountains. She lived in several areas in Northern Morocco before settling down in the mountain town of Sefrou (near the imperial city of Fez) after her husband retired from the army. Since she was a girl, Fatma has worked with wool from her family's sheep. She is familiar with all of the steps in the process from shearing the sheep and cleaning the wool to making the yarn and dying it before weaving it into traditional Berber carpets, pillows or jellabahs. She usually does designs from the "Marmoucha" tribe and from other Amazigh tribes of the Middle Atlas like Zemmour and Zayane. She creates her designs from her own imagination without the assistance of any written pattern. Some of work will be displayed here. Volunteers to answer questions: Driss Benmhend and Martha Dye

  Letter from Morocco by Bev Seckinger
This 26 minute video tells the story of an American woman who returns to Morocco several years after serving there as an English teacher with the Peace Corps. During the courese to this return visit, she reflects - with the benefit of hindishgt - on what her experience there was all about. A second theme or leit motif on the tape is a series of reflections and observations on what happens when two worlds - Islam and the west, the developing and the develooped world- come in contact with each other.

  The Washington Athletic Club is a men's soccer team currently competing in the Washington International Soccer League (WISL). This team comprised of Moroccans in America and Americans of Moroccan heritage traveled to Morocco in May, 2004 to complete a tournemt for the Moroccan diaspora. This video captures the story of that return to Morocco and the results of the competition.