At the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, as part of the program “Creative Encounters: Living Religions in the U.S.,” Jones Family Singers and Riyaaz Qawwali performed a mash-up of two standards in their respective traditions: “Amazing Grace” and “Is karam ka.”
These musical groups based in Houston, Texas, form an interfaith collaboration between two distinct genres: qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional singing from South Asia, and contemporary gospel, which merges traditional Christian hymns with the musical stylings of secular Black music.
As one Festival participant reflected, “It was witnessing what the world must be.”
Camera: Ali Ali, David Barnes, Rameshwar Bhatt, Nadya Ellerhorst, Albert Tong, Charlie Weber
Editor: Ali Ali
Photo: Hsin-Wen Hsu
Catalog No. CFV11721; © Smithsonian Institution, 2024