Esoterics to perform original opera “Damän: The Seven Creations” Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 2pm

Tickets: $20 General, $15 Special Discount, and $10 Students, (South Puget Sound Community College Students FREE with ID)

In his world travels, Eric Banks, the director of The Esoterics, has studied the scriptures and hymns of Zoroastrianism as well as a manuscript from Persian cosmology. By selecting text from these sources, Banks assembled the libretto for “Damän: The Seven Creations,” a seven-movement opera that delves into the origins of the universe and emphasizes the role of human choice in the cosmic balance between good and evil.

A workshop/chant along will precede the Esoterics’ performance of the opera. The opera will be performed with the audience onstage so that the 40-plus members of the ensemble surround the listeners. The opera is funded by a composer’s grant from 4Culture, an award from Seattle CityArtists and a composer’s fellowship from the Washington State Arts Commission and Art Trust. In addition, it recently won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Pre-event tickets available at www.spscc.edu/cfa or 596-5501

Colonel (ret.) Ann Wright visited Olympia yesterday for a series of presentations on Iraq, on official wrongdoing within government, and on her new book, which is published by Koa Books. Dissent, Voices of Conscience: Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq is co-authored by Ms. Wright and Susan Dixon. It chronicles the stories of about 25 government and military whistle-blowers who have come forward to expose corruption and wrongdoing in their respective professional settings.

Colonel Wright was a career diplomat with the US State Department. When the US Government, under the dictate of the Bush Administration, launched an invasion in Iraq she resigned her post (along with two other US diplomats.) I saw and listened to Ms. Wright give a presentation (on her experience vís a vís her professional career and Iraq) at South Puget Sound Community College. Her visit was sponsored by Washington Peace Action and BRICK (the SPSCC student group Building Revolution by Increasing Community Knowledge).