A Bahá'í Perspective

Mary Darling is cofounder of the production company href="https://www.westwindpictures.com/" target="_blank"Westwind Pictures, a leading independent media production company dedicated to creating thought-provoking content for a global audience. From award-winning scripted series to lifestyle shows, documentaries, and children's media, their diverse productions have earned international acclaim. We talk about the films they've produced in the interview. The following songs are played at the end of the program: 1. Expectation - Music of the Baha'i World Congress New York 1992 2. Let All Associate - New Creation 3. Beauty - Luke Slott 4. For Mercy - Grant Hindin Miller

Masud is an artist, writer, and an actor. He talks about his spiritual journey and his work in the interview. You can find his work at href="https://www.masud-olufani.com/" target="_blank"https://www.masud-olufani.com/. I caught Masud while heading out from his studio. As a result the voice quality is lacking and there is background noise. But please be patient. At about 12 minutes into the interview the sound quality improves significantly. Songs played: 1. Where There Is Love-Elika Mahoney - Album: Birds Of Love 2. Whither Can a Lover Go - Jody Cooper bull; "Whither Can a Lo... 3. Wilderness - Eric Dozier; 4. Prayer for the Departed - Yosi Mesbah - Album: Badasht Vol. III - Visionaries 5. Beautiful Soul - Shameem - Album: The Second City 6. Let All Associate - Creation

Llewellyn was raised in the Disciples of Christ church, its origins coming out of the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century in the US when protestant Christianity was spread through revivals. Llewellyn tells his story of how his spiritual journey led him to the Baha'i Faith, and then how being a Baha'i caused him to look back at milestone incidents in his life that led him on that path. The following songs are played at the end: 1. Truthfulness by Nabil Moghaddam 2. Unite by Ali Youssefi 3. Walk A Little Farther - Artists Unknown 4. Where there is love by Andy Grammer

Andy is an experienced and well-versed musician in many disciplines of music including guitar, singing, composing, arranging, teaching, and music producing, and has been performing for over 25 years. He has selected a number of his musical compositions for the interview that feature his guitar virtuosity and his singer-songwriter abilities. We also talk about his pursuit of becoming a musical therapist. Visit href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSXIkOWhQDqR3MBYH-w57cw" target="_blank"Andy'sTube Channel to hear more of his music.

Olya grew up in Iran under the severe persecution of the Iranian Islamic regime after the 1979 Revolution. She along with 10 other women were arrested soon after, for being Baha'is. All of her 10 women companions were eventually hanged and Olya believes she was spared so that she could share their story with the world. One of these women was a 16 year old, named Mona, who was arrested for being a teacher at Baha'i children's classes. She eventually escaped Iran and published Olya's Story: href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/olyas-story-olya-roohizadegan/1136790370?ean=9781851680733" target="_blank"A Survivor's Dramatic Account of the Persecution of Baha'is in Revolutionary Iran. Since the release of the book in 1993, exactly 10 years after the execution of her 10 women companions, she has presented herself in over 1000 public venues telling this story. She wants to write a 2nd book demonstrating how the death of these women allowed her to spread their message of love and unity throughout the world.

Winnie grew up as a poor northern girl who married into a well-to-do Southern family and started raising a family in the early 1960's. Before becoming a Baha'i, she was involved in promoting racial justice in her own small way. After becoming a Baha'i, her vision broadened, and she and her husband moved to Barbados and lived there for 12 years. Ironically it was her husband who studied agriculture in college, but it was Winnie that became the self-taught agriculturalist helping the agricultural efforts in the Caribean islands as well as in the States. She recently published a book, href="https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Food-Farmer-and-Community-P10366.aspx" target="_blank""Food, Farmer and Community: Agriculture and the Reconstruction of the World". She explains how agriculture is fundamental to a stable society. Song List: 1. Toward The Sun - Amy Stephen Haghighi 2. Tree of Peace - by Jacqueline Odess-Gillett

Nadema is a Native American artist with her own business called Red Earth Studio Consulting / Productions. Before creating her own consulting and curating business, she had done important work by helping create the Southeastern Native Arts Directory and being the Repatriation Director for Standing Rock. href="http://www.nademaagard.com/" target="_blank"Visit her website. Song List: 1. The Photograph Music and words Alan McKay and Sonbol Taefi; 2. This Is The Day by Mana; 3. This Newborn Child by Ramine Yazhari; 4. Thou Art The Rich by Nabilinho; 5. Thy Love by Kelsey Bulkin; 6. Thy Name Is My Healing by JB Eckl; 7. To Be Close To You (Anis) by Tara Ellis

June is the Centennial Professor Emerita of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan#39;s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where she also is the Mary Frances Berry Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Urban Planning. She was one of the first black teenagers to break the segregated white high school in her home town starting in the 10th grade. She describes how difficult and traumatic that experience was for her. Her website is: href="https://junemanningthomas.com/" target="_blank"https://junemanningthomas.com/ Song List: 1. The Most Hidden by Luke Slott 2. The Mountain by Jacqueline Odess-Gillett

John is a jazz horn player and composer. He invented his unique horn with the same range as the french horn, called the hornette. He's released 7 albums. We feature songs he has composed in the interview. Sit back, relax, and listen to some wonderful jazz. You can find his music at href="https://hmmusic.com/" target="_blank"https://hmmusic.com/

Lisa is a musical composer, performer, teacher, and film scorer. In 2001 she put together her earliest piano compositions and has since produced 4 other CDs. When I asked Lisa to select six musical pieces to feature on the interview, she did something I had no other musical artist do, she selected pieces that were created by others that she found as an influence to her musical career. And I have to admit, the pieces she selected are amazing. She selected two pieces that she composed, "Brocaded Tent" and "Light Revealed", which we feature at the end of the interview, and are also very beautiful. You can visit her href="http://lisahaesesmith.com/LHS/Home.html" target="_blank"website.

Ben is an author of middle-grade novels, and had recently published his fourth book, The Einsteins of Vista Point. His previous work is the Winterhouse trilogy which has been translated into ten languages and even received notice from some state, national, and international awards. Visit his website at href="https://benguterson.com/" target="_blank"https://benguterson.com/. Song List: The Earth and the Eagle by David Hunt Blessed is the Spot by The Humming Birds The Light Of Thy Love by Nabil Moghaddam The Light Of Unity by Luke Slott

The tragic death of Vivian's brother when he was a teenager was the impetuous to Vivian and his mother searching for a spiritual reason for this traumatic loss that led them to the Baha'i Faith. Vivian is now retired from being a secondary school teacher. At the end of 1999, he got involved in a youth empowerment program started by the Baha'is in Swindon, England that was transformative and successful and was instituted in a number of schools there. He wrote about the experience in his book Nurturing a Healthy Human Spirit in the Young. Vivian wrote a 2nd book entitled Navigating Materialistic Minefields. He had a dear friend who was an atheist and they would have wonderful deep conversations and after his friend passed away, Vivian decided to write this book dedicated to his friend that would answer some of the questions from a different perspective than the one his friend held.

Carolyn is a professional musician, published author, and painter. She was principal viola with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, based in Edinburgh and a member of the BBC orchestra. She wrote a play called Threads which she was able to produce, which then turned into a book called " href="https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Half-of-it-Was-Never-Told-P8352.aspx" target="_blank"The Half Of It Was Never Told: Three men . . . three continents . . . one passion". She has also written two children's books called " href="https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Little-Acorn-P10407.aspx" target="_blank"Little Acorn"nbsp; and " href="https://www.bahaibookstore.com/Abdul-Bahas-Little-Brown-Cat-P10385.aspx" target="_blank"Abdu'l-Baha's Little Brown Cat". 1. Tell The Rich by Eric Dozier 2. Refresh and Gladden My Spirit by JB Eckel (The Badasht Project) 3. The Balance by Taraz Nosrat 4. The Bird Which Soareth by Elika Mahony 4. One World by The Children's Theatre Company nbsp;

KC is an American record producer, singer-songwriter, arranger and composer. He was nominated for more than six Grammy Awards and winner of 1, and winner of two Latin Grammy Awards. His father is the famous arranger href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Porter_(record_producer)" target="_blank"Bob Porter. KC has selected a number of songs to feature in the interview and explains the significance of each. One in particular is La Pared (The Wall) which became an href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHN09ikV_Q" target="_blank"animated video. You can find his work on his href="https://www.kcporter.com/" target="_blank"website.

Dorothy is a professor at Columbia University, author and playwright. She served as advisor to the US Ambassador of the Czech Republic and was a delegate to both the United Nations Economic and Social Develop Summit in Copenhagen and the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She is the author of 15 books, and we talk about three of her books in the interview. From one of them she created a musical production that had 3200 performances in over 70 cities. You can find her work at href="http://www.drdorothy.com/" target="_blank" http://www.drdorothy.com/ Song List: 1. Sweet Singing Birds by Gustaff Besungu (album The Flight) 2. Sweeten Their Souls by Elika Mahony (album Infinite Bounty) 3. Spiritual Revolutionary performed by Tallis, Karim, Jose, Jomei (album Badasht Vol. III - Visionaries

Mary was born and raised in the west of Wales and has worked for eight years in Africa - in Lesotho, in Uganda where she became a Bahaacute;'iacute;, and in Cameroon where she met and married Richard Gray, an American astronomer. She is an author, poet, and storyteller. Mary has focused on writing books, in simple English, on the history and teachings of the Bahaacute;'iacute; Faith. Her first title, href="https://www.amazon.com/Bah%C3%A1%C3%AD-faith-Mary-Perkins/dp/0706239393/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27XBDG3WFUMNMamp;keywords=The+Baha%27i+Faith+Mary+Perkinsamp;qid=1651523300amp;sprefix=the+baha%27i+faith+mary+perkins%2Caps%2C671amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank"The Bahaacute;'iacute; Faith, was co-authored with Philip Hainsworth, published by Ward Lock Educational in their series on Living Religion in 1980, and subsequently translated into Danish, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Russian and Braille. In 2016 she created a volume of her poetry titled href="https://www.amazon.com/Turning-Toward-Home-Mary-Perkins/dp/0957185618/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VDV9LCOFY7D2amp;keywords=Turning+Toward+Home+Mary+Perkinsamp;qid=1651523577amp;sprefix=turning+toward+home+mary+perkins%2Caps%2C79amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank"Turning Toward Home. We have a friend of Mary's read two of her poems near the end of the interview. Mary is currently working on a book on storytelling. Song list: 1. Sorrow Not - ninepointedstarmusic(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJVF...) 2. Strive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Hj9...) 3. Suffer Me by Nabil amp; Karim 4. Sweet Neighbors Come in All Colors - adapted from Dick Grover's song Good Neighbors... by Sweet N all Singers (httpswww.youtube.comwatchv=f1M_XaqJD8U)

href="http://www.shameemmusic.com/" target="_blank"Shameem is an Australian singer-songwriter, whose diversity in heritage (her father is Chinese-Malaysian and her mother is Iranian) influences her eclectic approach to music. She has produced a number of albums and she has selected songs from three of them for the interview. The three albums we feature selections from include the self-titled album, Shameem, her next album after that, The Second City, and her most recent album, Time Does Not Reverse.

Gary holds Bachelor#39;s and Master#39;s degrees in Cultural Anthropology as well as a degree in Law. He has been involved in international development projects in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Australia. Gary now has a private consulting and training company specializing in federal assistance law and other areas related to assistance agreements. Song list... Make My Prayer by Shoghi Agbortoko and Max Weigert The Covenant by Smith amp; Dragoman Something More by Martin Kerr Radiant Within by Janet Kayzer href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Hj9" target="_blank"Strive Soon Love Soon by Vienna Teng

Zarrin is a journalist and one who as worked in international affairs, As part of her attraction to the world#39;s wisdom and spiritual traditions, she created The Soul Salons podcast and href="https://thesoulsalons.com/" target="_blank"website showcasing teachers and works that she wanted to learn more about and passages that inspired her. We talk about her podcast and play one of her episodes in the interview. Sands Of Time by Tadia (Poems of Tahirih) Say by Eric Harper Say Say Say by Kiskadee Service by David Hunt Moth to a Flame by Shadi Toloui-Wallace nbsp;

href="https://www.colbyjeffers.com/" target="_blank"Colby is a musical artist from the Phoenix area, who has been making Baha'i-inspired hip hop since around 2012. He has produced five albums and his most recently released album is entitled " href="https://music.apple.com/us/album/created-noble/1592585024" target="_blank"Created Noble". The album explores the themes of nobility, fatherhood, and contributing to the betterment of the world. We feature tracks from this album in the interview. Colby also produces a podcast called href="https://www.colbyjeffers.com/elevated-conversations/" target="_blank"Elevated Conversations, which we also refer to in the interview.