XALIDE
The day we visited Xalide she was staying in an apartment close to a hospital, where one of her family members was receiving treatment. She welcomed us in, but it was clear that we were not in her home—there was a sense of disconnect with the physical environment, something unsettled and temporary. Nevertheless, we found her friendly and generous with her time. Xalide is a dêngbej—a practitioner of the bardic Kurdish tradition of sung oral histories. Part musician, part storyteller, Xalide is passionate about her work and shared with us insight into her approach to music and life.
Xalide doesn’t consider herself a religious person in a traditional sense, particularly where Islam is concerned—rather, she finds God in nature, and feels most herself when she is in the natural environment, close to plants, flowers, water, and mountains.
As with a few other women we met, Xalide had a small bird, Lokum, named after a popular Turkish sweet, and she seemed to derive a great deal of joy from her pet, showing it affection, delighting in its antics as it flitted around the room. The playfulness of the bird provided a nice contrast to the evident stress surrounding her family member’s medical issues.
Xalide was very generous in singing for us, and these are a few of the songs she sang, showing her vocal skill and knowledge of varied of song forms from within her tradition.
