Khaira Arby There was an unusual poignancy to the 12th installment of Mali’s annual Festival au Desert. Since 2001, the festival has brought together dozens of international artists to celebrate local Tuareg culture with poetry, dances, games, and especially, music. With a strong commitment to both preserving tradition and fostering cross-cultural exchange, the festival functions as a kind of international crossroads in the desert. But in early 2012, as Tuareg rockers Tartit and the Ali Farka Allstars took the stage to sing of “Democratie” and “La Paix,” fighting broke out in Mali’s large Azawad region. Within a few months, Islamists had branded Tuareg culture “secular,” and began to violently suppress it. As fighting continues with France and other Western countries intervening, the festival, and this album in particular, stands defiantly as a call for tolerance and peace. In one of the record’s most powerful moments, desert blues singer Khaira Arby remembers the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in “La Liberte.” Live From Festival au Desert will be available April 16.

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