Dedicated to Marjorie Crenshaw, 1927-2019

Courtesy of Tarrant County Black Historical and Genealogical Society.(The Marjorie Crenshaw Collection)

Kaleidoscopic was one way they described Fort Worth’s Caravan of Dreams, which inhabited a classic 1880s Victorian structure at 312 Houston St.in downtown Fort Worth. That building, transformed into ‘A Mecca for Creative Exchange,’ became one of the most adventurous and multi-faceted performing arts centers around, transporting us to worlds where diverse peoples and cultures came together and found common ground, at a time when that was far from the norm.

It was a three-ring-circus of the creative arts: three floors of live music and theater, art exhibits, poetry readings and literary events, film festivals, dance performances, fine dining and stimulating, multicultural social interaction under the Texas skies.

An improbable, audacious undertaking, which some thought could never succeed, the opening of the Caravan of Dreams was covered by the The New York Times and Figaro as a major American cultural event. The Washington Post likened the Caravan’s opening to “an F-16 landing in an aboriginal village.” (Paul Taylor, 9-27-83.)

The Caravan story is intimately intertwined with the counterculture community in Santa Fe that Fort Worth’s favorite billionaire, Ed Bass, joined in ’73: the Synergia Ranch and its Theater of All Possibilities, a group of actors, artists and scientifically-minded environmentalists with an uncompromising allegiance to creative expression, coupled with groundbreaking explorations into ecological study and research.

Which is to say, it’s also the untold story of the personal pilgrimage of Ed Bass himself, who traveled Introduction extensively with this radical theater troupe, funding and participating in many of their projects around the world, only to come full circle, returning home to bring this performing arts center into being, and in the process, transforming the desolate downtown landscape of the early 80s into a vibrant cultural oasis.

That’s the important subtext to this story which must, by necessity, remain untold. Perhaps someday the protective veil of privacy will lift and we’ll be granted a first-person account of that pilgrimage. Until then, there’s enough factual information available to enable us to read between the lines - and after all, the unspoken mystery is often as compelling as an array of intimate reflections, laid out in chronological order within a comprehensive overview.

One thing is certain though: out of all the projects that he’s envisioned, funded and shepherded to completion, the Caravan is in a category all its own.

In a letter to the French philosopher Jacques Maritain, Jean Cocteau spoke of an era where “Beauty would gradually become goodness, and masterpieces, acts from the heart…” (Art and Faith, Letters between Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau.)

From extensive interviews with those who performed there, worked there, and visited there, the consensus is that the Caravan of Dreams was truly Ed Bass’ masterpiece, a new frontier of jazz, blues and wild creative freedom that he miraculously brought to life in the heart of Cowtown, a brilliant act from the heart, to be remembered and celebrated for generations to come.

Before we dive into this historical overview, let’s pause to reflect on the name Caravan of Dreams.

Coming from a time and place when caravans actually rolled across the desert, this dreamy poetic image was no doubt just something in the wind, in poetry and song. The first finding is in Vol. 9 of the 1001 Arabian Nights, the ‘Tale of Marouf the Cobbler.’ A collection of Middle Eastern folk tales from the Islamic Golden Era (8th to 13th c.), these stories drew upon more ancient sources in Egyptian, Persian and Mesopotamian literature.

As the image applies to the Performing Arts Center in Fort Worth, there are multiple sources of inspiration. According to John Allen, founder of the Synergia group, “Kathelin and I called it the Caravan of Dreams, a name that came from a play I had written based on stories from the Arabian Nights.” (John Allen, Me and the Biospheres, p. 98, 99.)

Another likely source of inspiration that was also in the wind around the time the Synergia community began was a popular compendium of Sufi wisdom, Caravan of Dreams, by Idries Shah. Released in ’68,presenting Sufi philosophy for a 60s culture that was exploring alternative spiritualities and lifestyles, it “distilled the essence of Eastern thought in a feast of stories, sayings, poems and allegories, collected by one of the world’s leading experts in Oriental philosophy.”

Shah states in the preface, “In one of the best tales of the Arabian Nights, Maruf the Cobbler found himself daydreaming his own fabulous caravan of riches.

“Destitute and almost friendless in an alien land, Maruf at first mentally conceived–and then described–an unbelievably valuable cargo on its way to him.

“Instead of leading to exposure and disgrace, this idea was the foundation of his eventual success. The imagined caravan took shape, became real for a time–and arrived.

“May your caravan of dreams, too, find its way to you.” – Idries Shah

And although it’s perhaps a distinction without a difference, Kathelin wrote, “An inspiration was Brion Gysin’s Thousand and One Nights, a club he’d run decades before in Tangier’s Kasbah, with the Master Musicians of Jajouka as the house band.” (Kathelin Gray / liner notes for William Burroughs 1988 talk at the Caravan, Uncommon Quotes.)

There was also, serendipitously, a Gysin / Shah connection that Kathelin pointed out: “Shah and Gysin’s fabled nightclub aren’t unrelated. Idries Shah’s father, Ali Iqbar Shah, lived in Tangier and Gysin knew him. Gysin doesn’t write about this very much, but I know from Gysin himself, and from other friends’ tales, that they knew each other well- and Gysin’s art practices were heavily influenced by various Sufi practices.” (Correspondence with Kathelin Gray.)

Finally, it’s interesting to note that Shah’s writings were on the recommended reading list in ’71 for visitors at the Synergia Ranch outside Sante Fe, where a young Ed Bass met John Allen and Kathelin Gray a few years later.

(Much has been made of Synergia’s connection to Sufism and Sufi-influenced teachers such as G.I.Gurdjieff and J.G. Bennett - however, Kathelin wished to underscore the fact that, “We are not, and never were, Sufis or Gurdjieffians, but have been interested in those ideas along with others, of course.”)

But regardless of how the name first came to the attention of the founders, or when and where it initially appeared in print, and what the spiritual influences were behind it, when Ed Bass legally formed Caravan of Dreams Inc. on 10-1-81, that vibrant center for creative freedom began to wend its way toward the corner of NW 3rd and Houston St.

This is just the beginning of this volume. If you want to keep reading, here's a link to Williams' website, where you can download all three volumes for free! Thanks for reading!