February 2012
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ABJEEZ & IRANIAN DIASPORA MUSIC FEATURED IN NEW...
The New York Times (and International Herald Tribune) published an article yesterday on Iranian music in diaspora, music as protest art, and the challenges of making and sharing music from Iran. The focus is on your favorite sister act and mine, the Abjeez, with statements from Mahsa Vahdat and Salome MC as well. It’s always interesting to me to see what cast of characters journalists choose...
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ATTENTION IRANIAN AMERICAN YOUTH: CAMP AYANDEH IS...
For the last seven years, IAAB (an incredible non-profit org started by young Iranian Americans and based in NYC) has brought together high school and college-aged Iranian Americans to Camp Ayandeh, a summer leadership camp for Iranian American high school students in a different location each year. I’ve had the privilege of attending several years of Camp Ayandeh as a staff member, and...
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MAMAK KHADEM TO PERFORM ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S...
Thursday, March 8, 8:00 p.m. at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
(Arrive early and view the exhibition Women Hold Up Half the Sky)
From The Skirball Center:
In a captivating performance created specially for International Women’s Day, beloved Persian vocalist Mamak Khadem leads a special ensemble of women artists from Iran, Greece, Bulgaria, and beyond, including Tzvetanka...
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SLAVS & TATARS TALK: "REVERSE JOY" AT NEW MUSEUM'S...
A public forum meant to explore ideas in development, Propositions has invited Slavs and Tatars to discuss Muharram, the annual Shi’ite holy month, as an agency for perpetual protest, followed by guest speaker Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of the recent Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest.
Date: 12 pm,...
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NAMJOO'S PERSIAN MUSIC THEORY WORKSHOP AT UC...
As promised, more information on Namjoo’s workshop:
A Persian music theory workshop, held over 15 weekly sessions at UC Berkeley (each Friday, starting February 10 2012, in 204 Dwinelle Hall). The workshop is free to UCB students; people from all communities and residences are welcome.
For sign ups and questions please...
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“In Canada we have large populations of international students from Iran who are...”
– MPP Reza Moridi, on the impact of crippling sanctions not only on Iranians in Iran, but on Iranian-Canadians in his district of Toronto. Quoted by Sima Sahar Zerehi in Shahrvand.
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FUND THIS: NYT-RECOGNIZED PHOTOGRAPHER KIANA...
Kiana Hayeri is a talented young Iranian-Canadian photographer whose latest project, “Your Veil is a Battleground,” was featured on the New York Times Lens Blog. Help fundraise for the exhibition of this timely project of excellent documentary photography at RocketHub.
From her RocketHub site:
“With a focus on young women, Your Veil is a Battleground looks at the lives...
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“I didn’t care about Iranians liking them or not,” he says. “My intention was to...”
– Nima Behnoud, creator of NIMANY, totally lying to Rolling Stone (Middle East) about the absence of Iranian culture in western pop culture or fashion before he started making T-shirts. Seriously, Nima? Yes, your t-shirts are popular and selling well, but it would serve you better...
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BBC 3 ALSO NOTICED HOW OVERWHELMING 2012 HAS...
Need to catch up? Have a listen to this January 26th commentary from BBC 3’s “Night Waves” on all the headlines related to Iran that have been swirling this month. Said Zeydabadi-nejad (SOAS), Narguess Farzad (SOAS), and Fari Bradley (Six Pillars to Persia) comment on “A Separation,” cinema in Iran, and a...
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RELOCATING LORCA: SHOHREH AGHDASHLOO IN 'THE HOUSE...
“The House of Bernarda Alba” by Federico García Lorca in a new version by Emily Mann.
Thu 19 Jan 2012 - Sat 10 Mar 2012
Almeida Theatre Islington, London, N1 1TA
(Read positive reviews of the play from the Guardian and one from the Independent UK)
From the theatre’s site:
Following her husband’s funeral, powerful matriarch...
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January 2012
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“It is doubly hard for Muslim women, because we want to complain about our men...”
– Zahra Noorbakhsh, in the NYT, in a review of the new collection of Muslim American women’s stores, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. Zahra is joined by Melody Moezzi and Najva Sol as the Iranian American women who contributed to this multifacted project.
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You must know by now, but just for the sake of... →
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NEW KAYHAN KALHOR ALBUM ON NPR'S FIRST LISTEN
Kamancheh master Kayhan Kalhor’s beautiful new album, I Will Not Stand Alone, won’t be released until February, but you can listen to it in its entirety now on NPR’s First Listen.
From NPR:
On I Will Not Stand Alone, out Feb. 14, Kalhor and colleague Ali Bahrami Fard — who plays a bass santour, a hammered dulcimer whose dark tonal range complements the shah kaman —...
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Shahs of Sunset: the first 2 minutes of the first... →
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THIS WILL BE AMAZING: SHAHRNUSH PARSIPUR & SUHEIR...
THE MAGIC OF SOLIDARITY: SHAHRNUSH PARSIPUR & SUHEIR HAMMAD
REDCAT L.A. | February, 12, 2012 | 7pm | Moderated by Persis Karim
From REDCAT:
Two courageous authors have fiercely insisted on voicing consciousness and social criticism: novelist Shahrnush Parsipur and poet Suheir Hammad. Parsipur’s most famous works, Touba and the Meaning of Night and Women without Men, use fabulism and...
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IT'S HERE: 'SHAHS OF SUNSET' CAST REVEALED, SHOW...
From Ryan Seacrest Productions:
As anticipation mounts for the premiere of Bravo’s new reality show “Shahs of Sunset“, curious fans of the network — which serves as home to the “Real Housewives” franchise — are getting their first look at the cast in a newly-released photo.
The show follows a group of young Persian-American friends who sport chromed-out cars, logo-ridden purses and...
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I'm not going to add even one more word to the... →
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APPROPRIATION OF INDIGENOUS IDENTITY OF THE DAY:...
This is no news flash: indigenous groups are a constant source of inspiration for advertising and marketing execs. Okay, let me rephrase that: advertising and marketing execs are constantly stealing indigenous cultural products and identities. But it seems like auto designers specifically are increasingly fond of nomadic tribes. You may recall the Volkswagen Touareg, for example, which...
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TWO SHORT FILMS BY IRANIANS NOMINATED FOR 2012...
TWO & TWO: written, directed, and produced by Babak Anvari.
In a drab, anonymous gray school governed by a strict authoritarian regime, an apparently unremarkable day is turned on its head following a seemingly ridiculous announcement. Disbelieving at first, the all male, identically uniformed pupils are informed that what they had always been taught as fact is no...
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WatchShirin Neshat’s latest exhibition, “The Book of Kings,” is on now at the Gladstone Gallery (NYC) until February 11, 2012. Neshat says the photographs (mostly portraits) and short film included in the exhibition all involve poetry and were inspired by the Arab Spring. Read more at Payvand.
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“When you see my movie, assume that I made it under the best possible...”
– Asghar Farhadi, director of A Separation, recent winner of Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Read more at IndieWire.
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"SH*T ____ SAY" IS EVERYWHERE.
I would be remiss not to briefly note the latest viral video craze, “Sh*t x Say,” where * stands for “i” and x stands for “(any race, ethnicity, gender, or social group you can think of)” and say stands for “are stereotyped for.” For our purposes here, the following two are the most relevant, if not the most amusing. For that, I recommend the third...
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WELL, HELLO 2012: 'A SEPARATION' WINS GOLDEN GLOBE...
After a short holiday hiatus, YADASHTS is back to work, and just in time! Surely you’ve already heard the biggest news to rock the diasporasphere (not a word): Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Separation’ was awarded the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. I doubt many will argue when I say that it’s great that the film won: it was a terribly...
December 2011
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WatchTrailer for “Mossadegh,” a short film about Mohammad Mossadegh’s last day with an American physician. Fariborz David Diann, who plays Mossadegh, spoke about the film in this VOA interview. You can see it at the Irvine Film Festival on January 14, 2012.
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THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!: MSNBC GOES ON THE ROAD...
Remember the documentary project The Muslims are Coming!? The film follows Muslim American comedians on a roadtrip across the Southern United States on a mission to combat Islamophobia through comedy. Filming has wrapped, and MSNBC aired this interesting report on their efforts. Can’t wait to see this film…!
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IRANIAN AMERICAN KYMIA NAWABI WINS BRAVO'S "WORK...
Judges included New York Magazine senior art critic Jerry Saltz, gallery owner Bill Powers and pop artist Kaws. They chose Iranian American 30-year-old Kymia Nawabi as the winner of this season’s Work of Art competition over fourteen of the art world’s up-and-coming artists. She wins a $100,000 cash prize, a feature in Blue Canvas magazine and a solo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in New York...
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LINK: NBC report on Los Angeles Iranian pop... →
(Side bar: Do you know anyone (aside from, I guess Sharareh & her management) who would consider Sharareh “the Iranian Madonna”? I was under the impression we had all agreed that Googoosh was our honorary Madonna-like pop figure. What are those NBC fact-checkers doing with their time, anyway?)