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Young Iranian Americans show resilience amid war through dance and community · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We turn now to the Iran War, where an Israeli
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: strike has reportedly killed that country's navy commander. Today, President
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Trump holding his first Cabinet meeting since the war began.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: During it, he insistent negotiations with Iran are underway, despite
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Iran rejecting that notion.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: They want to make a deal.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: The reason they want to make a deal is they
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: have been just feated.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: As the war rages on, young Iranian Americans coping with
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the stress and concern of their ancestral homeland and for
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: some family and friends under siege, many taking up what
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: might seem like an unusual form of resistance, finding joy
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and community on throwback eradance floors. It's day twenty seven
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of the war with Iran. Here's nightlines Asham Singh.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: This Papa party in New York City's downtown. Who has
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: a deeper meaning that meets the eye. It's a celebration
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: of the Persian New Year. No rus scenes here reminiscent
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: of the disco culture that thrived in Iran before the
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: hardline regime took over nineteen seventy nine.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: A lot of the music that we're playing tonight, it
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: came out of Iran. Before the revolution happened, but also
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  Speaker 4: mixed and the new that still has at.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Heart the dancing hosted by Club June, which translates to soul,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: attracting younger Iranian Americans for a night out grooving to
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: the sounds of their homeland.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be on the dance floor all night.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: A reprieve, especially amidst the distress from a war happening
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: six thousand miles away, that many, if not all, find
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  Speaker 3: themselves connected to.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Dancing and music brings us together instead of mourning what
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: was lost.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Everyone right now needs this event because all of us
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: have fell so alone.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: In the nineteen seventies, cities like Tehran stood as cultural
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: giants in the region, hubs of music, film, art in poetry.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy nine, the rose of revolution and you
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: saw a major wave of Iranian's fleet and lose everything
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: and start from scratch.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: The music and dance scene was pushed underground, though many
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Iranians kept the culture alive behind closed doors. But for
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: those in the States, they're reclaiming their culture and living
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: it out loud, especially.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Now notice is marked on the Spring equinox. This is
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: something that brings Iranians together. I know that this year
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it's come with mixed feelings and emotions, and for many Iranians,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: they are hoping for a new Iran.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: We're at an Iranian nows market in New York.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Ohmede Afshar is a first generation Iranian American.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Many Iranian content creator. It's been something I started over
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: two years ago and it's grown into something I never
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: really dreamt of it becoming. Here's a phrase in Farsi
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: that makes no sense in English.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: He grew up following up more than one hundred thousand
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: sharing his personal journey to reconnect with his heritage on
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: social media.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: I'm about to show you how to make shivi, pula
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: and more reermez, my dad's favorite meal.
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: You got to go get a mira.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Now, this is pure Iranian Kobe, Dad.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Were you proud of growing up Iranian?
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  Speaker 4: Of course, But when you grow up from immigrant parents
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  Speaker 4: who fled Iran right before the revolution, you are kind
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: of creating your own narrative of what it's like to
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: be Iranian in America. And you know, there was times
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: growing up when I wanted to also try to fit
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: in with the American crowd that I was going to
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  Speaker 4: school with so I want to say I had this
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: realization over the last couple of years of living in
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: New York that I was longing to feel that connection.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Omed taking it one step further launching Club June to
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  Speaker 3: bring Iranians together in real life.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: We go to different bars or restaurants, and we listen
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: to Iranian music. Growing up going to my parents' parties,
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Iranian music was something that was always around me, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: I realized, why don't we have any spaces like that.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: My first person party in New York, let's go. We're
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: literally in the space where we had our first Club
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  Speaker 4: June Masquerade, and it's grown into something much more deeper
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  Speaker 4: than I had ever imagined.
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  Speaker 6: I saw this kid started posting stuff about like Iranian
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  Speaker 6: restaurants and like food and stuff, and then he reached
• 4:59
  Speaker 6: out that he wanted to here.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Masquerade is one of the go to spots for Persian
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  Speaker 3: cuisine and nightlife in the city, started by these Iranian
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: musicians who left their country for New York more than
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: fifteen years ago.
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  Speaker 6: You're growing up somewhere that you don't you can't practice
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: that freely, and then suddenly you're there's chances that you
• 5:21
  Speaker 6: can do it and then you do it and like
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  Speaker 6: you create a space that people can come and large,
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  Speaker 6: eat food, be together, listen to good music and just
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  Speaker 6: be like whoever they are. And to be able to
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: create a space like this, it's incredible. Sometimes me and
• 5:34
  Speaker 6: him just out of know where we're talking about it.
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: Then with trap, it's very surreal to be able to
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  Speaker 5: do this. I want to create spaces where people can
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  Speaker 5: come together, and especially in our time, togetherness and tenderness
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  Speaker 5: is actually a radical act.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Disco Tehran, founded by Aria Gavemi, is one of the
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  Speaker 3: most unique no ruse gatherings in the West, right here
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: in Bushwick, Brooklyn. What are you looking for to most
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: the songs that you grew up listening to?
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  Speaker 6: It's hard for me.
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  Speaker 5: This is the best thing that we can do in
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  Speaker 5: these times.
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  Speaker 1: Is just music.
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  Speaker 3: It's not your typical noruse party. Disco Tehran is multicultural
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  Speaker 3: in nature, bringing together music of cross backgrounds and DJs
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  Speaker 3: who play Iranian pop from the seventies like the legendary
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: singers Goo Goosh.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: When I see people both Iranians who are freaking out
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: but also non Iranians, because the energy gets transferred from
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: one person to another, this expression of dancing together, and
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: so for me, that is discotheton itself.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Aria moved from Tehran to the US, eventually calling New
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: York City home. In twenty eighteen. He started having small
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: gatherings of food and music and his cramped Chinatown apartment.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Tell me a little bit about the early days of
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: disco Tehran.
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  Speaker 5: I was craving something that I missed so deeply in
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: my own life, which is the sense of connection with
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: people who inspire me. But that sense of inspiration and
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: closeness doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be from
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: the same culture.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: As disco Tehran's lure expanded, it's popped up in Paris,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Mexico City, Los Angeles, and even Rome.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: The dance for is a place of resistance. Really is
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: a place for us to embrace humanity, embrace this moment
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  Speaker 5: of being together in a world that is very radically
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: pushing us away from each other.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: How do you deal with the weight of what's going
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: on in your home country. Here you are sitting across
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: from me smiling.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, I'm smiling because the interesting thing about I think
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: your audience, and also a lot of people from my region,
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  Speaker 5: is that that's the defense against the against the darkness
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: that we live in.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: And no matter who you talk to from the Daspa,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: the existential feeling of hope with despair looms large as
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: they long for a brighter future for Iran.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Nod is about the hope and the renewal and freedom
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: and this will remind us who we are and why
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: we're here.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Our thanks to Ashen. Stay with Nightline and ABC News
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: for continued coverage of the war.