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Transcript

War with Iran Day 27 · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's day twenty seven of the war with Iran. Here's
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: nightlines Ashun Singh this pop up party in New York
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: City's downtown. Who has a deeper meaning that meets the eye.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: It's a celebration of the Persian New Year. No rus
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: scenes here reminiscent of the disco culture that thrived in
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  Speaker 1: Iran before the hardline regime took over in nineteen seventy nine.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Now, a lot of the music that we're playing tonight
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  Speaker 2: came out of Iran before the revolution happened, but also
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: mixing the new that still has at.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Hearror the dancing hosted by Club June, which translates to soul,
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  Speaker 1: attracting younger Iranian Americans for a night out grooving to
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  Speaker 1: the sounds of their homeland.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be on the dance floor all night.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: A reprieve, especially amidst the distress from a war happening
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: six thousand miles away, that many, if not all, find them.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: Connected to dancing and music brings us together instead of mourning.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: What was lost.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone right now needs this event because all of us
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: have felt so alone.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Around the nineteen seventies, cities like Tehran stood as cultural
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  Speaker 1: giants in the region hubs of music, film, art, and poetry.
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  Speaker 4: In nineteen seventy nine, there rose a revolution and you
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  Speaker 4: saw a major wave of Iranian's fleet and lose everything
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  Speaker 4: and start from scratch.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: The music and dance scene was pushed underground, though many
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Iranians kept the culture alive behind closed doors. But for
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: those in the States, they're reclaiming their culture and let
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: me get out loud, especially.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Not Noice is marked on the Spring equinox. This is
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: something that brings Iranians together. I know that this year
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: it's come with mixed feelings and emotions, and for many Iranians,
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: they are hoping for a new Iran.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We're at an Iranian no Rus market in New York.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Oh Med Afshar is a first generation Iranian American.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I'm an Iranian content creator. It's been something I started
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: over two years ago and it's grown into something I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: never really dreamt of it becoming. Here's a phrase in
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Farsi that makes no sense in English.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: He grew following up more than one hundred thousand sharing
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  Speaker 1: his personal journeys to reconnect with his heritage on social media.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I'm about to show you how to make Shivi pula
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  Speaker 2: and more reermez, my dad's favorite meal. You got to
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  Speaker 2: be getting mir out.
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  Speaker 3: This is pure Iranian Komina.
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  Speaker 1: Were you proud of growing up Iranian?
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  Speaker 2: Of course, but when you grow up from immigrant parents
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  Speaker 2: who fled Iran right before the revolution, you are kind
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: of creating your own narrative of what it's like to
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: be Iranian in America. And you know, there was times
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: growing up when I wanted to also try to fit
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  Speaker 2: in with the American crowd that I was going to
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  Speaker 2: school with. So I want to say I had this
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: realization over the last couple of years of living in
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: New York that I was longing to feel that connection.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Omed taking one step further launching Club June growing up
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  Speaker 1: to bring Iranians together in real life.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: We go to different bars or restaurants and we listen
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  Speaker 2: to Iranian music. Growing up going to my parents' parties,
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  Speaker 2: Iranian music was something that was always around me, and
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I realized, why don't we have any spaces like that.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: My first Persian party in New York. We're literally in
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the space where we had our first Club June masquerade,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and it's grown into something much more more deeper than
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I had ever imagined.
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  Speaker 3: So this kid started posting stuff about like Iranian restaurants
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  Speaker 3: and like food and stuff, and then he reached out
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  Speaker 3: that he wanted to come here.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Masquerade is one of the go to spots for Persian
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  Speaker 1: cuisine and nightlife in the city, started by these Iranian
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: musicians who left their country for New York more than
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: fifteen years ago.
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  Speaker 3: You're growing up somewhere that you can't practice that freely,
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  Speaker 3: and then suddenly you're there's chances that you can do it,
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  Speaker 3: and then you do it, and like you create a
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  Speaker 3: space that people can come in large, eat food, be together,
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  Speaker 3: listen to good music and just be like whoever they are.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: And to be able to create a space like this,
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  Speaker 3: it's incredible. Sometimes me and him just O don't know
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  Speaker 3: where we're talking about it.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: Then with Era, it's very surreal to be able to
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  Speaker 5: do this. I want to create spaces where people can
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: come together and in our time, togetherness and tenderness is
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: actually a radical act.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Disco Tehran, founded by Aria Gavemi, is one of the
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  Speaker 1: most unique no ruse gatherings in the West right here
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in Bushwick, Brooklyn. What are you looking forward to most?
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  Speaker 1: The songs that you grew up listening to.
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  Speaker 3: It's hard working.
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  Speaker 2: This is the thing that we can do in these times,
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  Speaker 2: just music.
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  Speaker 1: It's not your typical no ruse party. Disco Tehran is
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  Speaker 1: multicultural in nature, bringing together music of cross backgrounds and
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  Speaker 1: DJs who play Iranian pop from the seventies, like the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: legendary singers Goo Goose.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: When I see people both Iranians who are freaking out
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  Speaker 5: but also non Uranians because the energy it gets transferred
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  Speaker 5: from one person to another with this expression of Dan
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  Speaker 5: sung togetherness. So for me, that is disco tronic.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: So Aria moved from Tehran to the US, eventually calling
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: New York City home. In twenty eighteen. He started having
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: small gatherings of food and music and his cramped Chinatown
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  Speaker 1: apartment tell me a little bit about the early days
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of disco Tehran.
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  Speaker 5: I was craving something that I missed so deeply in
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  Speaker 5: my own life, which is the sense of connection with
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  Speaker 5: people who inspire me. But that sense of inspiration and
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  Speaker 5: closeness doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be from
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  Speaker 5: the same culture.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: As Disco Tehran's lure expanded, it's popped up in Paris,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Mexico City, Los Angeles and even Rome.
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  Speaker 5: The dance for is a place of bresibit resistance. Really
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  Speaker 5: is a place for us to embrace humanity, embrace this
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  Speaker 5: moment of being together in a world that is very
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: radically pushing us away from each other.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: How do you deal with the weight of what's going
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: on in your home country? Here, you are sitting across
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: from me smiling.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, I'm smiling because the interesting thing about I think
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: Iranians 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
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  Speaker 5: that we live in.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: And no matter who you talk to from the diaspora,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the existential feeling of hope mixed with despair looms large
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: as they long for a brighter future. For Iran
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  Speaker 2: Is about the hope and the renewal and freedom, and
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: this will remind us who we are and why we're here.