Resonance FM Podcasts » Six Pillars to Persia

The Art of Improvisation

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:35:18 +0000

Cousins Adib (UK) and Mehdi Rostami (Iran) take the closeness of their family ties into the realm of improvisation, where trust and understanding between musicians is paramount to success. Prior to a London performance we talk to them in the studio about the preparatory process for an improvising musician, the instruments they play – the relatively new shurangiz - and their ambitions for the future of their duo, split as they are between Iran and UK.

We sample some of their sublime music in the show, but nothing can compare to a live performance where the players literally take you on the ‘journey’ with them. Buy the CD here.

Six Pillars – Crossroads of the Ancient World

sixpillarstopersia — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:31:14 +0000

A personal tour of the British Museum’s major show in 2011 on Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World. This awesome and massively educative exhibition is brought to us thanks to the amazing bravery of a few men who took care of these objects in great secrecy and at great personal risk at the brink of two decades of civil war, strategic iconoclastic decimation and lawless looting.

Dr. St John Simpson is an archeologist and a curator at The British Museum and speaks here about the exhibition as a whole and Afghanistan’s place on the Silk Road where caravans from from Europe, China, India and Central Asia traveled back and forth. He guides us through the show and discusses details about several of the objects, of which his favourite is the fish-shaped drinking vessel pictured here.

This show was produced by Fari Bradley and originally broadcast May 2011.

Six Pillars – Women and Sex in Iran

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:24:27 +0000

Fari Bradley talks to Dr Pari Esfandiari PHD about her website Irandokht, one of the 34 websites showcased by UNESCO. The website creates dialogue and space for expression for Iranian women all over the world and is a resounding success.

Dr Esfandiari also co-wrote a 7 page article in Playboy Magazine in 2007 about an erotic tape that made millions on the blackmarket, highlighting what it tells us about attitudes to women and sex in Iran today.

Six Pillars – Slavs, Pistons and a City of Leaves

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:10:09 +0000

Interviews recorded in UAE with artist Bahar Behbahani, the Slavs and Tatars collective and tracks from the new album by singer Sussan Deyhim. The film by Behbahani at Sharjah Biennial involved a collaboration across the Caspian sea while the installation by the Slavs and Tatars created the setting for ‘Friendship of Nations’, a work looking at the revolutionary potential of crafts and folklore behind the ideology of two key modern movements: the Islamic Revolution of ’79 and Poland’s Trade Union movement of the 1980s. Sussan Deyhim has been played on the show since 2005, her new album City of Leaves includes collaborations with Richard Horowitz and DJ Spooky.

Six Pillars – Entee aka Sarmastian

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:28:56 +0000

Our interview with new producer Entee aka Sarmastian, who visited the studios in July 2011. Here we sample some of his tracks and detail the rap/singing/remix competition open until August for any budding musicians out there who want some air time on 104.4FM

Six Pillars – A Lebanese State of Mind

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:19:25 +0000

Curator of the 2010 Lebanon Pavilion at Venice Biennial, writer and curator Georges Rabbath lays out ‘A Plot for A Biennial’, an interactive happening following Lebanon’s official retraction from the Venice Biennial, 11.

At the Sharjah Art Foundation, Georges explains how T H E S T A T E O F M I N D project at this year’s biennial will make a transferable collection of artworks for any place where the world of art has become, he quotes ‘a zoo’.

Six Pillars – Poland 3 Iran 2

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:03:03 +0000

A lively (and long!) chat with Mehrdad Seyf, founder of 30 Bird Productions, UK’s leading Anglo-Iranian theatre company. Fari met with Mehrdad at the beginning of his latest tour: Poland 3 – Iran 2, a multimedia piece performed in pubs with audience interaction and involving a sculpture piece containing a toilet and a toy train.

From Edinburgh to Poland (at the Teatromania Festival), the performers will be celebrating the story of the Pole-Irani football match that made history and the deeper historical and heartfelt relationship between the two peoples. We talk theatrics, compassion and interactive installations (the next piece by 30 Bird).

Six Pillars – Wael Shawky

sixpillarstopersia — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:18:46 +0000

Ahead of his forthcoming talk at Delfina Foundation we’ve pulled out some audio from Emirates March Meeting 2011 where Wael presented his work on the crusades from an eastern perspective, as depicted through marionettes on film. One part of the quartet of film retraces events unfolding in the four years between (1096-1099) and which played a key role in subsequent historical developments, shaking to the core the Arab world and its relations with the West. Shawky was somehow given permission to use 200-year-old marionettes from the Lupi collection in Turin and was inspired by The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf, written in 1986. The book by Maalouf, a Lebanese writer, examines the historical points of the Crusades by going back to Arab historians and their writings, most of which have never been considered by historians in the West, although Maalouf does also reference some of the most acknowledged Western sources and studies and aim to give, finally, a balanced view to this too-long-one-sided episode in the history of humankind. Wael lives and work in Egypt.

Six Pillars – Nobel Peace Prize Winner: Shirin Ebadi

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:35:42 +0000

Dr Shirin Ebadi, the First Iranian woman, indeed Middle Eastern woman, to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, spoke at SOAS on 2 February 2011 on ‘The Role of Women in Promoting Peace in the Middle East’.

Here she discusses the women’s movement in Iran and the difficulties she herself has faced in standing up for human rights in Iran.

This was originally broadcast on Six Pillars to Persia as part of a longer show, on Resonance 104.4fm.

Thanks to Marina Khatibi and Tom the engineer.

Six Pillars – Pearls on the Ocean Floor

sixpillarstopersia — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:35:51 +0000

This Torture
Why should we tell you our love stories
when you spill them together like blood in the dirt?

Love is a pearl lost on the ocean floor,
…or a fire we can’t see,
but how does saying that
push us through the top of the head into
the light above the head?

Love is not
an iron pot, so this boiling energy
won’t help.

Soul, heart, self.

Beyond and within those
is one saying,
How long before
I’m free of this torture!

(by Hafez, C14th)

American director Robert Adanto visits the UK while making his new film. Pearls on the Ocean Floor is a documentary looking at Iranian women artists, born both before and after the revolution, inside and outside of Iran. The narrative is made up of images by the featured artists and other female Iranian artists, and the women speaking to the camera, which affords the film a certain honesty and directness.

The film is screening at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square with a panel discussion on March 7th 2011, 7-9pm, all welcome.

Six Pillars – The .Com Father

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:13:20 +0000

On a visit to the UK, the founder of the largest website for Iranians in the world, Iranian.com visits the studio. Jahanshah Javid devotes his life to the website, known for its user generated content, and the catch-phrase ‘nothing is sacred’. Here the interview moves into other topics with interviewer Fari Bradley playing devil’s advocate on certain issues to scuffle up a debate.

After all, that’s what comment led content is about these days….

This show was originally aired on 104.4FM in February 2010

Six Pillars – Persian Maps

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:05:28 +0000

“History and geography are the basis of all the humanities.“

After falling in love with a map of Persia in Harrods, Dr Ala’i spent years researching the cartography of Iran and Persia before publishing two large volumes by Brill, on different maps of Persia from the 1400s to 1925.

Dr Ala’i was invited by Iran Heritage to give a talk in January 2011 on his extensively researched specialty, and Six Pillars interviewed him to find out more about this passion of his.

This is the whole interview, the first part of which was broadcast in January 2011 on Six Pillars to Persia, from the Resonance104.4Fm studios, London.

Six Pillars – Persian Cartography

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:12:24 +0000

Prior to a talk arranged by Iran Heritage, the estimable Dr Alai discusses how phonetics, fashion, social hierarchies and myth enter the world Persian cartography. With perhaps the largest personal collection of Persian maps Dr Alai has published two immense volumes on the topic both of which have been included in Brills Handbook list for the Middle East.

His talk tonight: “Special Maps of Iran” in London, is free to attend at SOAS, University of London.

Six Pillars – Sufi’s Night

sixpillarstopersia — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:51:41 +0000

January 22nd 2011 Festival of Arts presents a night of improvised music and experimental Iranian dance: Sufi’s Night

Fusing the influences of disciplined dances such as tango and flamenco, Iranian dance takes on an almost Indian Kathak like energy, and the dramatic motions of the two performers Shahrokh Meshkin Ghalam and Karine Gonzales convey all the regal dignity of the epic stories and emotions they relate.

Here we interview daf impresario Hossein Zahavi, who is playing percussion on the night, and table maestro Yusuf Mamud who will be performing on vocals and tabla.

Six Pillars – The First UK Iranian Film Festival

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:32:34 +0000

November saw the launch of the London’s first Iranian Film Festival: UKIFF.

In late October we met with one of the volunteers, Costas Sarkas, at one of UKIFF’s networking events, to find out what it was all about.

Six Pillars – Britain Retold

sixpillarstopersia — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:30:28 +0000

Photographer Sara Shamsawari exhibits a selection from her series in City Hall entrance until January 4th.

The exhibition is a series of engaging portraits around the symbolism of the union jack with all its connotations. The photos are accompanied by statements and both promote a questioning of our ideas of what it means to be British now.

Six Pillars – Drinking Arak Off An Ayatollah’s Beard

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:19:56 +0000

Venturing around Iran and Afghanistan with a copy of the Shahnameh tucked under his arm, Nicholas Jubber relates what this pivotal introduction taught him about modern people who still love this medieval text.

Jubber explains how The Shahnameh, or Persian Book of Kings, is still very much alive today for many people, even 1000 years after it’s completion.

His book certainly has it’s own style and he visited the Resonance104.4FM studios to explain certain points: from beards to butchers to free motorbikes.

This show was originally broadcast on 2nd August, 2010

Six Pillars – The Shahnameh Exhibition, Cambridge

sixpillarstopersia — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:07:35 +0000

The Shahnameh or Persian Book of Kings, is an enormous poetic opus written by Ferdowsi a Persian poet, around 1000 AD. Despite it’s age the book is still the national epic of the cultural sphere of Greater Persia. Consisting of around 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells a mythical and historical tale of Greater Iran, from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.

The work is of central importance in Persian culture, we had a look at it on our show about the book Drinking Arak off an Ayatollah’s Beard. While regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran the book is still quoted today by everyone from the illiterate to members of the government, and is the topic of many a puppet show and street theatre. It is also important to the contemporary followers of Zoroastrianism and deals with central themes of good and evil. It’s a real treasure.

Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at University of Cambridge discusses the show and it surrounding events.

The interview is interspersed with extracts from a talk given by Charles Melville at the Fitzwilliam Museum gallery where the illuminations and pieces are on show.

If you are interested in the book and its wider influence outside of Iran there is currently a show at Prince’s Galleries Charlotte Street (nearest tube Old Street). Amongst others Russian, Pakistani and Iranian artists respond to the Shahnameh (or Shahnama as it’s known in India) as part of their own cultural painting traditions. Six Pillars host Fari Bradley also has a sound piece on display there until mid December.

Six Pillars – Leeds Diasporic Film Series

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:57:50 +0000

Sanaz Raj discusses her interest in Iranian film and a week of full length film screenings running in conjunction with the Leeds International Film Festival. The week, called the Iranian Diasporic Film Series presents a variety of film: from a documentary about the Shah’s widow to a fiction about a lesbian refugee from Iran who takes on the identity of a dead male acquaintance.

Sanaz and Fari discuss the screenings and accompanying talks, as we well as ‘Certified Copy‘ Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film set in Italy, starring Juliette Binoche.

Six Pillars – Iran Children’s Charity

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:29:11 +0000

To mark Children in Need Week Dr Helen Nejad from the NGO Iran Children’s Charity visits the studio to discuss their drive to raise money for kids in Iran. Focusing mainly on orphans, those without national status or on the streets, the charity aims to supply two university hospitals in Iran that treat children specifically.

‘In Search of Simorgh‘ is Iran Children’s Charity’s first fund-raising event, a Persian Heritage music and contemporary and traditional dance theatrical performance. The performance is based on 12th Century Sufi classic Conference of the Birds by Farid Uddi Attar, and also loosely on the stage adaptation by Peter Brook and Jean-Claude Carriere. Musicians from Europe play cello, kamanche, tar, santoor, daf and percussion and 7 dancers interpret the text so that there is no language barrier to enjoying the performance.

If you would like to help children in need by simply being entertained, then please complete and return the attached form, or book your ticket online through their event website www.insearchofsimorgh.com The event is hosted by Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh.

Logan Hall, 20 Bedford Way , London WC1H 0AL

Sunday 21st November

18:00 to 22:00 (programme starts at 19:00)

All funds raised from donations, ticket and raffle sales will be used to purchase Keyhole surgical and other operating theatre equipment for Mofid and Ali Asghar Children Hospitals. Their target over the years is a minimum of £30,000 per hospital for the equipment. Your contribution can really help to save lives of children who undergo operations, facilitate quicker recovery for many more, as well as bringing relief and a smile to their siblings and families.

Feel free to contact them by visiting www.iran-children-charity.org

Six Pillars to Persia – A Mystic’s War on Terror….

sixpillarstopersia — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:18:38 +0000

At the Omar Khayyam Society’s event A Mystic’s War on Terror, Autumn 2010, we caught up with the main Sufi speaker Ammat Un Nur.

Read her speech from the night on the above link, a speech that contained the quote by Jimi Hendrix who said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”.

Her Sufi website.

Here is some of the event write-up:

Ammat un Nur belongs to a lineage named Chishti-Inayati. (We are supposed to know automatically what that lineage is, I guessed it had something to do with renowned Sufi school rather than an individual). She has also been influenced by the Mevlevi tradition originating from Mevlana Rumi (you’re supposed to know that is the same Rumi, the Sufi poet). Her work involves researching, writing on the Inayatian legacy of the Sufi Orders. (I had no idea what that was).

The debate took the form of a panel, mostly of women, who put forward a speech or an intro and then took questions. One aspect of the write-up that really caught my eye was the promise of a look at the neglect of the feminine in Islam. there is a feminist branch or movement in Islam. I wanted to know what a woman’s role was considered to be in Sufism, as in Iran, in the mountains, some all female Sufi orders do exist….

If the title of the podcast has aroused your curiosity and you are interested in this kind of study, here a SOAS course that could be for you.

You will have to pay a lot mind, to study. If you go to stay with Ammat, your studies will be free. There’s food for thought.

This podcast was made for the ResonanceFM series Six Pillars to Persia by Fari Bradley – the show is a weekly look at the Iranian diaspora, the culture of Iran, Persian heritage and related topics.

Six Pillars – Parastou Forouhar at Rose Issa Projects

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:54:39 +0000

Artist Parastou Forouhar on the eve of the launch of her solo show both at Leighton House (once home to Frederic Lord Leighton) and at Rose Issa Projects, Kensington.

An installation, prints and cloth make up the show, as well as a new series based on the idea of the Papillion.

Curator Rose Issa also contributes to the discussion as Parastou discusses her work through the years and her current exhibition.

Six Pillars – Launch of the ‘Centre for Iranian Studies’, SOAS

sixpillarstopersia — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:36:09 +0000

An interview with Professor Annabelle Sreberny on the launch of the new Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London).

Prof. Sreberny discusses the aims, purpose and interests of the new centre and explains how it came into being.

Launch Event 16 October 2010, 10:00 AM-9:30 PM

The Centre for Iranian Studies will showcase the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including History, Economics, Politics, Literature, Music, Art and Media Studies. It will organise lectures, seminars and conferences, and to both showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent through film screenings and events.

Launch Tickets: £15, £10 of £5 conc.

Contact: vp6@soas.ac.uk 020 7898 4490

Six Pillars – Mahmoud Bakhshi at Saatchi

sixpillarstopersia — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:55:51 +0000

An interview with award winning artist Mahmoud Bakhshi as he begins his three day residency and prepares for his historic solo show at Saatchi Gallery. The interview is translated by curator Vali Mahlouji, one of the people who nominated Mahmoud for the Magic of Persia Contemporary Arts Prize (MOPCAP) in the first place.

Mahmoud Bakhshi draws inspiration for his works from the political and social issues that surround him. Born in Tehran, Iran, he is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, and has exhibited internationally since 2006. Mahmoud is also supported by the Delfina Foundation.

First broadcast on Sept 20th 2010 from ResonanceFM studios

Six Pillars – Anatomy of a Street and Light Dreams

sixpillarstopersia — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:05:51 +0000

Both previous guests on the show in ’06/7 two artists discuss their latest works and exhibits.

Neda Dana-Haeri’s duo show with Virginia Waterhouse is called “Light Dreams” at A&D Gallery, Chiltern Street. Watercolours and abstraction refer to sufism and poetry in Dana-Haeri’s work. We speak on location at the Church Street project detailed below.

Bahbak Hashemi-Nezad discusses aubergines and the architecture of a community in his Serpentine supported work Anatomy of a Street. Anatomy of A Street is a research project organised by the Hungarian Cultural Centre in conjunction with the London Festival of Architecture 2010 and will run at Church Street, NW8 from Friday 25th June to Sunday 4th July (when the Church Street Festival takes place).

The project will bring new visitors to Church Street and encourage them to find out about the area and the various changes over the last 20/30 years and Audio Tour compare these changes with those that have taken place at a similar high street in Pecs, Hungary (European Capital of Culture 2010).

This show was originally broadcast on June 28th 2010 from the ResonanceFM studios, London.