Category Archives: Six Pillars to Persia

Six Pillars to Persia. You can subscribe to this podcast channel at this address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/sixpillars

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Six Pillars – Refugee Week 2010 Special

Amnesty’s Iran researcher Drewery Dyke talks about Amnesty’s new initiative for Iran, launched with a new study into detainees and prisoners in Iran. we also hear from Ashram Parsi of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. Many thanks to South Leeds Community Station for this interview.

This show also includes a dramatisation of the Iranian Folk Tale “The Great Hunter”, produced by Fari Bradley with members of Cool Tan Arts Southwark.

Six Pillars – Gender, Wars and Chadores…Art Basel Miami with Canvas Magazine

This interview with Canvas founder and director Ali Khadra looks at a series of talks curated by Canvas hosted at Art Basel by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co- Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London.

Ali Khadra explains why and how Canvas intends to turn the talks into a book and documentary, and examines our preconceived notions regarding art, the middle east and sexuality with this series.

The interview is interspersed with extracts from the third of the talks: Gender, Wars and Chadors talk on Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, organised by Canvas magazine at Art Salon, 6 December 2009.

Artists taking part in the third talk were Ghada Amer, Kader Attia and Akram Zaatari while Hans Ulrich Obrist chaired. Watch the video here.

Six Pillars to Persia is produced and presented by Fari Bradley, a journalist living in London, for Resonance 104.4FM

Six Pillars Human Rights in Iran Gig – 29th Nov, Ginglik

Iran-flyer_v4

Read more about the event here
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In aid of Amnesty International

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The Ginglik underground bar is directly in front of Shepherd’s Bush tube station in the middle of the green as you cross the road to reach the West 12 Shopping Centre.

http://www.patrickmonahan.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/theslidingrule
http://www.myspace.com/roshisongs
http://www.iranian.com/salehi.html
70’s Iranian music sounds like:
http://www.myspace.com/persianfunk
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Organised by Six Pillars to Persia radio show, on Resonance 104.4FM
http://sixpillarstopersia.wordpress.com

Get tickets in advance from: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/64436

See some of Amnesty’s work in Iran: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/iran

Magic of Persia and the Contemporary Art Prize

An interview with Shirley Elghanian from Magic of Persia.

Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize finalists exhibit in London this month, as do the artists involved in the Iran Unbowed exhibition which Magic of Persia have curated to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair.

With luminaries such as Abbas Kiarostami on board and Sheena Wagstaff chief curator of the Tate, Magic of Persia works to promote Iranian arts and culture outside of Iran.

This interview was broadcast live from the Resonance 104.4FM studios on October 5th 2009.

Six Pillars – Mansour Bahrami & East

Famous for serving six balls at once on a professional court, under arm serves, and speciality shots including the ‘power shot through the legs’, ‘the lob through the legs’ and ‘the drop shot’ which bounces back over the net due to excessive backspin tennis impresario Mansour Bahrami is not to be matched. At the launch of his book he talks about his extraordinary rise to stardom via homelessness in France and the singularly harsh treatment he received as a child on the tennis courts in Iran.

mansour

BIBA (The British Iranian Business Association) organised the evening in Summer 08 as part of their public service programming.  Fari Taydayon from The Energy Deployment Company and Bez Ghazian review the event at the Hilton where Bahrami was speaking.

The show features classical music played by Haydn Dickenson: piano imitates and transcends santoor in the ten minute piece ‘Tariq 1″ from the album ‘East’.