Marzieh Ghiasi

I was once like you are now, and I know that its not easy,
To be calm when you’ve found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you’ve got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again.
It’s always been the same, same old story.
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.
Now there’s a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.

“Don’t want to be your exotic…” She declared after the round of applause at her entrance. The music gave way to silence, a few whistles, then in darkness the whole room hushed. “… like some colorful dark fragile bird imprisoned.” she said resolutely. Adorning a red glittery shawl, she let every page fall to floor as she showed us her mother, strength, her Brooklyn, the New Orleans she had seen, the Palestinian that she was, the poet, the daughter, refugee, landless, broken levees, falling bombs, fragility, prisons, youth, loss, men, women, beauty, skin… the nuances of being.

I had the privilege of seeing Suheir Hammad here in Montreal last night. Although I was excited, in retrospective I am not sure what I expected walking up Boulevard Saint-Laurent that afternoon. I had seen her performances on Def Poetry, but seeing people behind the screen, you can never be certain of what is real. When she took the stage, it was almost hard not to feel mesmerized as words —beautiful words, brutal words, few words— fell so effortlessly into their natural habitat, budding from each one a thousand thoughts, and from each of those a thousand emotions.

Brilliant! What a lady. She’s the real deal.

This is “Ey Iran” performed by Iranian actors and actresses (for what I assume to be a film festival and/or new year’s celebration of some sort). The song is not the national anthem, but an ode to the country with a very interesting background history*. Weaving gorgeous strings of poetry it draws on pure and raw nationalism without imposing political ideology, and so is loved all across the political spectrum. The video is a montage of footages from the country’s best films (I was kinda excited to recognize some!) and incorporates musical elements from Iran’s ethnic minorities. It’s very well done for sure.

*see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ey_Iran and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Gol-e-Golab

ps. Happy 2009! I hope to write more frequently here this year. Not a resolution.