First-Generation American Performs
At Anti-Ahmadinejad Rally
By Daniel Roberts
Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BUSHWICK — With long bangs almost covering her eyes, Sara Kermanshahi sits behind the stage, waiting. Her hands are on her kneecaps, and she anxiously taps her fingers and feet as the sea of green roars in front of her.
At 27, Kermanshahi, who currently lives in Bushwick, is visibly nervous. Sheida Jafari, an event organizer for Voices for Iran, is about to call her up to the stage to play two songs. It was Jafari’s boyfriend who saw Kermanshahi performing a gig recently, noticed she was Iranian, and recommended that Jafari contact her. This was after giving Kermanshahi’s tracks a listen on her artist Myspace page. In a similar vein, Kermanshahi recruited fans to her performance using Twitter, which also served as a major planning hub for the entire protest rally — a resource that did not exist as recently as two years ago.
When she finally hears Jafari say her name, she lifts the guitar out of her lap and clambers up onto the stage. The crowd consists of roughly 500 nonviolent protesters who have marched to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza from the Iran Mission to the UN at East 40th Street and Third Avenue. They wear green to announce their solidarity with Iranian people all over the world who oppose the policies of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Adding to the pressure of today’s performance is that Kermanshahi usually appears as part of the band Natureboy, along with Cedar Apffel and Rory O’Connor. Today she is alone. In addition, she bears the burden of performing after Iranian rapper I. Sheik (who goes by Ali) of the group Revolution of the Mind. A few minutes before, Ali had the crowd raucously slamming their arms to the beat as he performed “Death of the Ayatollahs,” a take on Jay-Z’s hit “Death of Auto-tune.”
A Softer Tone
Kermanshahi’s is a softer tone, and the protesters may not be ready for it. Her first song, “A Flame,” quiets the people down, perhaps to the disappointment of some. It does not help that acoustic problems cause her guitar to wobble in and out. “One more song,” she promises with a self-deprecating laugh. She fears the crowd is already sick of her.
Yet her second song, “Pariah,” begins with much louder strumming and more upbeat cords. Suddenly Kermanshahi does not look so out of her element, sitting atop two plastic milk crates, wearing a military green T-shirt. By the time she nears the song’s end, many in the front of the crowd are swaying to the rhythm.
After the brief, hectic performance, she was finally able to relax and contemplate her role amongst so many speeches and demonstrations. “It was a huge honor, I’m very happy to have come,” she said. “I don’t know if I made anybody a new fan, but it felt great.”
It also “felt great” just to listen, at least for Professor Mansour Farhang, who teaches international relations and Middle Eastern politics at Bennington College in Vermont.
“As I was listening to the Iranian rap singer, enjoying his music and his art, I thought to myself that this man would not be allowed to perform in Iran,” he announced. “If, as Shakespeare said, music is the food of love, then [Ahmadinejad’s government] is an enemy of love!”
Kermanshahi, who clearly shares the professor’s love for music and its powers, acknowledged the difficulty of having been in the company of such respected performers and speakers at this event. “My songs aren’t very political, but I just wanted to do my part and participate today … I don’t really like political music, but music can be interpreted any way you want, so the themes of my songs can still be appropriate.”
Kermanshahi is first-generation American and has visited the country of her parents three times. “I was with my family in Seattle [where she was born] at the time of the [Iranian] election, so it was very emotional to watch everything unfold. The election brought everything to the surface. Now everyone knows how unhappy the people in Iran are.”
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009
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