Floating on Madison Avenue
New York's
Persian Pride
By Neda Nabavi
April 7, 2004
iranian.com
As Norooz approached the buzz of New York's first
Persian Parade made its
way to Chicago via email. My curiosity was sparked. Things like
this
happen in California, but NY? So, I planned a visit to the Big
Apple from
Chicago. I went through the motions, emailed my friends and cousins
to see
what's up and coordinate, and made sure to leave Saturday morning
free to go
witness this event.
After a night of partying with my crew, I painfully
got out of bed, got
ready, and made my way towards Madison Ave. On the way, my friend
Ramin
called and said he was already there. Video camera in hand I met
up with
him. We were waiting and looking around for a while cracking jokes
about
whether people standing around us were really Persian or some other
ethnicity that could resemble us (Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc.) hired
to fill
the streets. We were initially a bit disappointed with the turnout;
we
blamed it on inclement weather, then on the foreign concept of
a parade, and
finally Persians' tendency to be lazy.
Slowly but surely the parade came our way. I stood
there watching through
the camera's view finder thinking to myself, "Should I have
stayed in bed?" I figured I came all the way to NY and I am standing here in the
rain, I may
as well get it all on tape since most of my friends (lazy Persians)
were
still sleeping anyway; I had to make sure to document what they
were
missing, not to mention I had to share it with my friends and family
in
Chicago.
Amazingly the sun started to shine, and I looked
up from my video camera and
noticed the transformation in the street, the DJ Float and the
dancing
groups were in front of us and we were surrounded.... surrounded
by
Iroonis!
One float and group after another they were all
Persian. The spectators
were Persian and others passing by wanted to know who these people
are. It
was beautiful! Tourists, cops, shop owners, and us, everyone wanted
to
know, who's who? We are Kurds, we are Turks, we are Afghans,
we are
Zoroastrians, we are Muslims, we are Jews, we are Christians, we
are Bahai,
we are Doctors, we are Lawyers, we are Business People, we are
Politicians,
we are Artists, we are Musicians, we are Young, we are Old, and
we are MANY
Other Things, yet we are ALL PERSIANS!
For the first time, I saw Persians together in once
place, civilized
organized, happy, proud and working together! I was delightfully
impressed, and still am. Of course being the Persians that we are,
nothing
could be perfect: a few typos in the program, the name of the Parade
as "Persian Parade Day," and some naughty boys not wanting
to listen to the
cops (what's life without a few shaytoons amongst us), and of course
the
final loitering in the streets to say our salams, ask our ahvaals,
figure out
where the mehmooni is and of course say our notorious hour long
goodbyes.
I hope that this is a sign of the changing times
and the new
generation-organization, teamwork, and PRIDE within our OWN community!
May
our centuries of rich history help us keep our culture alive in
this foreign
land that we live in called the United States of America. Cheers
to the Persians!
Author
Neda Nabavi leads the Chicago Chapter of Shabeh Jomeh. She
is currently the
Vice President of Trading Systems and Operations for Refco LLC.
She
graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. She
has worked
at Cargill Investor Services, Ernst & Young LLP, and Chicago
Mercantile
Exchange Inc. Neda was born and raised in the Chicago area. She
speaks
Persian and Spanish fluently. Neda is a member of numerous other
charitable
and social organizations.
.................... Say
goodbye to spam!
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