Six Pillars to Persia

We had such a good time at the last Bani Adam event that people were requesting more. With that in mind and the desire to stimulate and expand the London Iranian music scene, we've set the date for the next one: February 25th 2010. We'll host the event at the Ginglik in Shepherd's Bush again, since they had such a good sound engineer (!) and people reported back that they loved the atmosphere.

The title Bani Adam comes from the famous poem by Saadi, here's my version of it

"Human beings are part of a whole, of one essence and one soul

If one is afflicted with pain,

The others will be uneasy and feel the same,

If you have no sympathy for human pain,

The title 'human' you cannot claim."

Amnesty, a non-partial non-governmental charity for human rights around the globe, were very happy with the funds raised and supplied us not only with a big thank you letter, but encouraged us to do another event. We often feel in modern society somewhat helpless; the media bombards us with so much information about world events yet we are mostly powerless to do anything. Having said that, simply by attending an event like Bani Adam, one is helping the powerless in Iran and giving some valuable input into our local Iranian community as well. After the dancing and the laughing and the creativity, everyone felt that it was as important to come together as to do something for Amnesty's work in Iran.

Amnesty are neither against religion nor government in the countries they work in, they are simply pro-human rights: the right to live the right to freedom. At Bani Adam we collected signatures for the 1 Million Signatures Campaign for Women's Rights in Iran, and sent the money that was made to the charity. It felt very good doing that!

Come along to the next one and give it a try, and be prepared for some unusual music from your own diaspora. All those taking part have either been played on or appeared on the radio show 'Six Pillars to Persia', a weekly show about Iranian arts and culture on arts-music radio station Resonance 104.4FM here in London.

You can find out more about the station here: www.resonancefm.com and the show is mostly updated on Facebook, but we have a website as well //sixpillarstopersia.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!