Thanksgiving is less than a week away. The holiday week is widely observed as a time for family and community to gather and celebrate together. For students attending the University of Arkansas from far away this time of year, it can be impossible to be with family. But community, with some attention, some planning and a lot of organization, the spirit of community can be generated.
As an example, we offer up a concert that's taking place on the University of Arkansas campus tomorrow night.
“To do. Push ups? Yes, a. Push to the store. Yes. Push to Sara. Oh, yes. Holly.”
Marjan Farzad will perform in the Arkansas Union Theater as a guest of the Iranian Student Association at the University of Arkansas. We asked two members of that student group and their advisor to come to the Firmin-Garner Performance Studio yesterday to talk about the importance of presenting such a concert and the importance of gathering together.
“You know, we're all being pushed apart. My name is Mohammad Jawad Khosravi, or you can call me MJ. I'm a PhD student in economics.”
“Siavash Mahmoudi. This is my second year as a treasurer working in ISA.”
“I'm Maryam Amir-Vaghefi. I'm a faculty member at the School of Art.”
“I think I'm speaking on behalf of the Iranian Student Association. Our goal was to communicate, to connect the Iranian culture to the international culture that we are living here. And we chose Marjan because her voice is representative of Iranian culture, and we wanted to show the different aspects of Iranian culture. And it was very hard for one artist because all of the members of the students, it's very cumbersome for us. But it's done now, I think.”
“Well, actually, the main goal of these kind of events is to create a bond between the Iranian community here in northwest Arkansas with other international students or even the local people here. So these kind of events help more people get interested in one of the rich cultures, which is the Persian culture. So we try to bring famous people from Persian culture here and try to create a welcoming atmosphere to all students from different nations.”
“I mean, it's my pleasure to work with them first of all. And also, I just feel that it was special having Marjan Farzad because she's a female singer from Iran. For me personally, it makes it more special. And also she's part of the new generation of Iranian female singers. That's another aspect of that. And she's like one of us. She's an immigrant to another country, and I feel that that's definitely another similarity that I can have with her.”
“You know, it's a very weird experience when you're not living in your country. And me, as a student, I have this experience. And it was very hard for me. And I think that if you can bring the culture to a new society, you can connect better to the domestic person, to the international person. You can show that your country has a significant culture. And I think the goal of this season for me personally was to introduce my culture, my country's culture. And I'm not sure if we are successful, but I hope.”
“So Hayley a. Small. Shop on. Top of the valley.”
“I've been in Arkansas for almost 10 years. I graduated from the University of Arkansas, and I stay here. I just feel that I'm always representing the country, that people in Arkansas are not that much familiar with, or probably in the United States. But here I feel that it is like a bond between all of us to have an event like that or an association like that.”
“Also, specifically if I want to talk about this event and the Iranian Student Association, I have to say that for me it's sort of like fighting with the stereotypes that are about the Middle East, specifically about my country, specifically about female, specifically about art. I just feel that all of it is the best action that we can have to open the door for people, to make a space more comfortable for us, and enjoyable and educational for other people to be part of our culture in a way that they can connect without us forcing them to connect with us.”
“So we're not far from our people. And I feel something missing inside me. So I try to still go and get connected with people. And the people here are like my family. So that's really cool to have these kind of events here.”
“In this concert we're expecting to hear some kind of combination between Iranian and Western music. We chose Marjan Farzad because of this feature. Our audience is not just from Iranian society. We have lots of international audience. And I think that this kind of combination should be very great because you, as an American guy, can connect with this kind of emotion, with this kind of music.”
“We have Shervin Najafian, who is another singer that will sing some—he will have a performance there as well.”
“Tell me something about Iran that you wish we knew more about, or what's something that you can share with us?”
“Probably for me it is that people in my country, they know how to fight to be happy, and they know how to enjoy their life even during really, really hard times.”
Saturday night’s concert is scheduled to begin at 7 in the Arkansas Union Theater on the U of A campus. The concert is free, and since it's Saturday night, parking in the Arkansas Union parking garage is also free.
If you'd like to reserve a ticket, follow the concert link or QR code that you can find at the Iranian Student Association at the University of Arkansas Instagram page, or by following the links at HogsSync.uark.edu.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
