Iraj Fereshteh

صابون 

صابون بیمار جنسی‌ست، گوشه‌ای لمیده به انتظار.

صابون هر لحظه، در انتظارِ کثیفت‌تر هر چه، همخوابگی دراز‌ترِ انگشتانِ توست.

صابون بهای با بدنت بودن را با بدنش می‌دهد، با تنش، با میلیمتر‌های زندگی‌اش.

صابون انزال است؛ کف است؛ ارگازم ناتمامِ بودن؛ کفیدنِ ازلی‌ابدی.  

صابون، ارضایِ ناتمامِ منتظرِ دوباره‌یِ دستانتْ تا مرگ.

صابون از کف‌بازی چرکین انگشت‌های اولت،

تا آخرین اتم منزه‌اش به دنیا می‌آید.

صابون تولد است.

صابون مالیخولیای مقدس‌مآب شهوت‌ است.

صابون مرگ است.

صابون خود‌کشی‌ست به خود‌ارضایی تا مرگ،

در هر آب‌چالی که از دست ناپاکِ لیزِ تو رها شود. 

اشعار بیشتر از ایرج فرشته را در آدرس های زیر بخوانید و گوش دهید: 

http://irajfereshteh.wix.com/iraj-fereshteh

https://soundcloud.com/iraj-fereshteh

100 Greatest Persian Pop Songs of All Time (Farsi)

Tea and Coffee Society (2009) by Rose-Marie Kivijarvi

 Tea and Coffee Society (2009)

Omar Khayyam - The Poet of Uncertainty (BBC)

Born Ghiyath al-Din Abul Fatah Umar Ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam in 1044 in Nishapur, a Persian city, Omar Khayyam was a well-known mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. He spent most of his life in Persian intellectual centres such as Samarkand and Bukhara, and enjoyed the favour of the Seljuk sultans who ruled the region.

Khayyam's best-known scientific contributions were in algebra and astronomy. His classification of algebraic equations was fundamental to the advancement of algebra as a science, for example, just as his work on the theory of parallel lines was important in geometry. In astronomy, Khayyam's greatest legacy is a remarkably accurate solar calendar, which he developed when the Seljuk sultan, Malik-Shah Jalal al-Din, required a new schedule for revenue collection. Khayyam's calendar, called Al-Tarikh-al-Jalali after the sultan, was even more accurate than the Gregorian calendar presently used in most of the world: the Jalali calendar had an error of one day in 3770 years, while the Gregorian had an error of one day in 3330 years. Khayyam measured the length of one year as 365.24219858156 days, which is remarkably accurate. It has since been discovered that the number changes in the 6th decimal place over a person's lifetime. For comparison of Khayyam's accuracy, the length of one year at the end of the 19th century was 365.242196 days, and today it is 365.242190. Although the calendar project was cancelled upon Malik-Shah's death in 1092, the Jalali calendar has survived and is still used in parts of Iran and Afghanistan today.

Khayyam is also a well-known poet. This is the profession by which he is best-known in the West, often at the expense of his scientific achievements. His fame as a poet in the West has only existed since 1839, however, when Edward Fitzgerald published an English translation of Khayyam's Rubaiyat ("Quatrains"). It has since become a classic of world literature, and is largely responsible for influencing European ideas about Persian poetry and literature. Because he was known as a scientist in his own time, and his poetry did not surface until 200 years after his death, some doubt whether Khayyam indeed wrote the Rubaiyat. After careful analysis, however, most scholars now agree that he is the author, revealing a philosophical side to Khayyam that few of his contemporaries knew.

Khayyam's legacy remains largely in science, however, with his work in geometry so far ahead of its time that it was not used again until Descartes built upon Khayyam's theories in 17th century France.

The Persian Traditional Music Golha Project: Jane Lewisohn

Jane Lewisohn

Jane Lewisohn lived in Iran during the 1970s for six years and is a graduate of Pahalavi University, Shiraz, Iran. She has been involved in the research and promotion of various aspects of Persian Studies for the last three decades. Since 2005 she has been  directing the Golha Project under the auspices of the British Library, London, and the Music Department of SOAS, University of London. She has archived and digitalised the whole archive of the Golha radio programmes broadcast on Iranian Radio from 1956 through 1979. She is now working in collaboration with the IHF to make this Golha Archive and all the related research concerning the Golha Archive available over the internet at  http://www.golha.co.uk. (From SOAS University of London)

The Golha (‘Flowers of Persian Song and Music’) radio programmes were broadcast on Iranian National Radio for 23 years from 1956 through 1979. They comprised approximately 850 hours of programmes made up of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, which is also sung with musical accompaniment, interspersed with solo musical pieces. The programmes themselves were the brainchild of Davoud Pirnia, a one-time Assistant Prime Minister, who in addition to being a well-known politician and judge, was an enthusiastic patriot and scholar who harboured a deep love for Persian culture and its rich literary and musical traditions. When he retired from political life in 1956, for the next eleven years he devoted himself tirelessly to producing of the Golha programmes. (By Jane Lewisohn)

Azadeh Akhlaghi; By An Eye-Witness

Azadeh Akhlaghi 

Born in 1978, in Shiraz Azadeh Akhlaghi studied computer science at RMIT University. She is a conceptual artist who began her career in 2001. Akhlaghi’s main concerns are photography, video-arts and short movies. Akhlaghi’s practice acknowledges conceptual approaches to contemporary art through photography. She has made a number of short films which have been screened in numerous film festivals such as the Berkeley Art Museum, Pusan and Oslo. From 2001 to 2010 Akhlaghi has participated in numerous art exhibitions ranging from such countries as Iran, Australia, England to Turkey. Akhlaghi has also won a number of international prizes including the third prize of the UN Habitat Photography Competition and the first prize of the Women and Urban Life Competition of Iran. (From Galley MAMAK)

In her project By An Eye-Witness, Akhlaghi photographically reconstructs the death stories of a number of significant Iranian personalities. These figures include influential politicians, journalists, writers, and sports celebrities. The following passage has been written by Azadeh Akhlaghi about By An Eye-Witness. 

"Is it possible for a moment in present time to become so tumultuous and critical to break the linearity of time, bring the past to the present and thrust the dwellers of the present to the past? Is it possible that we come upon a radical opening in the course of history, through which the spirit of those who fought and died tragically for a common cause, walk alongside us shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets of our contemporary cities? Is it viable that a human being, doomed to the present time, takes the spirits of his precursors out of the massive ruins of history, call them on to the present, and relishes their precious support?

How about the opposite way? Is this extraordinary moment a new possibility to move on for us? Is it possible that we, in the heat of the moment, manage to detach from the triviality of our everyday life and travel back through history? A journey backward, not through memory or mind or analysis or reading or writing, but through our very flesh and blood, which seems profoundly attached to the moment?

The point of departure of this project derives from the shock – a collective shock – of the present, rather than a historical preoccupation and is a meditation on those possibilities. Perhaps what I bring to the fore is nothing but utopic daydreaming, one of those candid optimistic moments that come around during abrupt social cracks and collective hopes. This is perhaps imagining simultaneity of us and the dead we admire in an essentially different time, the time that is yet to come."  

CLICK PICTURES TO ENLARGE 

Jahangirkhan Sur-e Esrafil, Nasrollah Malek-Al-Motekallemin - 24 June 1908 - Bagh-e Shah, Tehran

Samad Behrangi - 03 September 1968 – Aras River, Iran

Marzieh Ahmadi Oskuie - 26 April 1974 - Tehran

Bijan Jazani - 18 April 1975 – Evin Hills, Tehran

Hamid Ashraf - 29 June 1976 – South Mehrabad House, Tehran

Ali Shariati - 18 June 1977 – Southampton, UK

Mahmoud Taleghani -10 September 1979 - Tehran

Mehdi Bakeri - 14 February 1985 – Majnoon Island,Iraq

Sohrab Shahid Saales – 1July 1998 - Chicago

Colonel Mohammad Taghi Khan Pesyan - 7 October 1921 - Mashhad

Mirzadeh Eshghi - 3 July 1924 - Tehran

Mohammad Farokhi Yazdi - 18 October 1939 - Qasr Prison, Tehran

Taghi Arani - 4 February 1940 – Tehran

Azar Shariat Razavi, Mostafa Bozorgnia, Ahmad Ghandchi - 7 December 1953 - Faculty of Engineering, Tehran University, Tehran

Forough Farokhzad - 13 February 1967 - Tehran

Mohammad Mosadegh - 05 March 1967 – Ahmad-Abad, Iran

Gholamreza Takhti - 7 January 1968 - Atlantic Hotel, Tehran

Novruz, Nowrouz, Nooruz, Navruz, Nauroz, Nevruz

Nowrūz (meaning "New Day") is the name of the Iranian New year in the Persian calendar. Nowruz is also referred to as the "Persian New Year".

Nowruz is celebrated and observed principally in Iran and has spread in many other parts of the world, including parts of Central Asia, Caucasus, Northwestern China, the Crimea and some groups in the Balkans. In Iran, Nowruz is an official holiday lasting for 13 days during which most national functions including schools are off and festivities take place.

Nowruz marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the year in the Iranian calendar. It is celebrated on the day of the astronomical Northward equinox, which usually occurs on March 21 or the previous/following day depending on where it is observed. As well as being a Zoroastrian holiday and having significance amongst the Zoroastrian ancestors of modern Iranians, it is also celebrated in parts of the South Asian sub-continent as the new year. The moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated exactly every year and Iranian families gather together to observe the rituals.

Originally being a Zoroastrian festival, and the holiest of them all, Nowruz is believed to have been invented by Zoroaster himself, although there is no clear date of origin. Since the Achaemenid era the official year has begun with the New Day when the Sun leaves the zodiac of Pisces and enters the zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the Spring Equinox. Nowruz is also a holy day for Sufis, Bektashis, Ismailis, Alawites, Alevis, Babis and adherents of the Bahá'í Faith.

The term Nowruz in writing first appeared in Persian records in the 2nd century AD, but it was also an important day during the time of the Achaemenids (c. 548–330 BC), where kings from different nations under the Persian empire used to bring gifts to the Emperor, also called King of Kings (Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz. The significance of Nowruz in the Achaemenid empire was such that the great Persian king Cambyses II's appointment as the king of Babylon was legitimized only after his participation in the New Year festival (Nowruz). (From Wikipedia)

The Haft Sin Table

Space of Resistance: The Return of the Avant-garde to the Streets of Iran

Talinn Grigor

Dr. Talinn Grigor is an Associate Professor of modern and contemporary architecture in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. Her research concentrates on the cross-pollination of architecture and (post)colonial politics, focused on Iran and India. Her first book, Building Iran: Modernism, Architecture, and National Heritage under the Pahlavi Monarchs (Prestel, 2009) examines the link between official architecture and heritage discourses in 20th-century Iran. Contemporary Iranian Visual Culture and Arts: Street, Studio, and Exile (Reaktion, forthcoming) explores Iranian visual culture through the premise of the art historical debate of populist versus avant-garde art that extends into the identity politics of the exile. A co-edited book with Sussan Babaie, entitled Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis (I.B. Tauris, forthcoming), investigates the architectural legitimization of royal power through Iran’s long history. Her articles have appeared in the Art Bulletin, Getty Research Journal, Third Text, Journal of Iranian Studies, Thresholds, and DOCOMOMO among others. Past grants and fellowships include the Getty Research Institute, Cornell University, the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Soudavar Memorial Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and the Aga Khan at MIT. Her present project deals with the turn-of-the-century European art-historiography and its links to eclectic-revivalistic architecture in Qajar Iran and the British Raj. (From Brandeis University).

Understanding Persian Culture through Film

The Iranian Crystal Phoenix Award

Tehran-based film critic, festival organizer and director of Iranian Independents, Mohammad Atebbai joins a panel of scholars including Dr. Kaveh Ehsani, editor and Assistant Professor of International Studies, DePaul University, Chicago; Dr. Wimal Dissanayake, Professor of Intercultural Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa, East West Center; Dr. Norma Claire Moruzzi, Associate Professor of Political Science (Gender and Women's Studies) and Director, International Studies Program, University of Illinois, Chicago; and Alissa Simon, film reviewer for VARIETY and senior film programmer for the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Topics of discussion include Iranian Film History, Contemporary Iranian Urban Society, Culturally Specific and Universal Experiences, and Women in Film and Society.

Generously co-sponsored by the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, AsiaPacificFilms, and NETPAC/USA

Persian HipHop 021 to LDN: Reveal Poison at TEDxBathUniversity

Reveal Poison

Reveal Poison is an Iranian born, London raised hip-hop artist, writer and ethnomusicologist. Growing up while travelling back and forth between such contrasting urban environments as Tehran and London has provided him with a sense of dual identity for most of his life. He is currently studying Mmus Ethnomusicology at SOAS.

www.myspace.com/revealpoison

In this TED Talk, Reveal Poison presents a short history of Iranian hip hop and Persian rap. In this account,  he talks about how underground Iranian rappers borrowed African-American rap but Iranified the tunes through employing Iranian musical instruments, tapping to old traditions of Persian poetry to write their  songs, and adding a Persian mystic colour to their music. Reveal Poison, in this presentation, speaks about the process of shaping Persian rap from the point of view of an insider, a short history of the foundation of Persian rap by a Persian-British rapper.

Amir Sadeghi Konjani: The Bone, Performance Art (2011)

Setareh Pessyani, Amir Sadeghi Konjani, Pegah Ahangarani

Amir Sadeghi Konjani, conceptual artiste, pianist and composer has received performances of his works by eminent musicians including the conductors Peter Manning, Gregory Rose , Andy Morely, violinist Darragh Morgan, harpist Sioned Williams, The Finzi Quartet, and the poet Ahmad Shamlou at prestigious venues such as The QEH London ,the Ether Festival , the USA and Canada, and on television broadcasts. Born in 1983, Amir received Masters Degree course under the tutelage of Dominic Murcott, Stephen Montague and Edward Jesson, and is the recipient of a scholarship from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In 2005, the UNESCO National Music Committee of Iran selected him as a ‘notable composer’, and he was also an award winner at the 24th international Fadir Music Festival. His first CD released in 2009 worked with the well-known Iranianpoet Ahmad Shamlou on a creative presentation and subsequently produced further CD of contemporary music ”Metaphor till eternity” for the same Iranian company Mahoor. In recent years Amir’s work have been given much exposure both within Trinity, as well as further afield During 200910- he worked with harp players from Trinity on extended techniques, including experimenting with the use of a cello bow on the wire strings, and further exploration of sounds emanating from wire cello string tied between two harps, also played with a cello bow which has been presented at Royal Academy of Music.Concept and Composed by:Amir Sadeghi KonjaniCast:Pegah AhangaraniSetareh PesianiFlutists:Mona Taherian, Asal Hanachi, YaldaEhsani, Sachli haghighat talab,BaharBehzad, Sahar Jahantash, shararehsheikhan, shabnam sarmadi, FahimehNasiri,Shirin azadi, Elika Malek, Asalkheradyar, Pegah TaslimiPiano:Paria Shokouhi –Shahrzad SafaieCello:Maral MohammadiConsultant Director:Salar Salari, Maral Mohammadi, Amirhossein davani, Ankido Darash, FoadMokhberi, Mohsen RastegarProduction Designer:Amir Hosein Davani, Amir SadeghiKonjani, Ali SadeghiTechnical Director:Amir Hosein BabaianCostume Designer:Neda NasrPhotography:Salar SalariProducers:Maryam Sadeghi ,Aun Gallery andKh.A.V Group.Special Thanks to:Tansy Davies, Mira Calix, DominicMurcott, Nasim Bagheri, NooshinRahimi, Maryam Salari, NedaGhanizadeh, Mehran Danaie, Bahman Mazaheri. (From Aun Gallery)

Der Arzt Avicenna Ein Gelehrter aus Gondi Shapur (German)

Avicenna

   

Anatomy of the skeleton, attributed to Avicenna, 980-1037

 

A Taste of Rumi and Bach

Coleman Barks

Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His work with Rumi was the subject of an hour-long segment in Bill Moyers's Language of Life series on PBS, and he is a featured poet and translator in Bill Moyers's poetry special, "Fooling with Words." Coleman Barks is the father of two grown children and the grandfather of four. He lives in Athens, Georgia. (From Barks' official website)

Ibn 'Arabi & Rumi - Teachings for the Modern World was presented by NEW YORK OPEN CENTER and the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society.

HICH (2009) by Abdolreza Kahani

Abdolreza Kahani

Like Oscar-winning Ashgar Farhadi, Abdolreza Kahani is a director of the new cinematic movement in Iran whose members, in contrast with the older generation of Iranian film makers, focus on urban life in Iran. HICH is a successful example of Kahani's craftsmanship and mastery of narrative-writing, characterization, and realistic depiction. 

Iran in turmoil as Shah departs; CBC; 1979

In 1979 a cataclysmic revolution shook Iran, creating the world's first Islamic republic and altering the balance of power in the Middle East. With the widely despised Shah of Iran forced into exile, spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini returned to oversee the country's transformation. But peace was still elusive as student protesters overwhelmed the United States embassy in Tehran, taking hostages and launching a diplomatic crisis. CBC Digital Archives presents a series of clips about revolutionary Iran. 

After more than a year of escalating protests, the Islamic revolution in Iran reaches a prime goal in January 1979: the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. But the Shah's exit brings no end to street demonstrations and gas shortages in the capital of Tehran. The new civilian government, headed by Shapour Bakhtiar, has little credibility with anyone in Iran, especially Ayatollah Khomeini, an exiled cleric who fiercely opposes the Shah. This in-depth report from CBC-TV's Newsmagazine examines the possible outcomes for Iran without the Shah.  (From CBC)

Medium: Television
Program: Newsmagazine
Broadcast Date: Jan. 15, 1979
Guest(s): Abbas Amirie, Shapour Bakhtiar, Raji Samghabadi
Host: Knowlton Nash
Reporter: Don McNeill
Duration: 26:28            

             

 

Mohamad Tavakoli Targhi; Islam and the Contest of Faculties in Iran (2011)

Mohamad Tavakoli Targhi

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi is Professor of History and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto and the chair of the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto-Mississauga. Since 2002 he has served as the Editor of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, a Duke University Press journal, and has served on the editorial board of Iranian Studies, the Journal of the International Society for Iranian Studies.

His areas of specialization encompass Middle Eastern History, Modernity, Nationalism, Gender Studies, Orientalism, and Occidentalism. He is the author of two books, Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Nationalist Historiography (Palgrave, 2001) and Tajaddud-i Bumi [Vernacular Modernity] (in Persian, Nashr-i Tarikh, 2003). He has authored numerous articles: “The Homeless Texts of Persianate Modernity,” in Iran--Between Tradition and Modernity (Lexington Books, 2004); “Orientalist Studies and Its Amnesia,” in Antinomies of Modernity (Duke, 2002), “Eroticizing Europe,” in Society and Culture in Qajar Iran: (Mazda, 2002); “Women of the West Imagined,” in Identity Politics and Women (Westview Press, 1994); “From Patriotism to Matriotism: A Tropological Study of Iranian Nationalism, 1870-1909," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (2002), “Inventing Modernity, Borrowing Modernity,” Iran Nameh (2003).

Born and raised in the “navel of Tehran,” Iran, Professor Tavakoli is the recipient of two Outstanding Teacher awards from Illinois State University (1996 and 2001); a Research Initiative Award (1992); and visiting fellowships at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University (1998), the Center for Historical Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, 1992-93); and Harvard University (1991-92).

He has initiated numerous conferences and workshops on topical issues pertaining to the Middle East, and has encouraged the active involvement of student associations in the organization of scholarly events and community outreach programs. He holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in History from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in History from the University of Chicago.  (From Tavakoli's official website)

Today's Life and War (2008) by Gohar Dashti

Gohar Dashti

Gohar Dashti received her M.A in Photography from the Fine Art University of Tehran in 2005. She has developed a practice concerning social issues with particular references to history and culture in modern society.

She creates artwork using different media such as photography and video. She has participated in several art residencies and scholarships such as DAAD award (2009-2011); Visiting Arts (1mile2 project), Bradford –London, UK (2009) and International Arts & Artists (Art Bridge), Washington DC, USA (2008).

She has held various exhibitions around the world, being shown in many festivals and biennales. Her works are in many collections including Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH), Houston (US) and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (US). (From Gohar Dashti's official website)