In Iran – and around the world –– music and art have always connected people while lighting paths to freedom and power. Music is woven into a culture and can shift societies –– sometimes more than any politician.
Music’s significance to Iranians was front and center last week when we met up with Kiosk for their show in San Francisco.
I wish you could have been there with us at the show. The energy was incredible and it was an honor to join the band on stage to talk about United for Iran’s work and how everyone can get involved. You can watch the talk here.
The members of Kiosk are longtime friends and supporters of United for Iran. Kiosk headlined our 2009 Global Day of Solidarity rally on July 25, 2009. Over 10,000 people joined us in San Francisco that day.
Kiosk just released CD Studio Tull Presents. The new CD is dedicated to Kamran Melat or “Kami Tull,” an underground music distributor after Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Kamran was an important figure in music at a time when most popular and Western music was banned in Iran. Kamran wanted “Iranians, like everyone else in the world, to be able to listen to the music they like.” After a decade Kamran’s identity was discovered. The authorities burned his entire music archive and put him in jail.
Kiosk also donated music to United for Iran’s Azadi: Songs of Freedom for Iran. They were part of a global network of artists and musicians who came together to draw attention to human rights in Iran.
You can download and stream Azadi: Songs of Freedom for Iran for free online.
I hope you’ll listen and share with friends. Azadi features musicians from Iran, Egypt, Libya, South Africa, the United States, Palestine, Iraq, Sweden, and Japan, including Mohsen Namjoo, Kiosk, Abjeez and Salome MC – Iran’s first female rapper.
In music we can share a vision in which all Iranians prosper with freedom and human rights. Thank you for supporting United for Iran.
In Solidarity,
Firuzeh
Concert photos by Vahid Zamani, courtesy Kiosk.