Sunday, September 17,
2006
For Aynur Dogan, the simple act of singing publicly
in her native language is a fraught political act.
As a Turkish-born Kurd, she is fast becoming the
international face of her beleaguered people, one of
the largest ethnic groups in the world without a
country to call its own. While the Kurds of
Kurdistan (northern Iraq) have attained a measure of
self-government in the uneasy aftermath of the U.S.
Liberation that deposed Saddam Hussein, the Kurds of
Turkey, Iran and Syria are still an oppressed
minority, though the situation in Aynur's homeland
is much less dire than a decade ago, when a civil
war raged in the eastern Turkish countryside.
"Just the fact that I'm singing and performing in
Kurdish is a statement in itself," says Aynur, 30,
who performs under her given name, speaking in
Turkish through a translator from her home in
Istanbul. She makes her U.S. debut in a series of
performances called "Voices of Kurdistan," presented
by the San Francisco World Music Festival from Sept.
29-Oct. 1 at Fort Mason's Cowell Theater.
"From my own musical perspective,
the Turkish government is not very comfortable with
my career," Aynur says. "Kurds in Iran, Turkey and
Syria are losing lives and suffering greatly because
of the situation in those countries, and the
struggle is continuing. But I prefer not to discuss
political questions."
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Aynur Dogan- She's becoming the face of the Kurdish
people. Photo courtesy San Francisco World Music
Festival |
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In an unprecedented gathering, the San Francisco
World Music Festival is bringing together a diverse
array of Kurdish musicians for "Voices of
Kurdistan," a collaborative work involving
traditional and new Kurdish music, poetry and dance.
Along with Aynur and her ensemble, the three-evening
project includes Ali Akbar Moradi from the Iranian
Kurdish city of Kermanshah, a vocalist and master of
the Kurdish lute known as the tanbur; Syrian
vocalist Mico Kendes, who is making his U.S. debut;
percussionists Hussein Zahawy from Iraq and Kourosh
Moradi of Iran; and Bay Area Iranian-born vocalist
Rojan. They will be joined by vocalist Ulas Ozdemir
from Turkey, who like Aynur hails from the liberal,
syncretic Shi'ite Alevi tradition.
Whether or not the artists specifically address
political questions, the mere fact of their
gathering has huge cultural implications, as every
Middle Eastern country with a Kurdish minority has a
vested interest in keeping the estimated 25 million
Kurds separated by borders.
"What's interesting is that they just don't know
that much about each other and the music,
instruments, scales and melodies that they share,"
says Kutay Derin Kugay, program director and
co-founder of the World Music Festival with Michael
Santoro, executive director. "Through the decades
and centuries, they have developed separately
because of the physical and cultural separation, so
each group has a different repertoire, though you
can see more similarities than differences."
The festival, which opens next Sunday at the Asian
Art Museum with a performance by the Bay Area's
Tabla Rasa with Chinese percussion students from San
Francisco's Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, also
features a series of lectures, workshops and
performances focusing on Cantonese opera from Oct.
4-7 at My Opera Institute in Chinatown. But the
centerpiece of the event is the ambitious "Voices of
Kurdistan" project. Beyond the daunting logistics
and diplomatic wrangling involved in bringing the
artists together, producing the project is a
delicate balancing act for Santoro and Kugay, who
are mindful about not imposing an agenda on the
musicians. Each evening is designed to feature a set
by individual artists, followed by a new
collaboration, though the artists themselves are
working out how that will unfold.
"I think the vision we had is that they can utilize
this music as a new voice," Santoro says at the
Presidio office of the festival's parent
organization, Door Dog Music Productions. "What is
the new voice of cohesive Kurdish identity? You can
do this through music, and we can help facilitate
that, bring people together and provide the right
environment, have the rehearsal spaces and
everything they need to work together. They might
develop something brand-new. Maybe they'll develop
new pieces together or, Aynur says, 'Why don't you
guys sit in on the pieces I already sing?' "
With a history dating back more than 2,000 years,
the Kurds are a non-Arabic, largely Islamic people
(though there are also Jewish and Christian Kurds)
who lost out when Middle Eastern borders were being
set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many
Americans first became aware of the Kurdish struggle
in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, when
thousands fled over Iraq's border with Turkey to
escape Saddam Hussein's retaliatory attacks.
At the same time, Turkey was in the midst of a
brutal campaign against Kurdish separatists who were
fighting for cultural rights. Born and raised in the
eastern province of Tunceli, Aynur fled the region
with her family in 1993 and resettled in Istanbul to
escape the strife. But she carried with her the
memories of traditional Kurdish music, which is the
primary source for her songs.
"My inspiration comes from my own tradition, but at
the same time I'm open to many types of music,"
Aynur says. "I listen to John Coltrane, Marie Boine
and Tracy Chapman. But I'm basing my composition on
traditional works, interpreting them in a modern
way, to bring it to a larger, contemporary audience.
I'm blending the traditional elements with my own
elements, my own melodies."
With her luxuriant voice and luminous looks, Aynur
has already crossed over to non-Kurdish audiences.
She released her first album, "Seyir," in 2002 and
gained widespread attention performing and recording
with artists such as Metin and Kemal Kahraman, Grup
Yorum, Lütfü Gültekin, Anjelika Akbar and Orient
Expressions. Her second album, 2004's "Keçe Kurdan,"
was covered widely in the Turkish and world-music
press, raising her profile internationally.
But it's been her appearances on television and film
that have broken Turkish taboos and made the most
widespread impact. Appearing in Yavuz Turgul's film
"Gönül Yarasi," she became the first performer to
sing a Kurdish song onscreen in a film shot in
Turkey. She was also featured in Fatih Akin's
documentary "Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of
Istanbul," which follows Einstürzende Neubauten's
bassist Alexander Hacke as he roams the streets of
Istanbul, seeking out leading Turkish musicians.
Across Europe, Aynur performs before largely
non-Kurdish audiences, and her reach is likely to
increase after her appearance in the world-music
expo Womex in Seville, Spain, at the end of October.
"My intention has always been to appeal to the
general public around the world, not just the Kurds,
to touch the listeners' hearts no matter who they
are, and connect with the audience in an emotional
way," she says. "Even in Turkey, I've got an
audience among Turkish listeners, and the power of
my art is breaking prejudices and presuppositions
about my culture."
VOICES OF KURDISTAN, part of the San Francisco World
Music Festival, 8 p.m. Sept. 29-30, 7 p.m. Oct. 1 at
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason. $30-$40. Festival: Sept.
24-Oct. 7 at various venues. (415) 345-7575,
www.sfworldmusicfestival.org .
Andrew Gilbert is a freelance writer.
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